Customer Reviews

Enlightenment Blues: My Years with an American Guru

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This book is harrowing and took a lot of honesty to write. Andrew Cohen is a guru who underwent something like two weeks training with a teacher in India--supposedly in the lineage of Sri Ramana Maharshi--before being turned loose on the public. He's so out of control that his own mother wrote an expose' of him (Luna Tarlo and her book, "The Mother of God", is available on amazon). I suppose the people who believe in Cohen are just good but immature kids. And for those still capable of hearing a dissenting voice, I offer this anecdote.

I once knew an American who was a direct disciple of Ramana Maharshi. In the late nineteen forties he flew to India at age 17 and arrived at Ramana's ashram unannounced. The Maharshi was in the meditation hall sitting on a slightly raised dais, as always. He greeted the american kid warmly, asked some questions about his hometown of new york city (for example: "Are the buildings really that tall?") The Maharshi already had advanced cancer and could only hobble around painfully with a cane, but he personally got up, took the kid's hand, and led him to a dilapidated cabin where he could bed down. Having made certain the kid was comfy, Ramana left. My friend then practically fainted from exhaustion (trans-oceanic flights then were still endless propeller-driven marathons).

The kid was awakened nine hours later by a soft tapping at his door. He opened it. There stood Ramana, all alone, holding a palm leaf filled with food. Ramana sat down, like a good dad, and watched the half-starved boy scarf the meal. Apparently satisfied that the boy was recovering, Ramana Maharshi slowly stood up and limped back to his seat in the meditation hall.

This is a true story. (The man was the Gnani Robert Adams and his book "Silence of the Heart" is available on amazon. He died in 1997 with the same nobility with which he'd always lived).

This book I'm reviewing tells a paralell story. Andrew Cohen kept a whole restaurant full of his devotees waiting for lunch while he piddled around, becoming extremely late. Finally they ate without him. When Cohen arrived he threw a HUGE TEMPER TANTRUM how DARE they eat before him?

Now, here's the punch line: does this sound like Sri Ramana Maharshi to you?

Ramana probably would have insisted they all eat FIRST then would have painfully limped around freshening everyone's drink. Don't kid yourself, being degraded never sped anyone to enlightenment. (Ignore ken wilber, Cohen's big defender, ALL he knows is books).

However, buy this book and decide for yourself. By all means, think for yourself.

This book is an appalling tale of abuse. One of the sadder incidents, as told by van der Braak, occurred when Andrew Cohen and a couple of his students pressured a confused woman into giving $2 million (which was most of her money) so that Andrew could purchase his community center at Foxhollow. This resulted not only in a serious financial loss to the woman, but caused her to risk losing her family relationships as well. Van der Braak recounts how Andrew then broke a confidence with the woman, publicly revealing that she donated the money, and publicly ridiculing her for not being able to give up her "ego." In my opinion, such manipulation and abuse of power call into question what Andrew and his community are attempting to do today in the name of "enlightenment."

Four instead of five stars only because it's not a great book, although it's an important one and the author does a commendable job recounting his experiences as honestly as he's able.

As long as "enlightenment" is viewed as an object to be obtained or won, there will always be con artists to pimp the idea that you either have it or you don't, that I have it and I can give it to you (and take it away just as easily). It too easily becomes nearly impossible, then, not to conflate "enlightenment" with said con artist's (always increasingly paranoid) judgments. So how "enlightened" you are with Andrew Cohen, for instance, means how "powerful" or "revolutionary" you make his words seem when editing them (on his website, Zen teacher Brad Warner makes a nice point about this: something like, "Andrew, you oughtta try writing your OWN book. Some of us do it that way, y'know").

Andre van der Braak is a very sincere seeker who got hooked by a professional. It's also true that van der Braak wanted a kind of Daddy, someone to love him unconditionally, to give him "enlightenment". This happens, of course, and a true teacher would've held up a mirror, would've deflected such adoration, and would've helped van der Braak learn to stand on his OWN feet. Someone like Cohen, however, starts licking his lips and shopping for real estate in Massachusetts.

After reading it, I ventured to some of Cohen's websites, expecting to find a particularly charismatic schlep. But I don't understand the attraction: he's just a schlep. I viewed an "engaging" clip of him and Ken Wilbur "in dialogue". Cohen just sort of stammers with big, silly words he doesn't understand, trying to impress Wilbur, who sits back nodding in his best Foucault imitation. Two guys who've got it all figured out -- except for the part about desperately needing the other guy to stroke his own ego. And it's perfect really, because each can tout the other -- saying "he's revolutionary" or "Cohen is a rude boy teacher and you simply can't deal with that" -- and in doing so, avoid actually having to practice anything themselves. Even selling water by the river, one dies of thirst without at the very least an occasional sip.

Friends of mine who are teachers visited the mansion that Andrew owns. They asked a student there, "What do you do when someone disagrees with the Teacher or the Teaching?" The response appalled them: " Oh we take care of that quick. We don't allow disagreement.." Or this: Andrew at a talk, constantly saying "Am I right? Am I right?" This eliciting an automatic response from the audience, " Yes, you're right." The one person who disagrees, "No, I think you're wrong"; is singled out as "that kind of person" and held to ridicule. This book will help you to think for yourself when exposed to charismatic teachers. The story told is important. Do you want to be told what to do, like a child? Someone like Andrew can take all responsibility for your life away , while you serve "the School". His school... The man is a dangerous, self-deluded fool.

This book is a fascinating account of what people will do and believe when under the influence of a charismatic leader. I have read other books by former followers of gurus such as Osho (Rajneesh) and Chogyam Trumgpa , but Andre van der Braak's is probably the most compellingly written. I had heard of Andrew Cohen as a writer of spiritual books, but I had not known that he was a cultlike guru. This book, as well as any other, confronts the age-old problem for spiritual seekers --should you place your complete trust in someone you regard as enlightened? Furthermore, how can you judge whether the master really is enlightened, and if his bizarre tactics are a form of "crazy wisdom" (see another good book by that name, which talks about several other guru figures) or merely expressions of mundane neuroses and power trips? From what I've read in Enlightenment Blues (and, since then, elsewhere), it seems that Andrew Cohen is, at best, someone who lost sight of any enlightenment he may have found, becoming intoxicated with the taste of power. Accounts such as this seem to suggest that enlightenment is not a permanent state, but something glimpsed at. Rarely, some may hold on to it, but it is easy to lose it and having many adoring and obedient students is apparently one of the easier ways to lose it. Andrew Cohen's own mother (who is mentioned by van der Braak) has written a book extremely critical of him, entitled The Mother of God.

Van der Braak describes his meeting of Cohen as something akin to falling in love. Along with many other students around the world, Cohen's simple and powerful message that enlightenment is available to us all the time was very persuasive. More importantly, Cohen seemed to perfectly embody this truth in his very presence. Unfortunately, what follows has become a familiar story. The organization grew, internal power struggles became common and the message changed to one demanding absolute obedience. Cohen gradually began to not only change but reverse his initial teaching. Students were far from perfect as they were, and only by obeying Cohen and his chosen sub-commanders could there be any hope of improvement. What perhaps discredits the whole enterprise more than anything else is van der Braak's account of how those at the top of the organization were constantly vying for favor and how Cohen would impulsively love someone one day and condemn them the next for the least infraction. This kind of behavior is actually common in all institutions to some extent, but it is hardly what you'd expect from an enlightened master. As I read this, I actually found it hard to believe how long van der Braak put up with the whole thing. When I read on the back cover that he had been in Cohen's group for eleven years, I expected that things would have gone well for most of that time, perhaps deteriorating in the last couple of years. Yet, as van der Braak tells it, things became quite weird and authoritarian after only a few years, with van der Braak (along with many others) going in and out of favor with Cohen. The whole scenario sounds, more than anything else, like an abusive relationship where the abused party is in denial most of the time. I suppose leaders of cults and cultlike groups feed on the uncertainty and low self esteem of followers, convincing them that they deserve all the abuse.

Enlightenment Blues is an enjoyable book to read, despite the sometimes disturbing subject matter. It examines in some depth how someone can get gradually immersed in a way of life that would seem bizarre and dysfunctional to most. It can be read as a cautionary tale, but van der Braak is not dismissing all spiritual paths and leaders. I believe he sees some value in Cohen's teachings even after all he went through. This book should be appreciated by anyone on a spiritual path involving a spiritual teacher, or anyone interested in such matters. It does not necessarily follow from an account such as this that all gurus are bad. It does, however, strongly suggest the need for caution in the search for a spiritual teacher.

I can add little to what "rain cloud" said. This is an extremely well-written, introspective, balanced memoir that deserves a far wider audience. As for Andrew Cohen himself, the true test of a teacher of nonduality is the number of enlightened students he's sent out into the world to teach. Cohen has been at this for nearly twenty years. Where are his graduates?

I met Andrew Cohen in 1993 in Santa Monica, CA. He taught for three consecutive nights. I wasn't particularly impressed by anything he said. But as I was leaving on the third night, I was overcome by a feeling of indescribable bliss and physical pleasure that lasted for the next ten days!

note: if you have never experienced samadhi, you will probably think you understand it--but you do not.

I was suffused with joy and peace. I felt no fear. I experienced myself as infinite, as filling all space. Of course that sounds ridiculous, because the experience was beyond the mind and cannot be grasped by the mind. I have never felt anything like it before or since. I knew then and still believe I was seeing true spiritual reality.

I ended up going to see Andrew in Oregon, then northern California, India and Nepal. I became disillusioned. I said I needed time alone to read and his students (the senior enforcers) said "you don't need to read. Andrew doesn't read."

His students copied him in eerie ways. Andrew was into kick-boxing, so they were into kickboxing. Andrew wore vests, they wore vests. Some of them even adopted his nasal way of speaking.

I heard that when people left the group it was often without warning, in the middle of the night.

When I began to ask the tough questions, the group ostracized me. Andrew refused to take any of my questions in public anymore, if I had questions I had to ask him privately. But when I was alone with him I would feel such bliss that all my questions seemed to fade away. (No, there was never anything sexual). I later heard from a member of the group that even a year later, in India, he had refused for days to take any questions from a certain woman because she looked like me! Andrew was certainly NOT used to being publicly asked any questions that made him look bad. So I made an impression.

After coming back from Asia, I made one last trip to Marin to make sure I was really through with Andrew. With sorrow, I decided I was. He had gathered up a whole new batch of recruits at his India retreat and become even more facist in his demands for money, for allegiance, for devotion to the cause.

I'll never forget the delicious feeling of freedom I had on the night I left, driving south over the Golden Gate bridge at 2 am, knowing I was through with Andrew. I couldn't stop grinning! He promises freedom but his students end up in bondage.

Okay, so I don't want to be an inmate in his prison. But how did he transmit those amazing, ecstatic, mind-blowing, heart-blowing, soul-blowing, experiences of samadhi to me--and to Andre and hundreds of others? That is the $64,000 question.

What we do to each other in seeking love, approval, and appreciation? What we do in the name of enlightenment!!! Enlightenment Blues is an insightful cautionary tale of psychopathological seeking -- seeking some imaginary grand enlightenment, seeking the approval of the harsh father-guru, seeking the approval of the group. Emotional brutality, humiliation, blind and total obediance - very old stories.

It is interesting to note that gurus like Cohen who create these kinds of scenes do not bring their followers to some next stage of evolution. It is in fact, devolution, a step back to childhood, where there is no independent thinking allowed, where people become totally dependent on the whims of the parent, where they demonize all thoughts that do not totally support the group story. Some people confuse this kindergarden regressed state with some grand merging with some greater reality. Nothing could be further from the truth.

For another book that also demonstrates this clearly, read Amy Wallace's account of her years with Carlos Castaneda - A Sorcerer's Apprentice. There was another charismatic creative and half-baked character who brutalized his students to no good.

Books like Enlightenment Blues are actually very important because they show us how all this talk is lived in each moment. Ken Wilber can praise Andrew Cohen, but Wilber has no direct knowledge of how Cohen behaves moment by moment. Wilber lives on a mountaintop in an ivory tower and may believe that arrogance is a divine virtue.

Final thought, in the name of "crazy wisdom" - so many gurus and their enchanted students - will justify any behavior, excuse any excess, blind themselves to even the most obvious nonesense. Because they tell themselves the "story" that the teacher is "enlightened" and the story extension that then concludes that everything this "divine" being does must be teaching or perfection or "for our own good," then every thing is OK including deceit, abuse, being a sexual predator, and so on.

In the end, such confusion. But a perfect expression of the seeking mind that thinks it must have such teachers, that believes it must be punished and purified, that believes it must get somewhere.

I lived in Andrew Cohens community for four years. It was exactly as Andre writes in his book.
This is a true documentary of one's dream for transcendence, coming crashing down in manipulated confusion.

I endorse Van der Braaks narative! While some defend guru Cohen as a dealer in "tough love," I know the tough part, and question whether there's love.

I was there as a student of Andrew Cohen at the same time as Van der Braak, and felt that Van der Braak's criticisms were mild compared with some of the abusive situations I was personally witness to.

Yes spiritual masters have traditionally used outlandish behavior to shock and awaken their students, but the results of harsh and questionable measures in the Cohen organization were all too often only pain for the recipient with no apparent benefit.

Many have left the Cohen set up, and no student has ever been recognized by Cohen himself as having "gotten it." Cohen will argue that people leave because they don't have the right stuff, don't really want to be free. But look more closely. Where are the students that he has freed? Where is the benefit for all of life that he preaches so much about? There are no students he trusts enough to go live independently, away from the clutches of his program.

I do not revel in discrediting Andrew Cohen, rather find it very sad and disappointing. For me this is not blanket cynicism, but the informed wisdom from having trusted deeply in someone untrustworthy.