Inquiry · “You Are Not Your Thoughts”
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
Catch the ego quietly converting spiritual practice, insight and experience into new possessions that fortify self-image — and let the experience go instead of collecting it.
Cut through spiritual materialism: Whenever practice “succeeds,” pause and ask — am I collecting this to fortify my self-image? Spot which lord is at work (comfort, belief, or spiritual state). Materialism feels like getting and keeping; real practice feels like opening and exposure. Having seen the collector, let the experience go — don’t even hoard the insight that you saw it. Reapply forever. “Ego is able to convert everything to its own use, even spirituality.”
What it is
This is Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s single most influential teaching, and the reason he is the indispensable internal critic of the entire mind-power lineage.
Spiritual materialism is the ego’s habit of co-opting spiritual practice — meditation, insight, devotion, “states,” even egolessness itself — and turning it into a new possession that strengthens the very self-image practice was meant to dissolve.
The practice here is not a sitting technique but a recurring honesty check: a deliberate look at why you are doing what you are doing, to catch the moment collecting begins. Trungpa’s whole point is that this trap is subtle and constant — “ego is able to convert everything to its own use, even spirituality” — so the antidote is ongoing self-honesty, not a one-time realization.
The Method
A faithful, doable distillation of Trungpa’s instruction:
- Notice the collector. When a practice goes well — a calm sit, an insight, a moving teaching — pause and ask: Is part of me filing this away as a credential? Trungpa’s warning: “Walking the spiritual path properly is a very subtle process; it is not something to jump into naively.” The ego “is able to convert everything to its own use, even spirituality.”
- Spot the three lords. Trungpa names three “lords of materialism”: physical (using comfort/objects to stay numb), speech (using ideologies and beliefs as armour), and mind (using meditative states and spiritual experience to maintain self-consciousness). Ask which one is operating right now.
- Look for the acquisitive flavour. Materialism feels like getting, keeping, improving the self-portrait. Genuine practice feels more like opening, exposure, loss of ground. Trungpa: “The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use, including spirituality.”
- Drop the report. Having seen the collecting, simply let the experience go rather than narrate or store it — do not even collect the insight that you were collecting. Return to plain practice.
- Distrust the comfortable. Use the felt rule of thumb: practice that only ever soothes and flatters is suspect; the path is meant to be, in his words, “a long process of disappointment” of ego’s hopes — not a steady supply of spiritual goodies.
- Repeat indefinitely. This is not solved once. The check is reapplied each time practice “succeeds,” because that is exactly when the ego moves to claim it. (Sourcing note: short attributed quotation and faithful paraphrase from a widely reprinted book; not a reproduction.)
Source & Lineage
Trungpa (1939–1987) trained in the Kagyü and Nyingma lineages and, after fleeing Tibet, became one of the most influential — and personally controversial — teachers to bring Tibetan Buddhism west, founding Naropa University and the Shambhala movement.
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (1973), assembled from his early-1970s talks, named the concept; The Myth of Freedom (1976) extended it. The teaching draws on Mahamudra/Dzogchen “natural mind” and the Kagyü emphasis on devotion-without-self-deception. → author node.
The Traditions' versions
The move — suspect the self’s tendency to turn the path into a prize — recurs wherever serious traditions guard against pride: - Spiritual bypassing (John Welwood) — using spirituality to avoid wounds rather than face them; the psychological sibling of materialism.
- Working with shenpa / the hook (Pema Chödrön) — catching the subtle grip before it solidifies.
- Desert Fathers on vainglory — the monk warned that pride attaches especially to virtue and ascetic achievement.
- The Zen “stink of enlightenment” — clinging to one’s attainment as a new identity.
- Lojong’s slogans — “Don’t be so predictable,” “Abandon any hope of fruition” — built-in checks against ego harvesting the practice.
Common refinements
Turning the check into self-attack. The aim is clear seeing, not flagellation; harshness is just the ego wearing a hair shirt.
- Collecting non-materialism as a badge. “At least I’m not spiritually materialistic” is itself spiritual materialism. Drop that too.
- Using it to disparage others’ practice. It is aimed inward, at your own motive — not a tool for auditing other people.
- Expecting to finish. There is no graduation; the check is permanent maintenance, reapplied whenever practice flatters you.
- Confusing exposure with failure. The “disappointment” of ego’s hopes is the path working, not a sign you’re doing it wrong.