☸Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chögyam Trungpa (Foreword and Introduction)☸

☸Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chögyam Trungpa (Foreword and Introduction)☸

This is an audiobook narration of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s call for attention to the commonest pitfall to which every aspirant on the spiritual path falls prey: what he calls spiritual materialism. “The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use,” he says, “even spirituality.” The universal tendency 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. Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism is recorded for our Sibling Sutra group which meets every Thursday on Zoom at 5:00pm (PST) / 8:00pm (EST) which is open for any dharma friends to join! May all mother sentient beings benefit!

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s incisive, compassionate teachings serve to wake us up from these false comforts. Featuring a new foreward by his son and lineage holder, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism has resonated with students for nearly thirty years—and remains as fresh as ever today.

“We do not have to be ashamed of what we are. As sentient beings we have wonderful backgrounds. These backgrounds may not be particularly enlightened or peaceful or intelligent. Nevertheless, we have soil good enough to cultivate; we can plant anything in it.”
― Chögyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

“Are the great spiritual teachings really advocating that we fight evil because we are on the side of light, the side of peace? Are they telling us to fight against that other ‘undesirable’ side, the bad and the black. That is a big question. If there is wisdom in the sacred teachings, there should not be any war. As long as a person is involved with warfare, trying to defend or attack, then his action is not sacred; it is mundane, dualistic, a battlefield situation.”
― Chögyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

(Apologies for any errors in pronunciation or noises in the background!)
Music:
(Takashi Kokubo – Sound Scapes (Oto No Aru Fuukei), 2021)

Thumbnail rainbow template designed by H.E. Garchen Rinpoche! 🙏

Those who come upon this, may all benefit! May precious bodhicitta arise in the mindstreams of all our mothers, whoever they are.

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