Name: Cutting through spiritual materialism
ISBN: 9780877730507

Cutting through spiritual materialism

The now classicCutting Through Spiritual Materialismis the record of two series of lectures given by Trungpa Rinpoche in 1970-71. "First discussed are the various ways in which people involve themselves in spiritual materialism, the many forms of self-deception into which aspirants may fall. After this tour of the sidetracks along the way, the broad outlines of the true spiritual path are discussed. The approach presented is a classical Buddhist one-not in a formal sense, but in the sense of presenting the heart of the Buddhist approach to spirituality. Although the Buddhist way is not theistic, it does not contradict the theistic disciplines. Rather the differences between the ways are a matter of emphasis and method. The basic problems of spiritual materialism are common to all spiritual disciplines."

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mtalantikiteJun 2023

> Surely at some point they realize they're just numbing their minds to the problem without actually solving it.

Yeah, it's a pretty common trap, the ego has a way of coming in and making you think you're doing some great thing or have accomplished a lot. You can have scammed all these people out of billions of dollars and trick yourself into thinking "well everything is emptiness anyways, it's all good". The best explanation of it I've found of it so far is Chogyam Trungpa's "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" [1].

[1] https://www.shambhala.com/cutting-through-spiritual-material...

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mtalantikiteMay 2023

For Buddhism I might recommend Thich Nhat Hanh's "The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching" [1]. He's very clear and is careful to make sure he points out when a particular teaching he's describing might not be emphasized in other schools of Buddhism, but are still there as a foundation across all of them.

There are tons of sutras available at Access to Insight [2], which all schools of Buddhism use, but one (the Theravada) uses almost exclusively.

Another book that I found really illuminating was Chogyam Trungpa's "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" [3]. It helps point out how the teachings can be put into practice.

[1] https://plumvillage.org/books/the-heart-of-the-buddhas-teach...

[2] https://www.accesstoinsight.org/

[3] https://www.shambhala.com/cutting-through-spiritual-material...

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mtalantikiteFeb 2023

The best book I've read on this topic is Chögyam Trungpa's "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" [1]. He's very clear in pointing out how ego tries to get involved in everything.

It sounds like you may have had an experience, to some extent, of dwelling in the union of wisdom and emptiness or what some call dharmadhatu [2]. It's not a teaching I encountered until I started practicing Vajrayana, as Theravada teachers don't often emphasize the teachings on sunyata. It's something you'll encounter in Mahamudra and Dzogchen teachings.

[1] https://www.shambhala.com/cutting-through-spiritual-material...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharmadhatu

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bowsamicMay 2022

Have you not heard of the spiritual ego? Most practitioners eventually grow a big ego around their practise. Chogyam Trungpas book “Cutting through spiritual materialism” is all about this

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nazgulnarsilMar 2022

Cutting through spiritual materialism

Opening the Heart of Compassion

Both very high in the calling me out on my bullshit metric

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onecommentmanOct 2020

A worthwhile read for anyone who had seen “Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism” in a used bookstore or heard of the Naropa Institute. Anyone closer to these folks than that probably have heard the stories already. And, if true, what stories they are. There but for the grace...for a lot of us in the 70s. Skip the guru phase, younger generation...

In the same vein, the book Karma Cola is still in print after at least 25 years, perhaps over 40 by now.

Also, Shambhala Publications, that published a lot of great Asian poetry in translation and was/is based in Boulder, is not affiliated with this nonsense according to their Wikipedia page.

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