Customer Reviews

Enlightenment Is a Secret: Teachings of Liberation

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In late December 1998, after many months of intensive shopping around for the perfect enlightened teacher to help lead me out of this agonizing dream of ignorance, I was standing in a Borders bookstore in Tacoma, Washington, looking in the Eastern Philosophy/Religion shelves, when I turned around and noticed an unusual orange book gleaming from the New Age shelves. Expecting nothing but New Age drivel under the name of "Enlightenment," but ever curious, I picked up the book, read the excerpt on the back cover . . . and knew immediately that I had stumbled onto something extremely profound.

Unlike the vast majority of modern American teachings of nondual enlightenment, Andrew's approach transcends mindless "dualistic nonduality" by recognizing absolutely perfectly that Maya and Reality, Samsara and Nirvana, Form and Emptiness are really not separate in any way at all--and that doesn't mean that one haphazardly cancels out the other. All is Consciousness, yes, but that absolute Truth does _not_ translate into relative existence. Rather, it completely obliterates it! Teachers of nonduality who fail to grasp this point--who fail to see that perfect middle place wherein Samsara and Reality seamlessly merge--are teaching a rather dualistic view of the nondual. A teaching of Absolute Nonduality, however, would not make a firm distinction between the relative and the absolute, earth and heaven, the human being and God. It would not espouse that human beings are nothing but conditioned body-mind machines, with no real volition behind one's actions, while the real self is a distinct and passive witness of this activity (and therefore one claims no moral accountability for the body-mind's actions). No, an Absolute Nonduality would see that there is an absolute realm of pure Emptiness with no distinctions, and a relative realm of name and form with many distinctions--and it would see how to perfectly integrate the two, _not_ by mindlessly trying to turn the relative world into the nondual (which is impossible and always ends up sounding absurd), but by finding a way of standing firmly grounded in the abyss of nonduality and _bringing that vision of Wholeness into the world of relativity_, speaking to it in its own terms, with its own logic, but always communicating something far deeper.

Andrew Cohen succeeds amazingly well in this sacred task, and this particular text of his illuminates spiritual mysteries like none I've ever encountered. It's a crystal-clear road map to the Awakening from our dream of separation, time, and mind-identification, always speaking straight to the Heart, from the Heart, but with the thoroughly razor-sharp discrimination of a classic Zen master. "Pierce the illusion of separation," he says. "Realize and know the timeless. Know the presence of the uncreated. . . . Separation is only an idea, pure imagination." His passionate urgency is a constant reminder of the depth and seriousness of this pursuit into the true nature of existence, and fortunately for us, the same passion has inspired a truly complete teaching that easily eliminates all obstacles along one's path. With passages on the mechanical nature of the mind, the horrendous problem of doubt, the meaning and practice of surrender, and just about every other situation every seeker eventually contends with, there's truly nothing significant left out. There are a few pithy lines about doubt, for instance, which can help one cut through what is perhaps the most cumbersome obstacle of all in the spiritual quest. "Doubt is mechanically produced by the ego," he explains, "and has nothing to do with discrimination. . . . Discrimination makes you strong, doubt makes you weak. At times when your heart knows something is right, often the mind will doubt the heart. This can make progress very difficult." Armed with the razor sword of penetrating discrimination in one hand and the shield of one's clarity of intention in the other, how can an enemy even as deceptive as Satan, our friendly neighborhood ego, stand in our way? It is an absurdly bizarre mystery that anything is happening at all, that any of this even _exists_, and so very few people in this world seem even remotely aware of that overwhelming mystery--but the weapons Andrew arms us with make clear that even that depressing, lonely fact is ultimately the play of our own egoic mind, easily cut through, even as it tries to stave us off and preclude entry to our only real home.

And when we succeed in finding that home, what shall we do? Shall we find ourselves utterly cut off and alone in a blissful nothingness, detachedly observing this world of suffering and ignorance from a space far away, and then decide to stay there, to the best of our ability, until the seamless dance of light stops playing on the movie screen of our self? Or shall we choose, with all our heart, and with a profound fascination for a mystery that knows no bounds, to perfect ourselves until it becomes an effortless act to abide as the movie screen of awareness--that blissful nothingness--while simultaneously identifying with the substance and scenarios of the movie itself?

To be fully manifest _and_ fully unmanifest, fully engaged in this world but not of it--completely personal and impersonal at the same time--without in any way denying the limitless potentials of either side of the Whole: that is the true import of the nondual dharma, and it is something Andrew manages to convey in this and other books, through always direct and practical teachings, absolutely perfectly. If unconditional Freedom and the exhilarating thrill of absolute Life is what you know you're after, then look no further, because samsara ends where this book begins, and no serious seeker could be disappointed with a perfect gem like this.

I first read this book 5 years ago, and still read bits and pieces of it often. I came across it at a time when I was ardently searching the spiritual landscape for something that made sense of the yearning I felt inside me. I devoured this book in 2 days, hardly understanding a word of it, and yet feeling like the answers to every unformed question in my heart had been revealed to me.

The book is set up in short, one-page teachings from Andrew Cohen. Some are dialogues between him and others.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is seeking, who is trying to find their way on the spiritual path. The depth of Andrew Cohen's understanding not only of the path's goal, but also of all the pitfalls and detours along the way, has saved me what I can only imagine would be lifetimes of work.

As a person who has bought and read thousands of books, I think that this may be the last book I'll ever need. Andrew challanges the reader, rather forcefully, to climb to the mountain top and then.....take that next step. The book is set with each page being the subject of a days/weeks meditation.

This a masterpiece of glibness and plausability. It resides in the world of the seemingly-true and therefore, as spiritual teaching, should be avoided like the plague.Only a psychically marginalised and cathectically needy lost soul would gravitate towards such brainless piffle and that is precisely the kind of victim that Cohen is targeting. Shame on him and his arrogant deluded hubris!

The only thing I get is this guy can spoon out the rhetoric. Accept what is, blah, blah, blah. There is absolutely nothing here but talk. What is it about this guy? He's a rookie with a long way to go. he should be a Sales Manager. he set up camp way before he should have. He's arrogant. what can I say, he wants to be in charge. Poonjaji convinced alot of people that they are enlightened, he's cheapened it. He's the K-mart of Enlightenment.

Hi

Only read this book if you want to lose all of your free will.

It basically tells you that you are not a person and under no circumstance should you trust your own mind or your thoughts, everything is ego.

This review is written by an ego as well and after you read this book everything you ever think will be ego and therefore evil.

Only Andrew Cohen can tell you what to do because his drive is passion not ego.

Anything that you think of yourself is ego, you just aren't good enough as you have not had a spiritual experience.

Andrew is special you are not.

There is no God just what Andrew Cohen is.

Happy reading.

You're not allowing the intersubjective friction of consciousness to create the ecstatic compulsion necessary to create the future in a way that allows a greater uber reality to emerge in you. You are denying your rapturous inner god and need simply to feel you own blissful interconnection with the ultimate core of the orgiastic universe that will liberate you and your species for all time.

Hilarious...how often can people be fooled in the same way?

da free John rides again.