I was looking through Dharma Dan's list of recommended books
(http://www.interactivebuddha.com/booklist.html)
and found something which I think is worth sharing on this
forum.
Source: http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/tib/cutting.htm
-- Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trungpa
Rinpoche
Excerpt from URL:
Spiritual Materialism
We have come here to learn about spirituality. I trust the
genuine quality of this search but we must question its nature.
The
problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use, even
spirituality. Ego is constantly attempting to acquire and apply
the
teachings of spirituality for its own benefit. The teachings
are
treated as an external thing, external to "me," a philosophy
which
we try to imitate. We do not actually want to identify with
or
become the teachings. So if our teacher speaks of renunciation
of
ego, we attempt to mimic renunciation of ego. We go through
the
motions, make the appropriate gestures, but we really do not want
to
sacrifice any part of our way of life. We become skillful
actors,
and while playing deaf and dumb to the real meaning of the
teachings, we find some comfort in pretending to follow the
path.
Whenever we begin to feel any discrepancy or conflict
between our actions and the teachings, we immediately interpret
the
situation in such a way that the conflict is smoothed over.
The
interpreter is ego in the role of spiritual advisor. The
situation
is like that of a country where church and state are separate.
If
the policy of the state is foreign to the teachings of the
church,
then the automatic reaction of the king is to go to the head of
the
church, his spiritual advisor, and ask his blessing. The head
of
the church then works out some justification and gives the
policy
his blessing under the pretense that the king is the protector
of
the faith. In an individual's mind, it works out very neatly
that
way, ego being both king and head of the church.
This rationalization of the spiritual path and one's actions
must be cut through if true spirituality is to be realized.
However, such rationalizing is not easy to deal with because
everything is seen through the filter of ego's philosophy and
logic,
making all appear neat, precise and very logical. We attempt
to
find a self-justifying answer for every question. In order to
reassure ourselves, we work to fit into our intellectual
scheme
every aspect of our lives which might be confusing. And our
effort
is so serious and solemn, so straight-forward and sincere, that
it
is very difficult to be suspicious of it. We always trust the
"integrity" of our spiritual advisor.
It does not matter what we use to achieve
self-justification: the wisdom of sacred books, diagrams or
charts,
mathematical calculations, esoteric formulae, fundamentalists
religion, depth psychology, or any other mechanism. Whenever
we
begin to evaluate, deciding that we should or should not do this
or
that, then we have already associated our practice or our
knowledge
with categories, one pitted against the other, and that is
spiritual
materialism, the false spirituality of our spiritual advisor.
Whenever we a have a dualistic notion such as, "I am doing
this
because I want to achieve a particular state of consciousness,
a
particular state of being," the automatically we separate
ourselves
from the reality of what we are.
If we ask ourselves, "What is wrong with evaluating, with
taking sides?", the answer is that, when we formulate a
secondary
judgment, "I should be doing this and should avoid doing that,"
then
we have achieved a level of complication which takes us a long
way
from the basic simplicity of what we are. The simplicity of
meditation means just experiencing the ape instinct of ego.
If
anything more than this is laid onto our psychology, then it
becomes
a very heavy, thick mask, a suit of armor.
It is important to see that the main point of any spiritual
practice is to step out of the bureaucracy of ego. This means
stepping out of ego's constant desire for a higher, more
spiritual,
more transcendental version of knowledge, religion, virtue,
judgment, comfort or whatever it is that a particular ego is
seeking. One must step out of spiritual materialism. If we do
not
step out of spiritual materialism, if we in fact practice it,
then
we may eventually find ourselves possessed of a huge collection
of
spiritual paths. We may feel these spiritual collections to be
very
precious. We have studied so much. We may have studied
Western
philosophy or Oriental philosophy, practiced yoga or perhaps
studied
under dozens of great masters. We have achieved and we have
learned. We believe that we have accumulated a hoard of
knowledge.
And yet, having gone through all this, there is still something
to
give up. It is extremely mysterious! How could this happen?
Impossible! But unfortunately it is so. Our vast collections
of
knowledge and experience are just part of ego's display, part of
the
grandiose quality of ego. We display them to the world and, in
so
doing, reassure ourselves that we exist, safe and secure, as
"spiritual" people.
But we have simply created a shop, an antique shop. We
could be specializing in oriental antiques or medieval
Christian
antiques or antiques from some other civilization or time, but
we
are, nonetheless, running a shop. Before we filled our shop with
so
many things the room was beautiful: whitewashed walls and a
very
simple floor with a bright lamp burning in the ceiling. There
was
one object of art in the middle of the room and it was
beautiful.
Everyone who came appreciated its beauty, including
ourselves.
But we were not satisfied and we thought, "Since this one
object makes my room so beautiful, if I get more antiques, my
room
will be even more beautiful." So we began to collect, and the
end
result was chaos.
We searched the world over for beautiful objects - India,
Japan, many different countries. And each time we found an
antique,
because we were dealing with only one object at a time, we saw it
as
beautiful and thought it would be beautiful in our shop. But
when
we brought the object home and put it there, it became just
another
addition to our junky collection. The beauty of the object did
not
radiate out any more, because it was surrounded by so many
other
beautiful things. It did not mean anything anymore. Instead of
a
room full of beautiful antiques we created a junk shop!
Proper shopping does not entail collecting a lot of
information or beauty, but it involves fully appreciating
each
individual object. This is very important. If you really
appreciate an object of beauty, then you completely identify with
it
and forget yourself. It is like seeing a very interesting,
fascinating movie and forgetting that you are the audience. At
that
moment there is no world; your whole being is that scene of
that
movie. It is that kind of identification, complete involvement
with
one thing. Did we actually taste it and chew it and swallow
it
properly, that one object of beauty, that one spiritual
teaching?
Or did we merely regard it as a part of our vast and growing
collection?
