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    Spiritual Development - Ego's Tricks

    Candlelight.kk
    Candlelight.kk
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    Location : London

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    Post by Candlelight.kk Fri 19 May 2017 - 16:40

    02 Jan 2015, 13:57
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    "One of the great dangers of transformational work is that the ego attempts to sidestep deep psychological work by leaping into the transcendent too soon. This is because the ego always fancies itself much more ‘advanced’ than it actually is."
    -- Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson


    The Tibetan teacher, Chogyam Trungpa, warned of the trap of spiritual materialism. He says we must be ever diligent to spot the ego's use of the spiritual journey to further its own ends.

    We may think it's spiritual to yearn for divine connection. And yet, if the longing is to fill an emptiness inside, just how does this differ from the one who yearns for money or possessions to fill the inner void? Do we look to our spiritual practices as proof of our evolved consciousness or as protection against fears?

    Any time we use spiritual disciplines to maintain our identity and security, we are not yet on the path of genuine spiritual development.



    "Enlightenment is ego's ultimate disappointment."
    -- Chögyam Trungpa
    mac
    mac

    Posts : 932
    Location : east midlands of England

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    Post by mac Fri 19 May 2017 - 16:42

    02 Jan 2015, 17:45

    Those ideas resonated with me more than I had expected - "spiritual materialism" is a term I've not heard before.
    Candlelight.kk
    Candlelight.kk
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    Posts : 3293
    Location : London

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    Post by Candlelight.kk Fri 19 May 2017 - 16:45

    02 Jan 2015, 20:47

    mac wrote:Those ideas resonated with me more than I had expected - "spiritual materialism" is a term I've not heard before.

    You might be interested in looking up this book, mac :

    Cutting through spiritual materialism
    by Chögyam Trungpa

    In this modern spiritual classic, the Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa highlights the commonest pitfall to which every aspirant on the spiritual path falls prey: what he calls spiritual materialism. The universal tendency, he shows, is to see spirituality as a process of self-improvement—the impulse to develop and refine the ego when the ego is, by nature, essentially empty. "The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use," he said, "even spirituality." His incisive, compassionate teachings serve to wake us up from this trick we all play on ourselves, and to offer us a far brighter reality: the true and joyous liberation that inevitably involves letting go of the self rather than working to improve it. It is a message that has resonated with students for nearly thirty years, and remains fresh as ever today.
    http://www.shambhala.com/cutting-through-spiritual-materialism.html
    mac
    mac

    Posts : 932
    Location : east midlands of England

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    Post by mac Fri 19 May 2017 - 16:46

    03 Jan 2015, 02:49

    Thanks for that link, KK.

    In my earlier years the teachings might have been of value but now I'm verging on ancient I've accepted that spiritually I'm going nowhere with the 'stuff' I've studied for the last three decades and that what else do I need anyway? I'm not looking for anything else, I've stopped.

    That would have bugged me in my earlier years but now I'm comfortable in accepting the situation - maybe a little spiritual progress of a sort?

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