Andrew Cohen (spiritual teacher)

Andrew Cohen
Cohen teaching in Paris, 2012
Born	(1955-10-23) October 23, 1955 (age 61) New York City, New York, United States
Occupation	Spiritual teacher, author, musician

Andrew Cohen (born October 23, 1955) is an American spiritual teacher.

Cohen was born in New York City in 1955 in an upper-middle class secular Jewish household. Cohen recounts that his life was changed by a spontaneous experience of "cosmic consciousness" at the age of sixteen. After pursuing a career as a jazz-musician, he began a spiritual quest to recover this experience when he was 22. He eventually met H. W. L. Poonja in 1986, a self-styled teacher who taught that no effort is needed to attain enlightenment "because it is merely the realisation of what one already is". At their first meeting, Cohen realized that he "had always been free". Poonja declared Cohen to be his heir, and Cohen began to teach as a neo-Advaita teacher, and gathered a community around him.

Within a few years, Cohen noticed that the ecstatic experiences his students had in his presence were limited. Being convinced that he himself was fully free from karmic bondage, he began to demand more commitment from his students, insisting on complete "ego-transcendence". The change in teaching-style led to dissent, and a break with Poonja, who was now regarded by Cohen as shortcoming in ethical and enlightened behavior.

According to Cohen, "Poonja insisted that the realization of the Self had nothing to do with worldly behavior, and he did not believe fully transcending the ego was possible." According to Poonja, "karmic tendencies remained after enlightenment, [but] the enlightened person was no longer identified with them and, therefore, did not accrue further karmic consequences." For Poonja, ethical standards were based on a dualistic understanding of duality and the notion of an individual agent, and therefore were not representative of Advaita: "For Poonja, the goal was the realisation of the self; the illusory realm of relative reality was ultimately irrelevant." Cohen did not agree, insisting instead on "flawless behavior" as the manifestation of enlightenment.

In 1991 Cohen founded EnlightenNext magazine (under its former title, What Is Enlightenment?), which "established him as a major contemporary spiritual figure." In 2004, EnlightenNext magazine partnered with the Graduate Institute in Connecticut to offer a master's program in conscious evolution. From 2004 to 2007, Cohen served as a core faculty of that institute. The magazine stopped publishing in 2011.

After the break with Poonja, Cohen's teachings were further developed into "Evolutionary Enlightenment", aiming at an impersonal enlightenment which transcends the personal. Yet, the change in teaching-style led also to "physical force, verbal abuse, and intense psychological pressure against students." The growing complaints from students have been described in several publications from former students and from his own mother.