This Sunday, October 5th at 10am Pacific I’ll be joined by Tom Steininger for a conversation entitled “My Guru Experiment: Twenty Years with Andrew Cohen.”
In 1993, Tom met spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen and fairly soon after joined his community that was then in Marin County, California. He became a close student of Andrew, the leader of EnlightenNext Germany, and produced a German-language version of Cohen’s magazine, What Is Enlightenment? Or as it was called in later years, EnlightenNext magazine.
What motivated someone who had completed his PhD with a thesis on Ken Wilber and Martin Heidegger and was a successful radio producer and therapist in Vienna to drop everything and move nearly 10,000 miles to be the student of a contemporary guru? More importantly, what led him to stay when Cohen’s methods and the culture around him were revealed to be seriously flawed? These are some of the questions we’ll be digging into on Sunday.
Tom had a first-hand experience of what he considers a profound Higher-We breakthrough in 2001 at the EnlightenNext ashram in Western Massachusetts—and also of the problems of a closed pyramid hierarchy led by an imperfect and often careless guru.
He now runs the successful German progressive-spiritual magazine Evolve and the weekly webradio show, Radio Evolve. He participates in several innovative and dynamic collaborations with other thought leaders and spiritual teachers. As one of the leaders of EnlightenNext Germany, he has been developing and refining the insights and practices from EnlightenNext’s Higher-We experiment into a new dialogue practice, which he calls “Evolutionary Dialogue.” Based on more than 20 years of collective work in EnlightenNext, this dialogue process is a new contribution to the practices of multi-perspective dialogue and Higher-We emergence.
This promises to be a fascinating and timely dialogue, coming as it does after the collapse of the global EnlightenNext network; and while Andrew Cohen is still on sabbatical to work with his own mistakes and shortcomings as a teacher and leader. Listen in as Tom shares about his 20 year “guru experiment,” and together we explore the light and the shadow sides of a radical spiritual endeavor with a powerful “guru.”
About Tom Steininger
Dr. Tom Steininger studied philosophy at the University of Vienna with a special emphasis on awareness issues and social evolution. He worked for the Austrian Radio (OE1) and as a freelance journalist. He is a founder and current editor of the German Evolve Magazine for consciousness and culture and was the longtime senior editor.
Tom taught at the Master’s Program for “Conscious Evolution” at the Graduate Institute in Connecticut, USA in collaboration with Don Beck, Susanne Cook-Greuter, and Allan Combs. Today he heads EnlightenNext Germany / Switzerland and moderates the Webradio Radio show “Radio Evolve.” Tom lectures internationally and teaches courses on evolutionary spirituality.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
Sunday, October 5th at 10:00am Pacific; 11:00am Mountain; 12:00pm Central; 1:00pm Eastern
*Find Your Local Time
Please Note: There will be a limited number of lines available on the live conference call, so we encourage you to listen online if possible. To make sure you can get through by phone, we encourage you to dial in early.
ACCESS INSTRUCTIONS
- To listen live by phone, dial: 206-402-0100 (alternate #: 501-707-0312)
- Then, enter Access Code: 272072#
- To listen live online go to: http://instantteleseminar.com/?eventid=60009798
To download the audio after the teleseminar is complete go to the Beyond Awakening Audio Page
We look forward to your attendance!
Sincerely,
The Beyond Awakening Team
Greetings, Terry!
It seems aeons since I learned from you and our little group at Hollyhock – but you all helped me along my spiritual path, for which I will always be grateful. Beyond Awakening has helped me continue along that path.
As to Andrew Cohen, I listened to most of his dialogues with Ken Wilber, watched several videos, and read a couple of his books. I never felt much of a connection, finding him somewhat abrasive and arrogant, with his personality cloaking his messages. I continued to try to learn from him, until I was satisfied that my reaction was not unduly influenced by my own issues.
I have a couple of questions that I hope you may find time to discuss with Tom:
– I always had the feeling that Andrew never came to terms with his Jewish ethnicity. Is that true?
– Andrew talked a lot about his relationship with his first guru. I wondered whom he was turning to during the time he got into trouble? No guru/mentor/therapist however inspired, can be truly effective without an ongoing relationship as a disciple/mentee/patient!
Many thanks for all you do – and please continue doing it!
Live a wonderful day,
Nick
Dear Nick, It’s great to hear from you! And thank you for your good words. I hope you’ve been able to listen to my 2nd dialogue with Tom by now. If not, you’ll find it here: http://www.beyondawakeningseries.com/archive/
I didn’t get a chance to read this before I interviewed Tom the second time, but I did specifically mention that Andrew is working with his own issues and he has recently told me that he has realized that he was asking his students to engage do a level of self-transforming work that he himself had never done, because he’d been catapulted into his realization at such a young age, and had found it so natural to identify with the absolute and the guru position, and had not recognized the immunity it was affording him.
As to his Jewish ethnicity, I can’t comment. I have never sensed that he had any particular unfinished business around this, but there may be something I haven’t picked up.
During this recent time he has been in ongoing therapy with someone excellent, and I know he’s been in dialogue with others who have been challenging and supporting him, including me, periodically.
I have been deeply touched by what Andrew is now going through. Think of it: All his hard-as-nails do-it-now “top-down” teachings are echoing in his mind and nervous system even as he confronts shadows and developmental challenges in himself that he can’t successfully meet in the way he demanded of others. These challenges are taking him some real time to allow and meet and surrender into and be transformed by. He’s set up the most demanding and unforgiving conditions for him to meet, all requiring growth exactly where’s he’s weakest and least developed and most obstructed. It demands the kind of heroism he tried to foist on others. And he’s responding, but not instantly. This growth has a trajectory, and it ripens in its own time. He’s been going through hell for over a year, and his humanity is growing. I don’t know how far he is along that road, but my heart goes out to him.
Warmly,
Terry
Such an interesting and courageous and important conversation! Thank you so much. I was involved with another group that meant the world to me but it was filled with problems too. So it’s been a challenge for me to also sift the “wheat from the chaff.” And it’s been an ongoing exploration for me to look at violence within myself and others and religious paths. For example, the group I was with were always talking about annihilating the ego and I know the legacy of Zen masters hitting their students with sticks and just how much suffering and struggle and strife has gone in to so many people’s spiritual journeys. I can’t help but to think of how much easier it is to be inspired by love and joy. When my son was small, I cared for him with great joy. It didn’t require what I would call discipline. Maybe this is because I naturally resonate with a Bhakti yoga (devotional) path that finds joy in service and surrender and doesn’t need what Tom referred to as the “harsh” methods. But he identified that he did need this approach. So it seems Andrew, maybe, gave some people what they needed. With me, Andrew was gracious, warm, and also reflected back to me deep devotion.
Elsa, thank you for offering your experience to this multi-faceted discussion. The great complexity of it is that there were indeed students, like you, who only benefitted tremendously from Andrew’s teaching. My experience of him is similar. And many who were “abused” are grateful for the challenge and say it catalyzed breakthroughs that transformed their lives. And there are others who tell hair-raising stories of coercive unkindness and seeming cruelty and say they were harmed. May the dharma evolve through this great collective lesson, and may Andrew evolve and contribute to us all growing from the whole EnlightenNext experiment, including its collapse. Warmly, Terry
Great article Terry, I look forward to hearing the recording. I was not a student of Andrew’s but knew his work and some of the people who were his students. I loved the passion and love I always received from his students. They always opened their hearts to me even though I never felt a deep connection to Andrew, but I always enjoyed listening to his teachings. He was instrumental in getting me more involved in the Integral world. I found him first before integral, so that was interesting. I am glad you are having this dialog as I really did not understand all that happen to this Community.
Thank you for the work you do in the world. Sending you my love,
Shekinah
Dear Shekinah,
So lovely to hear from you here! Thank you for your good words.
The recording of the Oct 5th call can be found here: http://www.beyondawakeningseries.com/archive/ Also, Tom and I decided to take the conversation further, to reflect on this dialogue. So we scheduled a follow up conversation for October 15th. You can find out more about that here [LINK TO: http://www.terrypatten.com/events/my-guru-experiment-follow-up ]
Thank you for all you are and all you do.
Blessings my friend!
Terry
Hi Terry
Great discussion. You referred to your email last year ‘Are you in a cult?’. I thought this was excellent and started to reply at the time but got bogged down.
It’s interesting that highly realized people can still get caught in the consensus trance. Many people seem to believe that because emergent potentials exist that they will automatically manifest in the fullness of time. They believe our civilization will continue to provide the complex integrated platform supporting our higher unfolding for the forseeable future.
You seem to be one of only a very few integral thinkers who realize how precarious is our situation and how potentially devastating is the multi-faceted predicament we face as a species.
Anyway, I just wanted to express my support and appreciation. Great work!
All the best, David
Dear David, yes, there is pull toward those “emergent potentials” and yet it is far from guaranteed that they will be fully, widely, successfully expressed; or even how fully humanity and culture will continue to progress and stabilize beyond our current crisis. Much is at stake, and yet it asks something great of us — not mere fear but gratitude for all that we have, and inspiration and courage and creativity. I thank you for your words of support and appreciation. Warmly, Terry
Terry, the audio recording for this on the Download Dialogues page is your dialogue with Ole Vadum Dahl.
Looking forward to listening once you’ve corrected this.
Blessings on you and your work. Ive been greatly benefitted and enriched.
With deep appreciation,
Lynette
Lynette, this has been corrected. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. And thank you also for your words of appreciation. Enjoy! http://www.beyondawakeningseries.com/archive/
i feel like Tom would justify an internment camp if a collective was born of it, and if one or two people had a transcendent experience from it. The opportunity to engage in a spiritual practice is a blessed privilege, and I don’t see the need to create any more challenges or suffering in the name of it. The challenges and suffering are already there.
Hi Mindi, thanks for reaching out. I appreciate your forthrightness and definitely resonate with the values you’re championing here. In case you’re interested, Tom and I decided to take the conversation further, to reflect on the first conversation some more. So we scheduled a followup conversation for October 15th at 10am. You can find out more about that here A warm thank you, Terry
One question I would like discussed is: how is it that a teacher so vitally illumined by a deep awakening to the non-dual, end up teaching fear and mistrust of our selves, of him, of god, of our capacity for love – instead of cementing a deep trust in life and love for spirit between all of us and himself.
Hi Blake, hopefully you’ve been able to listen to the dialogue by now. If not, you can find it here: http://www.beyondawakeningseries.com/archive/ I do believe we we touched on some of your questions, but perhaps not as fully as I’d hoped. In case you’re interested, Tom and I decided to take the conversation further, to reflect on this dialogue. So we scheduled a followup conversation for October 15th. You can find out more about that here
A warm thank you, Terry
Really appreciate this discussion is taking place, myself being a long-term former student of Andrew Cohen. I’m sure what Tom has to say will be quite fascinating. Unfortunately I’ll be attending another event at the time and hope a recording might be available.
Hi Steve, thank you for reaching out. The recording is available for you to access here: http://www.beyondawakeningseries.com/archive/
This will be a really interesting dialogue. Actually they all are great Terri and I’m very grateful for the forum you provide in these formative early days of a higher “we” space finding its way. Even though we are scattere around the globe and not so easy to meet up in a cafe or sit on a beach together for deep, searching and intelligent conversation
Hi Jennifer, thank you so much for your good words! and for being a part of this global, virtual conversation. Warmly, Terry
I am glad that you are having this conversation, and that Andrew is seeking assistance to heal some blind spots.
I have always sensed his sincerity … AND … his unfinished business.
Blessings,
DK
Thanks for sharing your thoughts here David. In case you’re interested, Tom and I decided to take the conversation further, to reflect on this dialogue. So we scheduled a follow up conversation for October 15th. You can find out more about that here