Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

In this modern spiritual classic, the Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa highlights the commonest pitfall to which every aspirant on the spiritual path falls prey: what he calls spiritual materialism. The universal tendency, he shows, is to see spirituality as a process of self-improvement—the impulse to develop and refine the ego when the ego is, by nature, essentially empty. "The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use," he said, "even spirituality." His incisive, compassionate teachings serve to wake us up from this trick we all play on ourselves, and to offer us a far brighter reality: the true and joyous liberation that inevitably involves letting go of the self rather than working to improve it. It is a show more message that has resonated with students for nearly thirty years, and remains fresh as ever today. show less

A very readable but somewhat repeatable book about (Buddhist) spirituality. Trungpa begins with showing some traps of many spiritual seekers, people who use the techniques to make their ego's stronger and find a definite story about reality. The fact that Trungpa was a well known teacher for the beat and hippy generation must have to do something to do with this.

After showing those pitfalls he does a great job in showing the workings of the mind with colourful allegoric images - like the narrative of a monkey in a house who sees the world thru the windows, but goes crazy because he can not escape. And explains that the true pad is to give up seeking and labeling of the world to see things 'as they are'.

For me the final 'goal' was not show more convincing. He gives an example that you can see e.g. the garbage as it really is. - To me this is not possible since the fact a person sees it as garbage is already an interpretation. For a rat it could well be a 'house'. show less

This is the second book on Buddhism I ever read, and when I started reading it, I was an evangelical Christian. (Now I am something that defies a label!)

Trungpa tries to take us to another place when it comes to spirituality. Unlike most Christian books I was reading at the time, which were mostly on how to LOOK spiritual, Trungpa was actually talking about being spiritual by abandoning the notion of spirituality.

Needless to say I did not get it back when I was a confused college student, or even later when I was trying to make my way in the world. I am not sure I get it today, but i know it is worth reading and rereading.

There were parts of this classic text that were really invaluable—the portions on being open to oneself, being a spiritual “collector,” the monkey, and a smooth bird’s eye view of the paramitas come to mind. The trouble for me was that 97% of its 240-some pages dwell in abstraction without stories to illustrate or make familiar the concepts presented, something that a lot of Buddhism books have excelled at since the publication of this one.

Not bad. A little dense

Worth it for just about anyone into spirituality. Highlights the almost inevitable pitfalls that one encounters.

Read this book and get honest. Absolute necessity.