02 May beyond spiritual materialism
Understand why spiritual materialism is the most common trap for the practitioner of a spiritual path and how to see spirituality as a process of self-improvement (as the impulse to develop and refine the ego) is a mistake, since by nature, the ego it is essentially empty. “The problem is that the ego can convert anything to its own use”, says Chögyam Trungpa, “including spirituality”. His incisive and compassionate teachings serve to wake us up from this prank we all play on ourselves and to offer us a far brighter reality: true joyous release, which inevitably involves letting go of the self rather than working to perfect it. This is a message that has resonated with students for nearly thirty years and is more current than ever today.