Andrew Cohen 1 - 'Evolutionary Enlightenment' - Interview by Iain McNay

hello and welcome again to conscious TV I'm in McNay and today our guest in the studio is Andrew Cohen hi Andrew hi and I'm going to start by reading a quote from your first book which I loved and the quote is this book is a story of of a man who passion for the truth became a hurricane now that's quite a statement it it was that statement made by myself or someone else that was the introduction of your first book okay so I didn't write the introduction so that was someone commenting about my own passion I suppose I you know I hardly know you I've met you once briefly before but you give the image of being a bit of a Hurrican and I Wonder has that always been there that energy ever since ever since I became a teacher I've been very passionate about uh about affecting change in the world so yes I'm I'm very passionate about what I'm doing and uh I care very much about uh leaving a Mark here in the world for sure I want to make a difference I want the world to be a different place because I was here and how did this all start how did your search start uh well originally it started because when I like many people I had a spontaneous experience of uh of Awakening it was an experience of actually Cosmic consciousness when I was a teenager when I was 16 years old and I was brought up in a secular household a secular Jewish household so I had no notion of the Divine notion no notion of God no no notion of any of these things and I remember I was living in in Italy at the time with my uh with my mother and I remember seeing a television program that was about Buddhism and one of the one of there was one of the scenes in this documentary where there were it was somewhere in Southeast Asia there was a huge Buddha statue enormous and there were it seemed like at least 100 monks prostrating before this enormous Buddha statue and I remember at the time I had no idea what would cause a human being to bow down before you know a statue like this I had no idea what would incline a human being to do that so then I was sitting up late one night having this conversation and I don't even remember what I was talking about but for no particular reason the doors of perception open and I and it's very difficult to explain this in words but I suddenly became aware of the whole Cosmos I realized that the whole Cosmos was one conscious self-aware being and that the nature of this being uh was a kind of impersonal or absolute love the experience of which was completely overwhelming it was physically overwhelming physically unbearable uh I I realized at that moment that there was no such thing as death it also became obvious to me that at no matter which which point in space one went to one would always be in the same place uh and I was just sitting there with tears uh streaming down my treeks streaming down my cheeks utterly in a state of on wonder and that was my spiritual initiation and I I have no idea why it happened but this the the impact of this was quite profound and after a couple of days it it faded but I knew then that was the most important thing that had ever happened to me I'd never been so alive uh or in touch with life or what was and then later when I was 22 uh I began to be haunted by this event because at the end of this particular spiritual initiation there I received and and it's hard to explain this in words almost like a message even though it doesn't really make any sense to talk in this way but the sense was if you devote your life to me and me alone if you pursue this what had revealed itself to me I had nothing to fear but if I didn't and I wasn't sure what it meant but anyway I when I was 22 I began to be haunted Ed by this experience and then when I was 22 at a certain point I decided to I I was pursuing the my desire to be a a jazz drummer at the time and I gave that up and decided to wholeheartedly devote myself to becoming an enlightened person I didn't even know what it meant but I knew that I I knew that what I was looking for was real because I'd experienced it and many other Seekers that I met at the time uh were hoping that this other dimension of reality existed but they not but most people besides having drug experiences had never actually had any direct experiences of it but because of this experience I had when I was of cosmic Consciousness that I had when I was a teenager I had no doubt that it existed so it gave you a reference point that was faith and conviction faith and conviction I knew it was possible and I also for some reason I don't know why I was confident that that I would that I would get there I mean I I had a very deep sense of confidence that it was just a matter of time and will then sooner or later it was going to happen yeah is this something you've always had in yourself this kind of confidence inside no no no I think really uh I as a younger person I lacked a lot of self-confidence and really it was only when I uh uh as I got older and when I it was really when I decided to become a spiritual Seeker full-time to be honest yeah I remember I I was uh I was doing Psychotherapy I was in psychoanalysis 10 years I think you're in Psychotherapy yeah and I remember at a c point I decided I wanted to be free and I told the the analyst I said I don't really want to do this anymore I want to be free and he said you're just getting started and I felt no fear and I and I got up and I looked at him I said I don't want to do this I want to be free and that and ever since ever since the moment when I decided that I wanted to be a liberated man and I really meant it and I really did mean it and I I knew that I'd be willing to do just about anything to succeed that was really when my a sense of confidence as as as an IND individual began to grow and so what form did your search take initially I did all the things that Seekers do I started reading books about spiritual philosophy I started I I started going to every spiritual teacher that I could that I that I thought would be of interest I took initiation from from an Eastern spiritual master I started meditating every day um I I started meeting friends who were interested in Consciousness uh I I I was really pretty serious about it and did you feel you were getting towards something or was it you go down one particular route and then you decided that didn't work and you tried something else was it kind of a was it a process as such or was it a series of meeting dead ends I think it was a process I didn't I didn't I I don't I didn't feel was a series of dead ends I think once I once I once I started wholeheartedly on the path my life was lit up with the conviction that I was really going somewhere and that I was also going to get there so I I I was very inspired by that yeah I think you also you did very long meditation Retreats didn't you I did I did many uh um Buddhist Meditation Retreats uh not because I I would had any interest in Buddhism as a philosophy but I I just simply because in they provided an environment in which one could sit for very long periods of time and be supported and did that come easy to your meditation uh sometimes it came easy sometimes especially when when when if you're doing it for you know days and weeks at a time sometimes it was quite a struggle but but but but part of uh uh but but part of Spiritual Development really is learning how to struggle through different psychological States uh and and not back down but to hold a certain presence of mind and presence of awareness and so I think that uh uh learning how to struggle through that is is part of the maturing process but part of how we discover to become a strong person feel like giving up and having your life never never well that was I know that was the difference between me and most other people I met on the path is that I would meet people on spiritual Retreats or in spiritual Gatherings that if they were in the presence of a great spiritual master or if they've done a long Meditation Retreat they'd be lit up temporarily but then they would soon I would often Notice fall back into what's traditionally called a uh a world a worldly perspective in other words they lost touch with the fact that there was something really very significant that they were looking for and I once I got on the path I really I never really lost my focus and how I was very very one-pointed and how did you support yourself financially as you were doing all this well I was I was working for part of the time and then I had a small inheritance from uh from my a grandmother which provided me with with a small income that it was enough to survive on so would you say the turning point was going to India and meeting puni that well without a doubt uh was it the meeting pun of of course was the end was was when my my seeking came to an end but I remember just going to India which is something I only wanted to do for a very short time because I felt at that time I'd already met all the most important spiritual teachers in the world or most of them because they were all traveling so I felt there was I I was pretty sure by that time there was nothing in India to find that I couldn't find in America and I'd also met many people that spent years in India that didn't seem any more enlightened than I was but in any case I felt I needed to go but when I arrived in India itself what was what what happened from that was so important is that I was able to express my passion for seeking for enlightenment with unselfconsciously in America and I was living in New York it when I really started to express how passionate I was about this people thought I was a little a little crazy but when I went to India I was able to express uh unselfconsciously and explore this passion and so that's why when I arrived there I decided to stay