Embracing Heaven & Earth: The Liberation Teachings of Andrew Cohen [Paperback]

Andrew Cohen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

This is an original contemporary expression of the timeless wisdom of Enlightenment. The fruition of Andrew Cohen's fifteen years as a spiritual teacher, this book presents a radical psychology of liberation. It takes the reader on a journey of self-discovery that reveals not only the liberating fact of our true nature, but the way to live that truth in this world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For those who like their Buddhist mysteries unadulterated, Cohen, founder of the Impersonal Enlightenment Fellowship and author of Enlightenment Is a Secret, Freedom Has No History and An Unconditional Relationship to Life, provides a slim handbook on his understanding of the Buddhist experience of enlightenment. Cohen does not discuss Buddhism's history, tell the story of the Buddha's life, recount myths or even use much Buddhist terminology. Rather, he goes straight to the heart of Eastern mysticismAenlightenment, or, as he sometimes calls it, liberationAexplaining what is required to attain it, what prevents it and its effects. Unlike much mystical literature currently on the market, this volume does not aspire to be a harmonization of the world's great religions. Plainly written and free of religious jargon, it is about one thing, enlightenment, and everything relates to that topic. Cohen presents his ideas uncompromisingly: one will not attain enlightenment unless one desires nothing else; the ego must disappear; all human experience is impersonal; enlightenment means realizing "nothing ever happened"; and one sees nothing by looking into the face of God. These stark concepts are not for the idly curious, but for readers who are serious in their desire to seek enlightenment in this pure form. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

This volume outlines in clear, precise, uncomplicated, but nevertheless uncompromising terms just what moksha (ultimate release, liberation) requires. --NAPRA Review, September 2000

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Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: Moksha Press (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1883929296
• ISBN-13: 978-1883929299
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #775,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Andrew Cohen is a spiritual teacher, cultural visionary, and founder of the global nonprofit EnlightenNext and its award-winning publication EnlightenNext magazine. His original teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment redefines spiritual awakening within the context of cosmic evolution and highlights a new understanding of God or Spirit as the creative impulse toward change in both self and culture. After a transformative meeting with the renowned Advaita Vedanta master H.W.L. Poonja in 1986, Cohen began teaching internationally and almost immediately started reshaping the larger cultural conversation about the purpose and significance of enlightenment in our time. He founded EnlightenNext magazine almost twenty years ago as a forum for serious spiritual and philosophical inquiry, and has since become known for his unique capacity to foster culture-changing dialogues among leading thinkers from a wide array of traditions and disciplines. 

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The last book you need to buy., September 25, 2000

By 

Tom Huston (Lenox, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Embracing Heaven & Earth: The Liberation Teachings of Andrew Cohen (Paperback)

It's the same everywhere: people raised by materialists, living as materialists, and perhaps passing to future generations, if only indirectly, the cultural creed of superfluous hungering for things of all sorts to ease a day's desire. You're guilty of it, and so am I. You've come here, to this page, looking for something. Very likely you're interested in spiritual matters, perhaps consider yourself a "seeker," and have heard of this new book by Andrew Cohen and decided to check it out, to see (if you're undecided) whether it's worth buying. I promise you that it is, but no doubt similar sentiments can be found alongside every other five-star review for each of the many spiritual books you already own. So let me try to convey to you why after reading this book you won't need another, and why the aimless perusal of the halls of Amazon late on computer-fan-humming weekend nights can finally give way to more fruitful pursuits.

This book holds the highest honor of being both the simplest and most challenging book I've ever read. Simple in style and language, challenging in meaning and persistent imperative, this most flawless transmission of spiritually awakened genius should give any serious reader precisely all that he or she need ever know to engage the war against selfishness and ignorance wholeheartedly. And the real beauty of Andrew's message is in its absolutely universal applicability--and by "universal" I mean exactly that: one gets the sense, when studying this book, that it should properly accompany any sentient creature born into this universe at any time, on any planet, in any galaxy (duly translated, of course). I'm not just gushing up superlatives here. The title of the book means exactly what it says.

Regarding the actual content of the book, everything significant that every truly mystical religious tradition has ever conveyed is here, in both practical and philosophical aspects. The first half is devoted to the foundation of Andrew's teaching, called the Five Tenets of Enlightenment, which are the essential points that any spiritual seeker must thoroughly grasp and employ if his or her goal is the attainment of perfect liberation. These five tenets Andrew has culled from over a decade of incessant work as a teacher, and a well-read student of mysticism should easily recognize the parallels in established religious traditions (such as Tenet 5--"For the Sake of the Whole"--being a highly pragmatic implementation of the Bodhisattva vow, which Andrew's tenet basically renders as: "Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to spare them all from my own ego"), but the beauty of these perennial teachings being shared so lucidly and dogmatically-free cannot be overstated.

The second half of the book deals with such perennial topics as seeing through the illusions of desire, thought, feeling, and time, so clearly that anyone brave enough to listen can't help feeling their ego squirm a bit, and there's also an excellent chapter on meditation (and how to sink to the nondual Ground of Being absolutely effortlessly, Dzogchen-style), which, if successfully engaged in serious practice, should do far more than make the ego squirm. . . .

But the really revolutionary and important point of Andrew's teaching isn't in his remarkably clear explanations of how humans continuously revolve in the samsaric wheel of foolishness (and how they can stop); it isn't in his insistence that the pursuit of freedom take precedence above all other concerns in all times and places (although that's certainly a big part of it); nor is it his unceasing demand that spiritual practice is meaningless if it is expressed in any context outside a life of absolute maturity, sanity, and integrity (and how many spiritual seekers--teachers, even--can claim strict adherence to that?). No, the really revolutionary ingredient in Andrew's recipe of ego-destruction is his definition of enlightenment itself. Too many people these days seem to consider this world to be nothing but an elaborate illusion, an empty dream called negatively "maya" or positively "lila." And deliberately or not, they proceed to use this as an excuse to justify every manner of selfish indulgence and, occasionally, atrocity. Andrew does not deny that the revelation of pure consciousness suddenly makes clear that nothing has ever really happened, that this world is ultimately a dualistic dream of space and time, this and that, you and me. But--and this is what changes everything--he does not stop at that. He insists that this "dream" called life is as real as it gets, and that using the discovery of the Source of creation to dismiss the validity and actuality of creation itself completely misses the whole point of creation--which is nothing less than for every soul to become a conscious instrument of the Absolute, unleashing "the fire of absolute love and ego-defying compassion into this world," thereby flowing in tune with the force of evolution itself and helping this suffering sphere in every way that one possibly can.

What more could you hope for? It's all here, clear as a cloudless mountain sky, and no matter how many books you buy, you'll never find anything better.

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Guide to Enlightenment, September 13, 2000

By 

Jeff Feldman (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Embracing Heaven & Earth: The Liberation Teachings of Andrew Cohen (Paperback)

I have read many spiritual books during the past twenty years, but none comes even close to Andrew Cohen's newest book, 'Embracing Heaven and Earth'. It is literally a textbook for Liberation. This book is not just words on paper. The words are alive. They vibrate and explode with Andrew Cohen's passionate and inspiring call for each of us to respond to the Evolutionary Impulse, the Mystery beyond name and form, which includes giving up our existential tension, abandoning all beliefs that we are separate from others; from life, and realizing the inherent perfection of Life. In this powerful book Andrew challenges each of us to face into the most profound possibility and potential of the human race and literally become a Messenger of the Divine. This is a must read for anyone who claims to be interested in the spiritual/religious life.

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars another one, July 4, 2005

By 

kaioatey (Awatovi, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Embracing Heaven & Earth: The Liberation Teachings of Andrew Cohen (Paperback)

yes, this is what one gets from a young guy who got enlightened in, what, two weeks with the well known INdian "teacher of Masters" Poonja . a couple of weeks was enough to propel Cohen into the guru circuit in the West... sadly enough, the sensitive and talented young man never got a chance ... to be simply human being who actually works for life. its one thing, as this book shows, to fly the Advaita shuttle, another altogether to live an impeccable life.

the "enlightenement" experience is recounted ad nauseam by Cohen... who tends to forget, conveniently, that Poonja soon denounced him as a fake guru, publicity seeker, a bully and a fraud.

It is not that Cohen is saying wrong stuff - the problem is that, like Rajneesh before him, what he says is close to irrelevant given WHO's talking and what he DOES (for a hilarious read check out his mother's book The Mother of God).

I'd take this book as a striking example of the danger lurking in letting the ego seduce one into a "teacher".... and of getting derailed by sudden, overwhelming, all-powerful realizations. Cohen needs disciples like he needs air... and that is fishy.

be that as it may...caveat emptor