Andrew Cohen: the five basic principles of enlightenment

Andrew Cohen

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If you have ever seen a live performance of Andrew Cohen, you know that he didn´t choose the easy way out. For he doesn´t behave like any ordinary spiritual teacher. It is custom for most speakers to prolong their talks for sometimes more than an hour, to have a short break, and then answer one or two

short questions, sometimes even written on paper. The questioner is asked to keep his questions short. It is politely assumed that he will not, after stating his question, interrupt the speaker. Such a procedure is definitely followed out of good reasons. The speaker and the audience want a quiet atmosphere. They do not want to see the arguments distorted by a fierce and aggressive debate. It is preferred not to end the evening with a rather tiresome clash of know-it-all ego´s, trying to subvert the authority of the speaker in front. Most people in the audience will think this childish. If you have a different view, well, congratulations. Brood about it at your own place and don´t bother us.

But for Cohen such an evening would be a total waste of time. He wants to reach you. He wants to confront you. He wants to lay bare all your hidden motives and agenda´s. This can´t be done if the audience stays put. You have to come out in the open. Because all he really wants is to help you to make progress in your spiritual life. This can only be done if all your hidden defense mechanisms come to the fore. Only then will he be able to burst through the thick scales of your self complacency and self chosen separateness. He wants to show you that it is in the mind´s nature to invent pretexts and tricks. For the self complacent mind and the ego refuse to cooperate in their own destruction and annihilation.

But this is really hard work for Cohen. I have seen him on occasions almost reaching the point of exhaustion. For the danger is always real of becoming the target point of the audience´s aggressiveness and resentment to comply. The audience might make the mistake of feeling unloved and unrespected, certainly a deep misunderstanding and misinterpretation of Cohen´s intentions, for he does love and respect the people he´s addressing. He has a deeper purpose in attacking you. He is out to liberate you. But not so many people understand his means and methods. So I have often felt that they were about to lynch the guy. His irony and cynicism in the face of ego was sometimes too hard to bear for some people. This was not always fun to watch. It resulted in a very hostile atmosphere, unsuited for the exchange of more subtle spiritual feelings and insights.

So, to be honest, I much more prefer Cohen written on paper than seeing him live at work, though I do understand his means and methods. But seeing the widely spread stupidity of mankind and their profound ignorance of things that really matter, I cannot help but feel sorry for him. Attacking and confronting people, when they refuse to give in, really is a tiresome job. Maybe you have to love mankind very much to employ such means. So besides feeling sorry for Cohen, I do respect him and belief his motives to be genuinely compassionate. But maybe I´m more cynical about the effectiveness of the so called 'rude boy´s approach'. I have too often seen it fail. Such an approach only puts people in defense. In the end both teacher and audience leave the building frustrated.

So perhaps it is better, after these first critical remarks, to focus our attention on the message Cohen is trying to convey. His words are the words of mysticism and they are worth discussing in sequence. This can best be done by clarifying his ´five basic principles of Enlightenment´ as presented in his core book ´Embracing heaven and earth´ (2000)

Principle 1: a clear intention

It sounds like a truism, but in fact it is the most basic condition for reaching enlightenment: you have to want to become enlightened. This is not a truism, because in this case it works differently than with other forms of wanting. Other objects of the will can exist simultaneously along side eachother. But the will to become enlightened is exclusive, not inclusive. Enlightenment will only take place if it is the only object of your will. You have to become totally focused on this one point in your life. It will have to be such a deep yearning in your soul that nothing else really matters much anymore, besides this one thing: to become totally and utterly free, in every aspect of your life. All else will have to take second place and will have to be of no interest whatsoever.

Ramana Maharshi had this beautiful example to compare this kind of intention to. He used to say: consider yourself on the verge of drowning in dark and deep water. The lower you sink, the more your arms, your legs, your whole body will struggle to swim upwards to the life saving light. In fact, your body and mind will, at this critical moment of life and death, not think and deliberate at all. They will simply react. The life saving instinct will take over. No deliberation about which direction to swim to. ´Up, up!´ the body-mind yells. Your intention to be saved will then be enormous. ´When your house is on fire´, the Buddha asked, ´what will you do? Will you inform about the cause of the f ire? Will you sit down and fist under chin deliberate about the procedures to put out the fire? No, man! Run! Run! Your house is on fire!´

But first you have to become aware that your house is indeed on fire. This is the most important condition for having a clear intention. This is the reason the Buddha has made it his first Truth. Most people are so deluded and their defense mechanisms are so well fenced up that they wont even admit of this first Truth: that in fact their life is a mere garland of sufferings. But you have to see this. You have to admit it, even if the very admittance will break you down on your knees. If you want to be free, you first have to see what it is you want to be freed from. You have to feel your suffering right to the bone.

Out of this insight into the pathological condition of our relative life grows our clear intention. But this is not enough, Cohen underlines. Though having a clear intention is more than half the work done, we have Andrew Cohen

to stick to this intention to the very end. We have to remain focused on this one point: our enlightenment. Too often have seekers started off with the right intention, but they hadn´t the courage, the stamina or the will to see it through, right to the very end. Difficulties, temptations and hardships will come your way on the spiritual path. But will you be brave enough to continue? So a clear intention is needed, but one that lasts to the very end.

Principle 2: at a very fundamental level our will is free

In the end we will recognize that we only have one true Self. As enlightened beings we will only speak one voice, think one thought, see one sight. In our natural, perfect state we will be undivided and simplex. But we are not simple the way we are now. We speak with many tongues. We have many voices and personalities roaming about in the dark layers of our subconscious. Sometimes a voice lifts us up and exhorts us to realize our highest potentials. But then again we are taken aback by the luring voice of the easy way out and the least resistance. There is a battle raging on inside of us. It is the fight of good (the high ideal we are evolving to) against evil (not becoming our own true Self).

What can we do when we are in such a situation? We seem to be always the victim of karmic influences from our past. What can help us to escape from this vicious circle of cause and effect? Will I always remain a victim of the lovelessness of my parents? Will the fact that my wife left me a few years ago keep me unhappy for the rest of my life? How can I ever become enlightened when I have so many burdens upon my back from the past? They keep haunting me in my sleep and make me grab my hair in shame. Is there a way out?

When we are in such a stalemate situation, Cohen advises us to choose. For our own free will is the only gift from the gods that can take us out of such a deadlock. We human beings have the capacity to act as if. We can act as if we are already enlightened. This very choice will determine the way we are to become. Such a choice will resolve all karmic bindings. For by choosing we will very wisely give evolution a hand. Choosing not to follow the spiritual path is thwarting our evolution. But when we choose to become enlightened, we lend evolution a hand. But only if that´s our one and only choice. Otherwise we will remain divided and remain subject to all our karmic laws.

Commentary: when we consider this problem of choice more closely, it seems that this kind of choice (the choice between becoming enlightened or remaining ignorant) is the one and only choice we human beings actually have. As free agents we seem to be living on the cutting of the razors edge. For if we take the minus choice and choose not to become enlightened, we will always remain subject to karma, ie. we will always remain victim of the causes and effects of our historical personality. In this case we´ll have no choice and free will anymore. Everything we´ll think and do will be the result of something in the past. But if we take the plus choice and choose to become enlightened, we loose our free will also. For then the higher will (´God´) will take over our lives and ´ordaineth all to the best´. So our will seems only to be free at this most fundamental level. After and before this fundamental choice our will seems choiceless.

Principle 3: stop avoiding

When we are not one Self, we are constantly avoiding. We both avoid the lower aspects of our divided self as well as the higher aspects. We don´t want to see our trauma´s and our old neuroses. We are avoiding that hollow feeling inside by seeking divertisements and fun. We are on the hunt for distractions. We are afraid of being alone. We are afraid of the dark. We shrink back from closing our eyes and only do so, when we think it is permitted, in bed or on a holiday afternoon. We are very uncomfortable with our selves, because, more than anyone else, we have intimate knowledge of our selves. There is too much suffering, too much not to be proud of. So we do not like to sit by our selves. Sitting alone causes too many problems to rise up in our hearts.

But we avoid our enlightenment also. We refuse to see the high potential that resides in us. We do not think it possible. But this is also the easy way out, because it´s very easy to say ´only the great can achieve great things´ because these words, again, give us permission to avoid, in this case the upcoming confrontations and hardships. ´I´m a fallible mortal, not one of the gods´ is simply an excuse not to change. This kind of idealization from a distance (´I worship the saints but I´m not one of them´) is also a cosy comfort. That way we will never realize the highest vision we have of our Self, despite the fact that we recognize that there resides an enormous amount of freedom and greatness inside of us.

When we want to grow we must stop avoiding both the lower and the higher. If we want to be truly free, we need to end all such divisions. Avoidance prolongs the division of our self in a lower and a higher part. For it causes a deep split between the represser and the repressed. In repressing we keep denying certain aspects of our self. That´s the reason meditation is necessary, because meditation makes us close our eyes with awareness. This closing of our eyes will make us stop avoiding. For where can we go when we sit still and look within?

This ending of all avoidance will bring awareness to the repressed parts of our personality. This is the difficult part of our spirituality. All that was shunned is now laid bare. We can no longer escape. We are now confronting it. But at the same time the higher part of our self is laid bare also. More and more we learn to identify with this higher Self. In the end there only remains one undivided higher Self, because the lower parts were only there because of the repression, the division and the diversity. In undivided Oneness the lower stops existing. For then the lower is lifted up to the perfection of the Divine.

Principle 4: the truth of the impersonal

We live by the illusion that everything we do, think or feel is personal. But all our acts, thoughts and feelings are in fact shared by the whole of humanity. We all form part of one impersonal whole. But we think that everything and everyone in life is standing on its own. This misconception and fatal flaw originates from our identifying our selves completely with our personality, that illusive historical part Andrew Cohen

of our self. Such a tunnel vision is difficult to emend because it is flattering to our ego. It makes us feel unique. It´s a strategy of our ego to feel itself important. For my own greatness diminishes once I admit that my thoughts and feelings are not as totally unique as I imagine. In that case I´ll be one out of millions. So the ego doesn´t want to admit that life, including my own so called personal life, is in fact impersonal.

But if everything in life were personal and unique -mere disjected members without any sameness and connection- then it would not be possible to share anything. It is because of the deep interconnectedness of the kosmos that we have a feeling that we belong, that we are somehow part of a greater whole. Religious feelings rise up, precisely because of this deep inner conviction that we share, and that somehow we are the same. If it weren´t the case, then it would not be possible to relate to or to communicate with anything.

Considerations like these have brought all major wisdom traditions of the world to the conviction that the personal is the great bolt obstructing our entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven. We somehow have to transcend this our personal outlook. All ascetic principles, all humility, all speaking of oneself ironically or even in derogatory tones, all penance, are aimed at reducing the personal in our consciousness. A wider transcendence, a more fuller embrace, in short, love, is to be our target point. For love is nothing but the reduction of the personal. ´Love thy neighbor´ is to acknowledge that neither the ´thy´ is personal nor the ´neighbor´. When this has become a living reality in our hearts -instead of a mere conception in our minds-, then our suffering has ended and the heart is freed from its plight.

criticism: we must be very careful here. For Cohen does not well distinguish personality from individuality and character. Such a distinction is of the utmost importance. As prompted by our common sense, there is indeed something unique in every man or woman. Only this uniqueness is not personal but individual. For if we try to wipe out , besides personality, all individual diversity, we would not only destroy the diverse beauty of the kosmos, but we would also end up being dictators and Big Brothers, who want to make everyone the same in order to gain a greater control. For individuality has always been the greatest threat to Power. All rulers have always been uncomfortable with rebellious individuality. Even organized religions have misused this fourth principle as a mean to gain power and control over their subjects. The Catholic Church has always underlined obedience as one of the greatest virtues to overcome the personal on our way to redemption, but this obedience came in very handy for their power game also.

So I think we have to reconsider the concept of ´ego´, that has grown into a bit of cliche in most spiritual literature, and see if we can make some qualitative distinctions. For it is meaningful to ask: why do we have an ego in the first place? What is the psychological meaning of `ego´?

Developmental psychologists like the Swiss Jean Piaget have shown that the basic psychological development of a child is focused on an increase in ego strength. Why is this ego strength so important? To answer this question it will be clarifying to look at the pathology of psychological development. For if we can understand what happens when a child does not develop properly and naturally, we will at the same time have understood why it´s so important that he does so. This may become more clear by considering, as an example, the borderline syndrome. A child with a borderline disorder is during his formative years nipped in the growth of his ego strength and in the development of a psychological defense system. This is the result of his self being continuously flooded by the self of others. This flooding takes place when the child is not treated with love and respect but with a lust for power and control. In a loving approach the parents and the surroundings grant the child the psychological space to develop its own self. But in a pathological approach, when parents project their own disorders upon their child, the self of the child is refused to develop its own immune system. It becomes merely the extension of the self of its parents, instead of developing a viable self of its own.

Every organism, aye, every holon in the universe, from cells and amoeba´s to the highest life forms, needs a defense system. So do societies, thought systems, cultural paradigmata, corporate holdings etc., in short, all systems, all holons need one. The defense system is needed to ward off all hostile intruders who are out to destroy or damage the holon in its existence. At the biological level this defense system has developed into the highly evolved immune system, but already at cell level we can see it work, namely in the membrane. The membrane is the cell´s defense system against intrusion of bacteria and viruses. The membrane is vital for the preservation of the cell. It keeps all evil out.

Now, the ego is, at self level, also a kind of membrane. It serves as a kind of protection fence against all hostile psychological influence. It is needed to keep all forms of subjugation and humiliation at bay, that may be threating to the self-sufficiency and the dignity of the self, or even to its very existence. When a person develops a borderline syndrome, this ego-membrane has not the time and the opportunity to develop in a healthy way. It ´leaks in great gasps´, so to speak, and the self is constantly flooded by detrimental influences, coming from other, narcistic and power minded, selfs. Such a self cannot speak up for itself. It is unable to cope with its surroundings. It is a victimized self.

So a healthy self has a healthy and strong ego. The ego, as a defense system, is vital for the preservation of the organism at every level, from biology to spirituality. But this is not the whole story. And here we need the insights of spirituality to complement our understanding. For warding off is not the only function of the ego. Again, let´s look at the membrane of a cell. Besides the function of keeping out viruses and bacterial assaults it has a second function which is as vital and life saving as the first, negative one. This is its osmosis: it lets nutritious and vital elements from outside the cell in, to support and promote its existence. The membrane of a cell is also permeable in various quantities. It lets in besides keeping out.

Now, the ego also needs its osmosis. It needs to stay open to give the self the opportunity to communicate, exchange and merge with other selfs, in which it takes part, for the ego-membrane only seemingly divides an essence that is the same in every self (just like a cell membrane only seemingly separates essences that are completely identical in identical cells). In a pathological self like the borderline disorder the self is too permeable (´great gasps´) and becomes flooded. But in the opposite case, in the narcistic disorder, the ego is not permeable enough. Here the ego is only a fence. It cannot share and communicate, let alone merge, with its surroundings. It is completely separated and shut in. It can not use sharing (love) as the way to relate to the world, but to feel connected, it can only use a tour the force, by intruding forcefully (with aggression and lust for power) into the self of others.

What osmosis is for the cell, love is for the ego. It is its way of restoring its connection with what is identical: the Self surrounding it. Just as the cell can not live on its own, but needs the nutritious surroundings to stay alive, so the ego needs all the surroundings of the Self, from the material, via the biological and the mental to the spiritual, to stay healthy and alive. The ego is the psychological mechanism that makes this exchange with all these surroundings possible. It is at the same time a ward and protector, as well as a receiver and a host.

So first we have to develop an ego, just like a child needs to have measles first in order to strengthen its immune system. But as we grow older our psychological strength and resilience become so well balanced that we can develop further (that is to say, when we don´t suffer from pathologies like a borderline syndrome) and are able to transcend our ego. Now the immunity for the surroundings is so great that the original ego-membrame becomes less and less needed. The psyche has become so strong now that she can welcome and make use of all things, either from the outside world or from her own sub- or supraconscious. She has gained trust in her own discrimination. The ego is now more opened and its membrame becomes multi-permeable.

So now in later life the spiritual phase can begin, which is the phase of psychological multi-permeability, but only after we have sufficiently build up a strong ego. Just like a healthy human being is able to contact many diseases without becoming infected. Now the ego has become integrated and transcended. But it always remains active in the background in case of emergency. When the psyche is in danger and needs protection it will always call in the ego for help. For a strong self will always protect itself.

So I would rather say that enlightenment is transcendence of the ego and not altogether a death of the ego, which would entail total destruction of the psyche, just like any organism would perish without some sort of a system of immunity. When we look at the lives of the Masters we will find ample example corroborating such a view. On close inspection we will see them totally submerged in the Self, while retaining at the same time a very healthy and strong ego. Osho did drive in closed car across the campus of his ashram, not because he did not love his sannyasins (he did and so he got in the car), but because he didn´t want to be flooded by their emotional crying for help. His healthy ego took some precaution. Krishnamurti always said you have to find truth yourself and not rely on a Master. Apart from the fact that he believed this to be true, it was also his ego prompting him to say so. For, perhaps unconsciously (though I do not think so), he was afraid to be flooded by thousands of seekers who would every hour of his life remain clutched to his feet. Not a nice way to live, even if you are a enlightened being.

So the ego is there, it needs to be there, even with enlightened Masters, but it needs to be transcended as well. Cohen´s work is aimed at showing us why it needs to be transcended. For the ego is a very dangerous ward. It can lock itself in, instead of locking the danger out. And that is as disastrous as being flooded by destructive forces Andrew Cohen

coming from the outside. When it locks itself in -when it creates the feeling of a separate entity, with no connection to the outside world- it becomes destructive to itself. It becomes its own killer. All profound spirituality has the purpose to make us aware of this danger.

The personality, with its ego center, needs to be reduced as much as possible, almost to the level of coming to naught. That way the higher energies of the Self can totally infuse the individual with its liberating light. All the karmic seeds from the past, always the seeds of personality, polluting like dregs the bottom of our psyche, need to be brought out and destroyed. This needs to be done with the help of prayer, meditation, yogic or other physical exercise and psychotherapy. When all these seeds are destroyed the mind is finally left empty, blissful, in ecstasy. But most of all our personal will needs to be destroyed. This needs to be done according to the first two Commandments: first we must surrender, in our own heart, our will to the Lord, the Self of all things. Secondly, we must surrender our will in loving our neighbors, that we may liberate the Self of all and also ourselves be enlightened by the love of others. This second Commandment is in tune with Cohen´s fifth and last principle.

Principle 5: for the benefit of the whole

Enlightenment is not a personal affair. It is impersonal. It liberates the whole of existence by creating a morfogenetic field of evolutionary success. The soul of the enlightened one is so emotionally elated and intellectually convinced by the success of reconnecting to its Final Ground, that it creates a subtle and unseen pattern of impersonal success around itself. This is a pattern of wanting to share what it has found. Other souls feel this evolutionary success and want to share in it. They intuitively feel that this is the solution to all of life´s riddles. These other souls also want to be liberated.

The enlightened one cannot but share her liberation. She must pour out her love. Not because she thinks it´s a moral obligation, but because she cannot do otherwise. Her enlightenment means sharing. It means love. Without this love for all sentient and insentient beings she would not be enlightened. So now she goes out into the world. Just her mere presence is sometimes enough to bring enlightenment to others. She sits near a tree on a beautiful afternoon and the tree becomes enlightened. With her child she goes out to the pet zoo and the little goat becomes enlightened. This is the image of the queen fairy touching everything to magic with her golden wand. This is the effect of enlightenment on all souls. It is the deepest drive of our heart. It is what we want the most, because it is the most faithful image of our selves we can think of.

Now the seclusion is over. There has come an end to all our loneliness. We have now made the connection with the world and with our fellowmen. The struggle is over. We can rest in peace now. Finally love has come to town.

Amsterdam September 20 2005

Andrew Cohen

Andrew Cohen, founder of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, is a spiritual teacher and acclaimed Cohen author widely recognized as a defining voice in the emerging field of evolutionary spirituality. A life-changing awakening in 1986 brought Cohen to the end of his own search for liberation while simultaneously starting him on an exploration of the meaning and significance of enlightenment for our time. This has led him to a profound investigation of the human predicament and into dialogue with sages, saints, and spiritual luminaries from nearly every tradition and beyond.

In 1992, Cohen released the first issue of What Is Enlightenment?, expanding his own inquiry through the public forum of a magazine and pioneering an innovative form of spiritual journalism reminiscent of classical Socratic dialogue. Over the last decade on the pages of WIE, Cohen has brought together leading thinkers—mystics and materialists, philosophers and psychologists—to call for a higher and wholly contemporary synthesis of the spiritual truths found in the East and the empirical rigor of the West. Through the magazine and his writings, Cohen is creating a new context for understanding enlightenment as a human evolutionary imperative. Together with a growing network of integral visionaries, including Ken Wilber and Don Beck, he is helping to define a culture of thought that places spiritual transformation at the center of any vision of transforming the world.

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