Swami Shankaraananda & Andrew Cohen

LOVE, WISDOM & THE PATH TO SPIRITUAL AWAKENING:
A dialogue with Swami Shankarananda and Andrew Cohen

My friend for many years, Swamiji Shankarananda is returning to his original home: New York City, after 10 years or so away.

He is a highly intelligent and engaging adept in the tradition of Maha- or "Siddha" Yoga and was trained / initiated by guru Swami Muktananda in the 1970's. Swamiji Shankaraananda wrote a great commentary on the Kashmir Shaivite scripture: the "Shiva Sutras" as well as "Happy for No Reason" and "Consciousness is Everything" Swamiji has adapted the stream of yoga teachings to the western world of psychology and self - inquiry.

His specialty as an academic was the study of Shakespeare and he attained the level of U.S. Master in the world of competitive Chess. Here is an interview with Swamiji on his boyhood friendship with Bobby Fischer and the "Inner Game of Chess" http://tinyurl.com/64jkt88 -

Should be a very worthwhile afternoon!

"Andrew Cohen and Swami Shankarananda are two highly respected spiritual teachers with a distinctive capacity to illuminate perennial spiritual questions and reinterpret them for the contemporary world. Both are New York-born Jews who found their own spiritual awakening through encounters with great Indian yogis, and have since become masters in their own right. While they are both veterans of the East-meets-West movements of the 1970s and 1980s, Cohen and Shankarananda have taken two distinct approaches to the spiritual path.

Cohen’s work redefines enlightenment in the context of cosmic evolution; Shankarananda updates the ancient Hindu school of Kashmir Shaivism for the contemporary spiritual aspirant.

On Saturday, June 11th, 2011, Cohen and Shankarananda will explore the contours of their different yet complementary approaches to higher awakening, including their thoughts about the nature of consciousness and the relationship between love and wisdom on the spiritual path.

Cohen is best known for his original teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment, which redefines spiritual awakening to align with our ever-expanding appreciation for the processes of evolution. After a transformative meeting with the renowned Advaita Vedanta master H.W.L. Poonja in 1986, Cohen began teaching internationally, reshaping the larger cultural conversation about the purpose and significance of enlightenment in our time. He founded the award-winning magazine EnlightenNext (formerly What Is Enlightenment?) almost twenty years ago as a forum for serious spiritual and philosophical inquiry...

and is now known for his unique ability to foster culture-changing dialogues among leading thinkers from a wide array of traditions and disciplines.

Swami Shankarananda’s foremost contribution to contemporary spirituality is the Shiva Process...

a form of self-inquiry that integrates Kashmir Shaivism, which he calls “a philosophy of consciousness,” with Western psychology.

After leaving a career as an English professor at Indiana University in 1970 to pursue the spiritual path, Shankarananda met the great Indian sage Baba Muktananda and soon became one of his Western students. He mentored the first American Siddha Yoga ashram in 1974 and since then has run ashrams in Ann Arbor, New York, and Los Angeles, eventually founding the Shiva Meditation Center in Melbourne, where he has become a popular meditation teachers in Australia. Shankarananda has also published several books, including" Happy for No Good Reason" and "Consciousness Is Everything."

Cohen and Shankarananda have taught together several times over the past five years in both America and Australia.

This promises to be a very engaged and illuminating dialogue between two friends and spiritual masters."