Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (New ed)

On numerous lists of the 'Most Influential Spiritual Books of the Twentieth Century,' "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" presents the universal truths of the Buddhist path so clearly and succinctly that it has become a favourite even for people of other faiths.

In this book, the Tibetan meditation master Chogyam Trungpa highlights the most common 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 as fresh as ever today.