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My Master Is Myself: The Birth of a Spiritual Teacher

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I read My Master Is My Self shortly after meeting Andrew Cohen in 1994. I had been with a teacher for almost ten years and in a sudden and irrevocable moment our relationship ended. The details are unimportant but the result of our break catapulted me into an experience of awakening. I didn't know it was that at the time. I only knew that my entire history had fallen away including that with my family and that I had to find the answer to why my spiritual search had gone wrong.

A friend had mentioned Andrew Cohen to me about six months before, saying I should see him when he came to New York. My friend described Andrew as a master teacher but I thought I had it all, already. I listened but without much interest to my friend as he extolled Andrew's virtues as a teacher and an enlightened human being. I saw no reason to go and see another spiritual teacher: after all, I already had one.

But then came the break (mentioned above). I was bereft. It was one of the most devastating experiences of my life. I knew without a doubt that my relationship with my teacher was over and at the same time I was heartbroken.

A couple of days after the parting of ways with my teacher, I started to feel compelled to see this person, Andrew Cohen. I called my friend and got the information of where Andrew would be teaching in New York.

When I arrived at the place where the teaching would take place I was struck by the liveliness of the crowd gathered to hear him speak. But more than the crowd I remember his entrance. It was quiet, understated, I sensed I was witnessing something I had never experienced before. There was an utter simplicity to this man, no fuss, no drama, almost as if he was invisible.

In those days, Andrew would ask new people to wait 45 minutes before speaking. I listened intently. I had to find out what had gone wrong with my search for enlightenment.

A young woman began with a question related to something Andrew had said the night before. It was about the boxer Evander Holyfield. Andrew had apparently observed that Holyfield would pray to God before beating up his opponent. The woman wanted to know why Andrew didn't see the good in praying to God for comfort. Andrew's response was very simple, he said: "There are two types of seekers, those who want to wake up and those who want to escape." In that instant I knew what had gone wrong with my search. Over the next two hours, without ever speaking to me directly (because I never raised my hand to speak with him), Andrew answered every important question I had about how to wake up permanently, and what it would take.

I recently re-read My Master Is My Self to celebrate the 23rd anniversary of Andrew's awakening through his last teacher, H.W.L. Poonja. Reading Andrew's description of his fleeting (but it turned out permanent) insight of Freedom upon hearing Poonja tell him that he didn't need to make effort, I realized I had experienced the same Freedom upon hearing Andrew's answer to the young woman that night in New York. At the time I didn't understand the full significance of what I was recognizing, nonetheless, I knew (without understanding how) that the man I was listening to was speaking the truth with a capital T in a way I had never heard another living person speak it.

My Master Is My Self is, first and foremost, a testament of Love between a student and a teacher, a disciple and a guru. It is not for everyone. But for anyone who wants to know what it takes to achieve permanent enlightenment this book is the answer, a guide and touchstone for that most noble endeavour: to wake up from the dream of ignorance, selfishness and delusion and surrender to the Absolute.

This book has tremendous power. It brought thousands of seekers who read it to the feet of H.W.L. Poonja, who would have remained an obscure Indian Master of Enlightenment without its publication.

I really lked the author's "Heaven and Earth" book and "11 Days on the Edge",a 500 page account by M. Wombacker of his time at an Andrew Cohen retreat. However I think readers may think the title suggests more than the contents so I am giving it a 3 star rating.
I did find interesting the letters of love written between Andrew and his Guru interesting, they were so flowery and adoring, like from another time period.This is really what the book consists of, the love between student and guru.
Yet,I am glad that I read this book because James Swartz is critical of Papaji's teachings on his Website-shiningworld under the title: From The Horse's Mouth. It relates how Papaji, Andrews guru, gave out spiritual clichés, like candy, to seekers he thought too ignorant to even begin to grasp anything worthwhile. However, these letters certainly reflect this gurus respect for Andrew's awakening. It may be noted that Andrew was later very disappointed in the sexual conduct of Papaji after Andrew left. The fame Papaji experienced after the wake of Andrew's leaving followed by Andrew's teaching seems to have corrupted Papaji.
Much has also been written about the corruption Of Andrew Cohen himself,still my oppinion is that he is an excellent teacher. All of the charges against him seem to be from his earlier days of teaching and aggresively interacting with students in a way which was supposed to help them overcome the ego. If you are reading this review I am suggesting 'How to Attain Enlightenment' by James Swartz

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!