By N. Schmidt
I met Andrew Cohen in 1991 in Amsterdam. A friend had told my husband and I about Andrew Cohen, this remarkable young teacher. The ‘Satsang’, as it was then called, took place in someone’s living room. Andrew was simply sitting in front of a crowd of about 30 people, answering questions. I had no particular expectation or intention; I just wanted to meet this man to make up my own mind. Read the rest of this entry »
By Stuart Dunbar
A Leap of Logic
I currently work as an IT specialist in the health insurance industry. It’s not a particularly inspiring profession. In fact these days, with all the debate about health care going on in America, I sometimes feel like I’m working against progress. Most people I know well think it’s a strange choice of trade for someone who studied philosophy at Yale and spent fifteen years as a close student of spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen. And I agree. Read the rest of this entry »
By Judy Fox
I am one of Andrew Cohen’s oldest students having met him in 1986 when he had been teaching formally for only around six months. His teachings have changed enormously over the years, but the seeds for everything that have unfolded were there in the early days. Read the rest of this entry »
I just found your website, and I can’t tell you how good it is to see this happening. Read the rest of this entry »
By Rod S
Throughout history human beings have sought council and guidance from their friends, colleagues and leaders. This has always been a natural and normal thing to do. In the spiritual quest also, seekers and finders have sought the guidance of Teachers and Gurus to help illuminate the often difficult and thorny path of self realization and transformation. However, we live in strange times when it seems you can have a “guru” for practically anything from tennis, swimming and health, to cooking, woodwork and sewing, yet when it comes to the spiritual path, the word “guru” has become for many a 4 letter word! In a nutshell the postmodern ego hates being told what to do! This ‘mean green meme’ ego thrives on ‘independence’ and doing what it wants, whenever it wants. Read the rest of this entry »
By Debbie Wilson
Meeting Andrew Cohen
Sitting cross legged, cramped in a living room of a home somewhere in Amsterdam in 1986, I was among the many people who had traveled to Holland to see this new spiritual teacher called Andrew Cohen. I had seen him teach in the UK and had been far more affected by his authenticity and the power of the reality of what he was teaching than I wanted to be. I was of the school “be a light unto oneself”. I was deeply skeptical that a young American from NYC could be enlightened, much less a genuine Guru. I went to Holland to find out what on earth I was going to do with what was stirring inside of me. Read the rest of this entry »
By Pete Bampton
“The real function of a Guru is to insult you” Chogyam Trungpa
“Only if one sincerely wants to free more than anything else will we have access to the spiritual heart within us that will alone have the power to recognize the Guru Principle as nothing more than the call of one’s own True Self. If that is not the case, the Guru Principle will be seen for what it is but from the perspective of the ego, which means—it will be seen as our worst enemy.
Andrew Cohen. In Defense of the Guru Principle
An American Guru: The Real Deal
Meeting one’s Guru or Master is a Mystery. It is a date with destiny. Those who are lucky enough to stumble upon this seismic encounter may never be the same again. In that meeting one experiences, suddenly or gradually, an ecstatic release into the limitless singularity and depth of one’s True Self. The time-bound stream of the separate self sense is mysteriously overwhelmed by a vast rushing river of intoxicating freedom and fullness welling forth from the fount of Creation Itself as Oneself. But that spontaneous breakthrough into a vast new universe of being and knowing is usually only the beginning. If the impact of this spiritual baptism is profound, one may find oneself overwhelmed by a transcendent Roar surging up from the unfathomable depths of that Revelation that demands one thing and one thing only: Surrender.
Saying YES to that transcendent Roar is the most sacred movement that can occur in a human soul. While most seekers are happy enough to take a thrilling dip in that Mystery and afterwards return to shore to bask in the knowledge, bliss and awe engendered by the experience, it is another thing altogether to willingly dive in and allow one’s life to be reconfigured by Its unknowable agenda. When I met Andrew Cohen he would liken this leap to jumping out of an aeroplane without a parachute!
If one would answer that call and would then choose to enter into a committed relationship with the Guru or Master who had been the catalyst for such an Awakening, then one is choosing to enter into a radical context of relationship unlike any other in which the laws and mores of the “conventional” world do not necessarily apply. This is well documented from sutras about the Buddha breaking up families, to Tibetan tales of Marpa and Milarepa, to numerous Zen masters wielding big sticks, to that irreverent table-turning maverick called Jesus who said “Let the dead bury the dead” and “I have come not to bring peace but a sword” amongst other provocative statements, to the wild abandon of Ramakrishna, to the crazy-wise Cossack Gurdiejff, on down to Awakeners of recent times like Lee Lozowick, Adi Da, Barry Long, Chogyam Trungpa etc. Getting involved with a Guru (if they are a Revolutionary and not a Saint) is usually a thrilling and dangerous business because true Gurus are usually controversial, utterly original and very politically incorrect characters. Why? Because they are surrendered conduits for the uncontainable fire and force of Absolute Love and Truth and hence they cannot and will not be contained! Read the rest of this entry »
By Yael Treidel
The Call of Freedom
I met Andrew in December 1993. I was 28 years old, I had everything I thought wanted more or less, and yet I was quite confused. I had been confused since I was a teenager because somehow life didn’t totally make sense to me. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be doing here and nothing that I tried resolved my confusion. Meeting Andrew Cohen moved something very deep in me. I couldn’t understand what was happening but about a month later I was on my way to India for a 2 week retreat with Andrew. Read the rest of this entry »
By Pete Bampton
“Resistance to new ideas increases as to the square of their importance”
Bertrand Russell
“He who ain´t busy being born is busy dying”
Bob Dylan
The Revolution Hasn’t Happened Yet…
November 2000
“Gentlemen let’s drink” said Andrew, raising his glass. We all uneasily followed suit. There were about 30 of us, all formally committed male students sitting around a large table in a private room in a local bar in Lenox, MA. There was a charged silence in the air as we all sipped quietly. The beer – Andrew had insisted it be alcoholic – went straight to my head. None of us were accustomed to drinking let alone frequenting bars anymore. Andrew was catching us off guard and off balance. Read the rest of this entry »
By Rick Asherson
I was a deeply involved student of Andrew Cohen’s for ten years, living in his communities in the USA and England, traveling to many retreats in India and living the fully engaged life of a student committed to understanding and living Andrew Cohen’s teaching. Read the rest of this entry »