Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

Front Cover
Shambhala, 1973 - California - 250 pages
24 Reviews
The now classicCutting Through Spiritual Materialismis the record of two series of lectures given by Trungpa Rinpoche in 1970-71. "First discussed are the various ways in which people involve themselves in spiritual materialism, the many forms of self-deception into which aspirants may fall. After this tour of the sidetracks along the way, the broad outlines of the true spiritual path are discussed. The approach presented is a classical Buddhist one-not in a formal sense, but in the sense of presenting the heart of the Buddhist approach to spirituality. Although the Buddhist way is not theistic, it does not contradict the theistic disciplines. Rather the differences between the ways are a matter of emphasis and method. The basic problems of spiritual materialism are common to all spiritual disciplines."

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Review: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

User Review  - Alyssa Mcfarland - Goodreads

This is the first book I've read by Chögyam Trungpa and it won't be my last. The man is a genius and this book is a marvelous gift of clear writing. It starts with the premise that ego converts ... Read full review

Review: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

User Review  - Tim Weakley - Goodreads

I followed about two thirds of this book, and the parts I understood were quite good. The other third were very esoteric. That's not a fault of the book. It's the reader. I would offer this book to anyone looking for a good grounding in a lot of the central ideas. Read full review

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About the author (1973)

Chogyam Trungpa was one of the most visibly active of the Tibetan Buddhist refugees to come to the West and to lay the foundation in Europe and North America for the study of the Tibetan traditions. Born the son of a farmer and considered the eleventh incarnation of Trungpa Tulku, he was given a traditional training in religious philosophy but in his teens had to be hidden from the invading Chinese. Fleeing in 1959 when the Communists invaded Tibet, he ultimately moved to Great Britain, where he studied comparative religion at Oxford University and established a Tibetan meditation center in Scotland. He moved to the United States in 1970 and established the Buddhist university, Naropa, in Colorado. Naropa became the center for seminars, many of which he cotaught with prominent American artists, scholars, and scientists. His philosophical goal was to present traditional Tibetan Buddhist teachings in a new manner that would help them take root in Western soil. In that way, he would both preserve the insights of his culture and bring Buddhist philosophy to the benefit of humanity at large.

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