More revelations about the unenlightened guru behind EnlightenNext. For those of us who have been doubting Cohen's conduct as a teacher for years (not to mention his status as a guru), this is nothing new, but it sounds like a good book anyway - hopefully it will get attention outside of the EnlightenNext community and it's former members.
Book description from Amazon.
American Guru is a multifaceted account of life in the contemporary spiritual community known as EnlightenNext, and the controversial "teaching methods" of its New York-born founder, self-proclaimed "guru" Andrew Cohen. With contributions from several of Cohen's former students, William Yenner recalls the thirteen-year trajectory of his career as a leader and manager in Cohen's community--his early days as an idealistic "seeker," his years of service on EnlightenNext's Board of Directors, his ultimate disillusionment and departure,and his efforts to make sense of his experiences as a once-devoted follower of a "Teacher of Evolutionary Enlightenment." With wit and insight, Yenner and his colleagues have produced a riveting cautionary tale on the dangers of authoritarian spirituality, and an insider'scase study on the promises and pitfalls of postmodern discipleship. "William Yenner's courageous exposé, American Guru, is a powerful reminder that all of our tendencies toward idealization of dharma teachers must be carefully examined." -William Morgan, Psy.D., member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy,co-author of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy "William Yenner's true, uncensored-and finally ungagged-moving personal story, in combination with the powerful reflections, recollections and contributions of other former community members, makes American Guru an essential source document for the study and understanding of authoritarian spiritual sects." -Hal Blacker, former editor of EnlightenNext magazine "American Guru is not a mean-spirited book. It is, rather, a refreshingly honest one." -David Christopher Lane, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, Mt. San Antonio College www.americanguru.netHere is one of the two reviews (both are very positive):
A marketing whiz kid might try to sell you on Guru as the "Oops, I joined a cult, "tell all" book of 2009." More accurately Guru is an intensely personal, purposeful look into William Yenner's lifelong journey towards enlightenment, and the thirteen years that Cohen and Yenner were bonded by a guru/disciple relationship. Intense and painful at times, this is a story deserving to be told.
By Craig A. Jewell (Southern Vermont) - See all my reviews
Yenner's writing is powerfully purposeful. Guru simultaneously bears witness to difficult but necessary truths, while sensitively and evenhandedly acknowledging the complexity of the EnlightenNext Community. Yenner is five years out from his last contact with Cohen, and time, distance, effort, and strength have clearly increased his perspective on his event. Yet the emotional core of Yenner's experience remains raw and strikingly real. While observation of such honest and formative emotional events is at times difficult, the rawness of Yenner's emotions adds greatly to the reader connection to the text. Guru is unique in this balance. Yenner leads a life of action and great personal and impersonal work, and during the period of a five year gag order, he has personally reflected and spent great time in meditation on this experience. Yet owing to his silence during this period, elements of this story read like memoires written during periods of imprisonment.
To those who have shared the unique experiences of living within Cohen's sphere of influence, I imagine the mere act of reading Guru's will have incredible personal emotional resonance. It is itself a journey.
Yet, also contained within Guru is a message of affirmation to all those seeking enlightenment yet scorned by the inherent struggle within the guru/disciple relationship. Significant scholarly works on the topic of intentional communities outline the potential damage inherent to this power dynamic. Yet equally understood within many communities is the value of subjugating ego, of the pursuit of selflessness as a vehicle for growth. Yenner's reflections and the reflections of other students on personal experiences of this relationship offer a deeply personal approach to understanding this dynamic.
For those readers less familiar with the practice of subjugating self to an enlightened one, to a higher power, or to a higher principal, the relationship of guru/disciple can still resonate in terms of family dynamic. Yenner's story is a non-traditional love story of sorts. Yenner and the other students of Cohen are at times sons, daughters, partners, and scorned lovers. Within these relational archetypes are ways for any reader to connect deeply to Yenner's experiences.
Lastly, Guru is a compelling read. I consumed the text in one sitting. It starts a bit slow, but rewards the reader who continues by really finds its paces in the telling of Yenner's personal story. The remainder of the read is thought provoking consideration of the inherent risks to power imbalances in any relationship.
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If anyone is interested in a broader view surrounding "American Guru" Andrew Cohen, you might like to check a site co-written by several former close students of Andrew who have a very different perspective.
ReplyDeletewww.guru-talk.com
We will be responding to some of the distortions and half-truths William Yenner has written soon (we know him and what really happened very well!)
Pete Bampton
Hi William,
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting my comment.
Would you mind making the www.guru-talk.com into a link so that people can access the site more easily?
Thanks,
Pete
American Guru & The Tangled Web
ReplyDeleteThis book is one of half-truth and distortion. Half-truth because of the very relevant information that the author and contributors choose to leave out of their stories, and distortion because of their overriding motivation to discredit their former Guru, and hence collage a picture from various disconnected events that fits their aim.
It can be ironic how karmic patterns tend to repeat themselves. William Yenner´s anger and resentment towards those whom he regards as having wronged him can be extreme. This is borne out by the fact that he has pursued two personal vendettas in the public domain. The first, entitled “The Tangled Web” (www.kazooweb.net), sought to publicly discredit his own siblings, whom he felt had cheated him out of his father’s inheritance.
And now this book seeks to discredit his former Guru, Andrew Cohen. What is interesting is that the two are very much connected in a very tangled web indeed!
William wrote the former while he was a close student. Andrew felt that he was overreacting to the issue and was also operating out of greed in relationship to his inheritance. He began putting pressure on William to face into this, but was only met with resistance. Eventually, after a protracted “struggle”, William chose to give his inheritance of $80,000 to EnlightenNext as a gesture of “letting go”. Sometime later after having “fallen from grace”, William decided to leave his Guru and then asked for his donation back. EnlightenNext consulted with their lawyer as to their legal obligation to return it. They were told that it is almost completely unheard of for a non-profit to return a donation. Hence EnlightenNext was under NO obligation at all to return the funds. But EnlightenNext did decide to return the money on condition that William sign a 5 year contract prohibiting him from public discourse regarding Andrew Cohen and EnlightenNext. There has never been a “gag order” (as William calls it). That would imply that there was some kind of pressure on him that resulted in the necessity for an order to be issued by judge or jury, but that was never the case. Why did Andrew and EnlightenNext see fit to do this? Because they knew full well that he would take the money and seek a very public and nasty revenge, just as he had done with his siblings. Unfortunately five years wasn’t long enough for him to cool down, and so he has now finally taken his revenge…eight years later!
William went to great efforts to rally former disgruntled students to the cause of publicly discrediting his former Guru by soliciting them to write for his book. In the end only a few of them agreed. Although they were negatively disposed toward Andrew, and some strongly so, I know for a fact that many of those solicited refused because they did not trust his motivation. This is why a large portion of the book is made up of already published material. A former student forbade him to include his story and William ignored his request, they have fallen out. Many of the stories told here are grossly distorted and the people featured would tell you a very different version of events. Legitimate criticism of Andrew Cohen and EnlightenNext is fair enough, but this book contains very little of it. Rather it is a “sad story” of a wounded ego, and as any true Guru will tell us; “If you play with fire you will get burned”. Don’t waste your money or time reading especially if you genuinely care about higher matters.
I find it curious how many former students were encouraged to give all their money to EnlightenNext as a gesture of "letting go" - smells like manipulation, but then I am an outsider, so I am only judging by appearances.
ReplyDeleteHowever, gurus who live off money donated by students have a vested interest in getting them to donate -- am I suspicious? You bet.
As a side note - there are MANY former students with a need to vent their feelings about Cohen (see www.whatenlightenment.net), so I suspect that where there is smoke, there is fire - again, this is only an outsider's view.
Peace,
Bill
Well yes it can look like “manipulation” from the “outside” but from the “inside” it was seen as a “symbol” of restated commitment. Also it is important to know that many students offered money at various times and Andrew refused to take it. Why? Because it was not the appropriate thing to do given the circumstances.
ReplyDeleteWith those who were asked to give money there were very clear reasons that were implicit in the context of their relationship with Andrew. One can argue if this “skilful means”, but the motivation was never to fleece students to line his own or EnlightenNext´s pockets, it was to inspire humility and commitment in the student usually at a critical juncture in their evolution.
So was their “psychological pressure”? Yes, but that was, in largest part, placed on the individuals on themselves through their own actions and their own desire to re-engage the spiritual path with their chosen Teacher. Nothing was coerced against a students will. Just because they changed their mind later and now regret it doesn’t mean the way they what to frame it is true. The woman who gave $2 million to help purchase the Enlighten Next World Center offered it willingly and even signed a letter two years after she left that said she willingly gave the money! Then she changed her mind and decided she was “manipulated”…well what to do???
In our materialist post-modern world we are super sensitive about money and usually greatly attached to it. Entering the spiritual dimension for real has always meant leaving the “world” behind and giving everything ie. monks, nuns, sadhus etc
Now that doesn’t mean we should all give away our money to the Guru/spiritual school we have chosen to offer our life to (since no one would fill our bowls if we went on alms round in America!), but it does mean that greed and attachment to money is one of the biggest obstacles there is on the spiritual path and it is the duty of the Guru to take that on in the student.
Thanks for keeping the discussion open,
Pete
http://www.guru-talk.com
Life is about learning and expansion. There will always be teachers and learners and they have to find a way to co-exist. However, their relationship is a delicate matter, something that is DEFINITELY open for discussion. "American Guru" book opens a very honest debate about this relationship. It shows a teacher with clearly dubious motives (attested by so many of his ex-students, including his mother), a clearly dubious realisations and wisdom, a teacher that demands and assumes rights to absolute power over others. All this in the name of love and evolution of the species. Should learners tolerate abusive behaviour, even if it is supposedly for their own good? Should they surrender EVERYTHING (body/mind/soul/family/lovers/money...) to the teacher in order to get to the promised land that seems to evade them all the time? Should they go about their daily life with their eyes wide shut, having absolutely no right to question repeated lies, deceptions, injustices and corruption? This book is a warning to all those who are ready to jump into a relationship with a spiritual teacher without pausing and giving a thought to any of those very important questions. And for this it is of service to us all. Thank you Bill Yenner. Dragan
ReplyDeleteReaders will find a new commentary I have written about the predicament of Cohen's former students, and the phenomenon of some who continue to defend even his most dubious conduct, on Integral World:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.integralworld.net/yenner1.html
Peace,
William Yenner
EnlightenNext and its founder Andrew Cohen have put Foxhollow, their ashram, up for sale. The asking price is $6,950,000; it was bought for $2.8 million in 1996.
ReplyDeleteAlso, several former contributors to EnlightenNext magazine have made statements expressing their thoughts and concerns about the revelations of abuses contained in American Guru, A Story of Love, Betrayal and Healing by William Yenner and contributors. Full details and links to articles can be found on the American Guru site.
www.americanguru.net