Andrew Cohen

We have been very conditioned by the cultures that we come from and are usually very identified with the particular gender that we happen to be a member of.

I'm suspicious of any man or woman who approaches their own liberation with any kind of gender bias.

I'm not convinced that what are traditionally considered to be male energies or qualities or female energies or qualities really have as much to do with gender as many people think they do.

We have to be willing to give up all the injustices of the past that did exist - and that do exist right now. When we become interested in liberation, we then become interested in that which transcends time.

We really have to be willing to find out who we are instead of rebelling for the equal rights that we've been denied, that we do deserve.

Hopefully, America will really get a sense of how justice can be served in this country. And hopefully, they'll forget the Simpson trial.

Freedom has no history.

Men are recognizing that they have been forced to conform to a very narrow and rather two-dimensional picture of maleness and manhood that they have never had the freedom to question.

When a human being becomes so still that they begin to lose awareness of their gender, and they are simply looking into that abyss where there is no notion of self whatsoever, the world disappears. And that's really the only place to go. It's the only place to remain.

Almost all the ideas we have about being a man or being a woman are so burdened with pain, anxiety, fear and self-doubt. For many of us, the confusion around this question is excruciating.

The excitement that you were feeling about a special, unique path for yourself as a woman is all part of your identification with and attachment to being female. And that's ultimately all ego.

One of the most extraordinary things about being a spiritual teacher is the rare privilege of being able to look deeply into the very souls of many human beings at the same time.