Ever since Eastern spirituality was introduced into the West, numerous spiritual teachers and gurus have fallen from grace – plagued by scandals, and failing to live up to the teachings they themselves advocate. As a result a crisis of trust has engulfed the spiritual world.

In this presentation spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen will explore the collapse of his own community in 2013, which left his students lost, bitter, angry, and confused.

After his very public fall from grace Cohen vanished from view and underwent a dark night of the soul. After 10 years of intense soul-searching, he will now share his insights into the reasons for the failure of his organization EnlightenNext, including his own responsibility for its downfall.

He will speak with transparency and vulnerability about the lessons he learned about the need to deal thoroughly with one’s shadow; the way he enacted his role as a guru; and the means he used to implement the teachings of Evolutionary Enlightenment.

He will also share how some of the issues he had to work through are profoundly relevant to the spiritual community as a whole, and explore how they could contribute to the evolution of the buddha, the dharma and the sangha into a more integral expression – which is an indispensable part of a planetary awakening 2.0.