Spiritual materialism
It’s easy to think that we’re just one more guru, teaching, technique, insight, retreat, conference, or article away from the enlightenement of realizing our intrinsically peaceful and joyful nature. I remember being younger and salivating at the idea of hearing a new teacher come into town, or reading a new book that just came out.
As Chogyam Trungpa suggests, it’s all spiritual materialism - thinking enlightenment requires anything more than being present. Being present is the most challenging thing we can take on. It is so challenging, it’s easy to think it takes more than being present to do it! And so, it’s easy to think that we’re just one more guru ….
May 16th, 2005 08:19
Trungpa’s book “On Spiritual Materialism” really freaked me out. It had me examine the years of searching, learning, and practicing and I saw how much was ego driven. I nearly lost it and if it wasn’t a short conversation with my teacher, Gelek Rimpoche, I may have abandoned the whole thing and in effect myself and others.
Gelek Rimpoche (who was a roommate with Trungpa in India) explained that through compassion for myself, I can recognize my faults and just try to do better. That is another theme that runs through Trungpa’s book. This also shows the value in having a qualified living teacher, whose kindness and wisdom can guide us through the inevitable difficulties that arise, whether from something in a book or events in our lives.
May 16th, 2005 09:00
Wow, this post truly resonated with me. You are describing my own experiences when I was younger. I was definitely a retreat/seminar/book/guru junkie — always going from one fix to the next, thinking each time that this was ‘the one’ which would thrust me into an enlightened state.
I am going to have to check out the book.
May 16th, 2005 09:59
If your interested, I have a great quote about spiritual materialism by Trungpa Rinpoche’s dharma heir: http://auspiciouscoincidence.org/ac/archives/2004/09/defining_spirit.html
May 16th, 2005 10:24
The quote is great. Thanks! Here’s a clip from it - definitely worth the whole read.
Spiritual materialism is based on trying to possess the highest spiritual state, trying to have the best meditative experience. We adopt a spiritual disguise in order to mask our own fear and clinging; we convert spiritual teachings into personal territory. / …sel Tendzin*
May 16th, 2005 10:46
As I delve deeper into my OD studies, I see that much of OD is about asking questions and listening to the answers - essentially, being truly present. Such a simple idea, yet so difficult to manifest.
May 16th, 2005 12:15
I’m glad you liked it. It’s kind of long, which is why I didn’t just paste the whole thing to a comment.
May 18th, 2005 19:10
In response to Steve’s comment…
How do you “qualify” a teacher?
OK, probably a trick question, but I’m still interested to see how you would respond, or anyone else who cares to comment.
May 18th, 2005 21:31
Sarah, I’ll leave a more official answer to Steve on the question of qualified teachers. Unofficially, in Zen at least, the teachers describes themelves as “fingers pointing to the moon.” The idea that anything that points to enlightenment is our teacher. It could be a person, an event, or object. In Zen, reality is our teacher and those we call “teacher” simply help us connect with that.
July 23rd, 2005 12:50
Living in an age of spiritual materialism is challenging. I’ll speak of my experience of Tibetan Buddhism and how there are always new “trips” that look colorful and exciting. Sooner or later unless we do the practices that our teacher does over and over, we will have wasted our precious life,leaving ourselves with fleeting moments of satisfaction from
myriad retreats, books, empowerments, and if we had the fortune meetings with great masters.