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Rating: 
Summary: Embracing nonduality.
Review: "Most of us spend our entire lives alienated from our own depths and, as a result, often experience a puzzling sense of separation from the world in which we live" (p. 65), Andrew Cohen observes. As the title of his book suggests, it is our sacred responsibility to integrate both heaven and earth into our lives. Cohen's promises of enlightenment "here and now" through the practice of five simple tenets, namely "clarity of intention" (pp. 5-15), "the law of volitionality" (pp. 17-27), "face everything and avoid nothing" (pp. 29-34), "impersonality" {pp. 35-40), and "for the sake of the whole" (pp. 41-47) are intriguing. His discussion of meditation as a door to "mystery that cannot be imagined and a depth that cannot be measured" (p. 78) is equally compelling. And his insights into the nature of duality are illuminating. But despite its many strengths, for me, this guide to personal growth just did not live up to all the praise it is receiving.G. Merritt
Rating: 
Summary: spiritual wisdom for our time
Review: andrew cohen is one of Spirit's current crop of evolutionary prophets and teachers. he speaks to the urgent need of modern man and woman to awaken. his way is both easy and hard, simple and complex. he insists we find enlightenment in perfectly letting go and silently abiding between any and all pairs of opposites. he testifies that perfect peace is at hand and requires only the letting go of egocentric desires and befuddlement, and the acceptance of perfect peace and love which already exists within us as our true and deepest selves. your ego may well talk you into putting this book aside because the ideas here will threaten your ego's very existance. this is not just another "feel good" book, its a guide to finding enlightenment in the here and now, a way to finally SEE. a way to finally know what you've really wanted since the day you were born: knowing your true and infinite SELF. [ P.S. before taking this particular "guru" too seriously, read "The Mother of God" by Luna Tarlo, Cohen's mother, and "Enlightenment Blues" by Andre van der Braak, a former devotee.]
Rating:
Summary: spiritual wisdom for our time
Review: andrew cohen is one of Spirit's current crop of evolutionary prophets and teachers. he speaks clearly to the urgent need of modern man and woman to awaken. his way is both easy and hard, simple and complex. he insists we find enlightenment in perfectly letting go and silently abiding between any and all pairs of opposites. he testifies that perfect peace is at hand and requires only the letting go of egocentric desires and befuddlement, and the acceptance of perfect peace and love which already exists within us as our true and deepest selves. your ego may well talk you into putting this book aside because the ideas here will threaten your ego's very existance. this is not just another "feel good" book, its a guide to finding enlightenment in the here and now, a way to finally SEE. a way to finally know what you've really wanted since the day you were born: knowing your true and infinite SELF.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasant, that is all.
Review: I expected more from Cohen, but this was just a mildly pleasant read that gave me no great insight. Perhaps I judge it unfairly after being tired-out from spiritual books. They all say the same perennial thing. It is hard now for one to find a truly exciting take on spirituality, unless you are just beginning your journey.
I took the cue from my feelings on this book to stop reading and start practicing. But I recommend it to anyone needing more teaching.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasant, that is all.
Review: I expected more from Cohen, but this was just a mildly pleasant read that gave me no great insight. Perhaps I judge it unfairly after being tired-out from spiritual books. They all say the same perennial thing. It is hard now for one to find a truly exciting take on spirituality, unless you are just beginning your journey.
I took the cue from my feelings on this book to stop reading and start practicing. But I recommend it to anyone needing more teaching.
Rating:
Summary: Guide to Enlightenment
Review: I have read many spiritual books during the past twenty years, but none comes even close to Andrew Cohen's newest book, 'Embracing Heaven and Earth'. It is literally a textbook for Liberation. This book is not just words on paper. The words are alive. They vibrate and explode with Andrew Cohen's passionate and inspiring call for each of us to respond to the Evolutionary Impulse, the Mystery beyond name and form, which includes giving up our existential tension, abandoning all beliefs that we are separate from others; from life, and realizing the inherent perfection of Life. In this powerful book Andrew challenges each of us to face into the most profound possibility and potential of the human race and literally become a Messenger of the Divine. This is a must read for anyone who claims to be interested in the spiritual/religious life.
Rating:
Summary: The bedrock of Spiritual Growth
Review: I highly recommend this book and all of Cohen's books. His five basic tenants of enlightenment which he teaches in this book and in others are the bedrock of spiritual development and maturity. His teachings lay the ground work for the personal Ascension of every human being. Although he does not teach Ascension, he understands that the primary purpose of the human is to attain freedom. The road in which Ascension is achieved.(for further info on Ascension see my "about you"on Amazon.[com]). He is an illumined mind and I also suggest you attend one of his retreats.
Rating:
Summary: The last book you need to buy.
Review: It's the same everywhere: people raised by materialists, living as materialists, and perhaps passing to future generations, if only indirectly, the cultural creed of superfluous hungering for things of all sorts to ease a day's desire. You're guilty of it, and so am I. You've come here, to this page, looking for something. Very likely you're interested in spiritual matters, perhaps consider yourself a "seeker," and have heard of this new book by Andrew Cohen and decided to check it out, to see (if you're undecided) whether it's worth buying. I promise you that it is, but no doubt similar sentiments can be found alongside every other five-star review for each of the many spiritual books you already own. So let me try to convey to you why after reading this book you won't need another, and why the aimless perusal of the halls of Amazon late on computer-fan-humming weekend nights can finally give way to more fruitful pursuits. This book holds the highest honor of being both the simplest and most challenging book I've ever read. Simple in style and language, challenging in meaning and persistent imperative, this most flawless transmission of spiritually awakened genius should give any serious reader precisely all that he or she need ever know to engage the war against selfishness and ignorance wholeheartedly. And the real beauty of Andrew's message is in its absolutely universal applicability--and by "universal" I mean exactly that: one gets the sense, when studying this book, that it should properly accompany any sentient creature born into this universe at any time, on any planet, in any galaxy (duly translated, of course). I'm not just gushing up superlatives here. The title of the book means exactly what it says. Regarding the actual content of the book, everything significant that every truly mystical religious tradition has ever conveyed is here, in both practical and philosophical aspects. The first half is devoted to the foundation of Andrew's teaching, called the Five Tenets of Enlightenment, which are the essential points that any spiritual seeker must thoroughly grasp and employ if his or her goal is the attainment of perfect liberation. These five tenets Andrew has culled from over a decade of incessant work as a teacher, and a well-read student of mysticism should easily recognize the parallels in established religious traditions (such as Tenet 5--"For the Sake of the Whole"--being a highly pragmatic implementation of the Bodhisattva vow, which Andrew's tenet basically renders as: "Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to spare them all from my own ego"), but the beauty of these perennial teachings being shared so lucidly and dogmatically-free cannot be overstated. The second half of the book deals with such perennial topics as seeing through the illusions of desire, thought, feeling, and time, so clearly that anyone brave enough to listen can't help feeling their ego squirm a bit, and there's also an excellent chapter on meditation (and how to sink to the nondual Ground of Being absolutely effortlessly, Dzogchen-style), which, if successfully engaged in serious practice, should do far more than make the ego squirm. . . . But the really revolutionary and important point of Andrew's teaching isn't in his remarkably clear explanations of how humans continuously revolve in the samsaric wheel of foolishness (and how they can stop); it isn't in his insistence that the pursuit of freedom take precedence above all other concerns in all times and places (although that's certainly a big part of it); nor is it his unceasing demand that spiritual practice is meaningless if it is expressed in any context outside a life of absolute maturity, sanity, and integrity (and how many spiritual seekers--teachers, even--can claim strict adherence to that?). No, the really revolutionary ingredient in Andrew's recipe of ego-destruction is his definition of enlightenment itself. Too many people these days seem to consider this world to be nothing but an elaborate illusion, an empty dream called negatively "maya" or positively "lila." And deliberately or not, they proceed to use this as an excuse to justify every manner of selfish indulgence and, occasionally, atrocity. Andrew does not deny that the revelation of pure consciousness suddenly makes clear that nothing has ever really happened, that this world is ultimately a dualistic dream of space and time, this and that, you and me. But--and this is what changes everything--he does not stop at that. He insists that this "dream" called life is as real as it gets, and that using the discovery of the Source of creation to dismiss the validity and actuality of creation itself completely misses the whole point of creation--which is nothing less than for every soul to become a conscious instrument of the Absolute, unleashing "the fire of absolute love and ego-defying compassion into this world," thereby flowing in tune with the force of evolution itself and helping this suffering sphere in every way that one possibly can. What more could you hope for? It's all here, clear as a cloudless mountain sky, and no matter how many books you buy, you'll never find anything better.
Rating:
Summary: Spiritual wisdom and a penetrating scientific inquiry
Review: With Embracing Heaven & Earth, American spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen offers the reader a "psychology of liberation", blending transcendent spiritual wisdom with a penetrating scientific inquiry into human nature. Highly recommended reading for students of Eastern philosophy and spirituality, the major presentations comprising this informative, thought-provoking compendium include "The Five Fundamental Tenets of Enlightenment"; "Desire: The Perennial Obstacle"; "The Psychology of Liberation"; and the title piece, "Embracing Heaven & Earth".
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