When Shadow Meets the Bodhisattva
The Challenging Transformation of a Modern Guru
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When Shadow Meets the Bodhisattva
When Shadow Meets the Bodhisattva is an unflinching exploration of the
rise and fall of Cohen’s organization EnlightenNext, in which the author details
his own responsibility for its failure, and the lessons he learned, including
the need to deal thoroughly with one’s shadow for continued spiritual growth.
Cohen presents wisdom from his discussions with spiritual leaders including Ken
Wilber, Diane Musho Hamilton Roshi, Steve McIntosh, Terry Patten, Doshin Roshi,
Sally Kempton, Philip Goldberg, Jeffrey Kripal, and Patricia Albere.
Finally, he shares a new vision for a spirituality of tomorrow, and a modern
understanding of the ancient Buddhist model for disseminating enlightened wisdom
known as the Triple Gem.
When Shadow Meets the Bodhisattva by Andrew Cohen with Hans Plasqui,
foreword by Allan Combs.
After his very public fall from grace in 2013, renowned spiritual teacher Andrew
Cohen vanished from view and underwent a dark night of the soul.
After years of intense introspection and soul-searching, Cohen shares his
insights into the failure of his organization EnlightenNext, including his own
responsibility for its downfall, as well as a new vision for modern spirituality
based on the wisdom of the lessons he learned.
The author details his spiritual initiation, his rapid rise to guruhood, the
explosive growth of his spiritual community worldwide, and then–right at the
height of its spiritual and creative emergence–its dramatic collapse, which
left his students lost, bitter, angry, and confused.
He shares his gripping spiritual odyssey from the heights of illumination, down
into the existential ashes of failed aspirations, to the underworld of inner
darkness, and back again into the light.
Building upon the lessons he learned, including the need to deal thoroughly with
one’s own shadow, Cohen explains the necessity of the guru in spiritual
practice, while also exposing the dysfunctions of the traditional guru-disciple
model.
He shares insights from his discussions with spiritual leaders, including Ken
Wilber, Diane Musho Hamilton, Doshin Roshi, Jeffrey Kripal, and Patricia Albere,
revealing how the issues he faced are profoundly relevant to the spiritual
community as a whole.
He also shares how his teachings have evolved and sheds light on the art of
communicating beyond ego and unleashing the co-creative power of our shared
collective intelligence–the key to initiating enlightened change in this world
in crisis.
Andrew Cohen teaching at Gia Mantra Village in Tiruvannamalai
Praise for When Shadow Meets the Bodhisattva
Allan
Combs
Integal Philosopher
and author
“A true
spiritual odyssey by a modern master. The personal depth and descriptive brilliance
of this remarkable journey carries us up to heights of illumination, down into
earthly existential ashes of failed aspirations, into the underworld of inner
darkness, and back. This story is unparalleled in today’s spiritual literature.”
Said E.
Dawlabani
Gravesian Developmentalist – Author of MEMEnomics and The Light of Ishtar
“There’s a phenomenon in ancient Arab literature called “the forbidden field”. It
is a rare state of consciousness where exceptional saints and poets dwell.
Today, that field is reserved for those who can traverse the nondual nature of
existence: the deep suffering of the soul’s journey in life as experienced from
the realms of Cosmic Consciousness.
Andrew’s book is a bravest testament to that new nonduality at the highest
levels. His experiences are universal to all those who answer their transcendent
calling in life: The rise to prominence, the wounding, and ultimately the
reckoning that annihilates our former selves. It is in that place of surrender
that we discover our authentic Self and begin our long journey to this new
forbidden field.
Andrew’s searing honesty and rare bravery on the pages of the book, along with
the conversations he has with people on the leading edge of consciousness are
nothing short of a new guide on how to transcend the ego and the shadow and
become a modern-day integral Guru. It’s a compelling read. I couldn’t put it
down.”
Ken
Wilber
Integral Philosopher and author of The Religion of Tomorrow
“This is an extremely important and highly recommended book. It’s beautifully
written and comes straight from the spiritual heart.
Get it and read it—it will change your life.”
Howard
Bloom
Author of The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of
History
“A brutally
honest immersion into the creation and destruction of a spiritual group, and the
crucifixion of its leader. A primal pattern of hierarchical systems is at work – the
hierarchical systems that dominate our lives, and are even at work in spiritual
movements which seem to preach the end of hierarchical leadership, but which embody
the ecstasy of submission that only groups with leaders generate.”
Diane
Marie Williams
Founder The Source of Synergy Foundation
“Andrew Cohen
has boldly and courageously shared his deeply compelling journey into the core of
the evolutionary impulse through emerging from the shadow of mythic absolutism into
the realm of the Radical Spirit where breakthrough revelations, extreme
transformation and the fire to catalyze collective transcendence for the benefit of
the greater good resides.”
Jeffrey
J. Kripal
Author of The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New
Realities
“Andrew Cohen
tells his story in these pages and explains both what went very, very right and
very, very wrong. He takes responsibility for what happened and relates it to his
own pride, authoritarianism, shaming techniques, and the traditional hierarchical
role of the perfect mythical guru, but he also confesses those deeper evolutionary
forces and absolute truths that have shone through his own Indian guru, himself as
guru, and his gifted students all along. We need this book. We need this Andrew
Cohen. We need this evolution.”
Martin
Ucik
Author and Facilitator
Integral Relationship
“A marvellous
and enlightening book for any teacher and practitioner on the edge of cultural and
spiritual evolution who wants to make the world a better place.”
Kurt
Johnson, Ph.D.
Co-author of The Coming Interspiritual Age, author of Fine Lines
and Nabokov’s Blues
“Across the wide
thematic context in Cohen’s narrative, myriad paradoxical elements (each highly
nuanced in themselves) are here: the nature of awakening and enlightenment; absolute
and relative reality; epiphenomena and micro-phenomena; holons in dynamic systems;
autonomy and communion; context dependency; freedom versus binary choices, causality
and co-arising; advaita & neo-advaita; radical idealism; the pitfalls of the
magic-mythic worldview and pursuit; mythic absolutism; guru function, mythical
identity & perfection; guru intervention and the mysteries of transmission and
the numinous; the guru, dharma and sangha; and finally, to wrap up: Cohen’s
predictions on the future of ‘Triple Gem Integral’ and ‘Evolutionary
Enlightenment’.”
“This is a book everyone who is sincerely on the spiritual journey should read.
In every way, Andrew Cohen’s rise, fall, atonement and the fruits of his journey
manifested in new understanding and vision – this is truly the drama of an
archetypal hero’s journey. Beyond the historical narrative of his passage, the
author so often includes the larger significance of his experience, and its
relevance to the current evolutionary scene. He does this with the clarity and
integrity so characteristic of his writings. Included in this book is a
beautiful review of his teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment, a stand-alone
gem. This book is also enriched by the many dialogues the author includes with
several leading integral thinkers as they consider various questions raised by
his journey.
Make no mistake; this is a book which challenges the reader on many fronts. The
reader is asked to balance perceived rights and wrongs of how the Guru position
was carried out in the community setting, the consequences to his students, to
forgive the teacher’s human failings, and to acknowledge the validity of his
transformation. Finally, it is the reader’s heart and soul that must answer
whether the Guru’s gift – the realization of one’s True Nature – is worth it
all.”
About the Authors
Andrew Cohen
Andrew Cohen is a spiritual teacher, cultural visionary, and founder of the
global non-profit EnlightenNext and its award-winning publication
EnlightenNext magazine. After the collapse of EnlightenNext in 2013,
Cohen took several years off from public teaching.
In 2020, he and a group of collaborators launched Manifest Nirvana, a sanctuary for deep
transformation, where 21st century spiritual explorers and integral pioneers
will find their home. The author of several books, including Evolutionary
Enlightenment, he lives in India.
Hans Plasqui
Hans
Plasqui is a writer, scholar and spiritual practitioner who has studied with several
teachers, including Saniel Bonder, Terry Patten and Ken Wilber. He has specialized
in Wilber’s Integral Theory, which he studied at JFK University. The author of
Sincerity Uncompromised, he lives in Belgium.