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andrew cohen
February 2008 
Authenticity
Durwin
Authenticity
What I want to write about this morning is the experience of authenticity I had a few days ago, as well as a general orientation I carry increasingly that being authentic is my most important value.
Andrew Cohen has written and taught quite a bit about the Authentic Self. The authentic self is related to a particular state experience of a self at a particular stage, and his use of the term arises out of a specific paradigm or injunction - enlightened communication - that is used in his community. Therefore, I don't want to assume that my use of the term means the same thing as does his use of the term.
That said, I certainly have had some experiences of states of authenticity that have been deeply meaningful to me, in particular because of the, well, self-authenticating nature of those experiences. A few days ago I had one of these experiences.
Can't rely on a state for our identity, however, because states come and go...so here is where there is a need for transcendence to a self beyond states - i.e. Witness consciousness or nondual identity.
Last night I dreamt about being a member of Cohen's community. There was some subtle luminosity present in the dream, because I feel some resistance to that luminosity right now in the waking state.
The dream was also full of fear of cults. Wacky things were going on in the dream - my life was in danger at a couple of points from Cohen's folks who were "hunting me down".
I grew up in an intensive communal environment, which could explain the source of such fears.
Time to go move my body...
Access: Public
I'm also very interested in the definition of authenticity/Cohen's “Authentic Self”. That goes along with my interest in sincerity, both which I see as “truth claims” of the UL (interior individual) quadrant and in many ways the LL (interior cultural), as opposed to objective “truth claims” of the UR, and LR.
I like Andrew's understanding of the Authentic Self, but having lived in an Andrew Cohen based community, I sometimes found that enlightened communication often lacked a feminine sensitivity. The Authentic Self comes out as very agentic, Eros driven, which is totally fine and amazing. But without a proper balance or an integral praxis, I witnessed it leading to a lot of peak highs and then crash and burns. The feminine for me is sort of like the resting place for the Authentic Self, not to make them dualistic more complimenary. It is like the Being space, the womb, the in breath. Without it, Eros runs rampant without direction and often without the guiding embrace of Agapaic compassion descending down.
Anyways, just some thoughts. Interesting that you lived in a spiritual community as a kid. I also was born in an intentional community in Olds Alberta, and I was in and out of different communal environments throughout my younger years. Leaves quite an imprint on me… I too still wonder what healthy, flourishing community would look like in today's age. I definitely yearn for community, but I can also resonate with your reservations.
Hi Vanessa: I appreciate your thoughtful comments here, and your insights regarding your experience in a Cohen community. When I read the latest WIE issue on women, I felt that Cohen's expression was hyper-masculine, to use that buzzword, but that Ken's was much more nuanced and balanced. I believe Ken is doing a better job of finding a middle path, and his strong committment to shadow work is very important to me.
I definitely agree with you about the importance of shadow work!! It is interesting because I was listening to a dialogue with Willow, Diane and Sofia on integral naked the other day on the “Feminine Shadow”. What I got from their discussion is that the shadow work really is a “feminine” practice because it is a commitment to work with energies, relative dynamics of intersubjective exchange ect. So perhaps this masculine favoring of the Absolute and all the problems we have seen with that in spiritual teacher who don't deal with the shadow, ultimately speaks to an unintegrated feminine sensibility.
An interesting investigation anyways.