Chogyam Trungpa and the Hard Road
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism in the 21st Century
Sep 27, 2008
A book regarded as a landmark in Tibetan Buddhist writing, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (Boston and London: Shambhala, 1987) arose out of a series of lectures by Chogyam Trungpa in 1970 and 1971. In this book, Shambhala founder Chogyam identifies the deception of "spiritual materialism" and sets out a multi-tiered path to overcoming it and moving closer to truth.
Spiritual materialism is the use of spiritual techniques to build ego, or a sense of solid self, while a person believes in error that he or she is developing spiritually.
In explaining the concept, Chogyam adopts the meataphor of the Three Lords of Materialism. The Lord of Form is a preoccupation with physical comfort and security; the Lord of Speech, "the use of concepts as filters to screen...from direct perceptions of what is".
But the Lord of Mind involves the use of spiritual or psychological disciplines (such as meditation, drugs, yoga or prayer) to maintain self-consciousness. According to Chogyam, a victory for the Lord of Mind makes "genuine spiritual development highly unlikely".
Dangers of the "Spiritual Supermarket"
As the Buddhist path is to "burn away" distractions and confusions (often generated by ego) that hide the awakened mind, spiritual practices that reinforce the self can be regarded as destructive. Kobutsu Malone in his article Narcissism and Spiritual Materialism is critical of, for example, New Age practices (such as pyramidology and crystal healing) and books with a theme of "personal entitlement, getting something, reaching or attaining something missing".
On the face of it, Chogyam's method of intensive, fearless meditation, working with a teacher playing the role of mirror, seems a hard road. He comments that many people should not start on the spiritual path at all, and describes it as "an operation without the use of anaesthetics". The path to enlightenment involves meditation, study, cutting through layers of self-deception and developing a "sense of humour" (an ironic view of struggle, where polarities such as good and bad are seen as ridiculous because they are regarded from a panoramic perspective). Only then, Chogyam writes, can one reach compassion and prajna (intelligence).
Moreover, the spiritual path does not involve "heroic" behaviours such as austerity or reforming one's lifestyle. And true compassion, rather than ego-based love which involves "feeding" others or "being fed", does not even necessarily mean being "religious, calm and good". "There is no need to be loving and kind to one's neighbors, no need to speak pleasantly to people and put on a pretty smile. This game does not apply".
Chogyam's scientific, uncompromising approach to spirituality combined with some aspects of his personal life (a tireless institution-builder, teacher and artist, his early death was linked to excessive use of alcohol) made him a controversial figure even in his own lifetime. Yet the Shambhala movement that he founded continues to thrive, and his Naropa Institute (where Allen Ginsberg once taught) is now a well-established liberal arts university. The Suite 101 article Trungpa Rinpoche and Social Activism considers some of the social implications of the master's rigorous teachings.
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