Atma Svarupa Mahadeva

By Edwina Shaw on Friday March 31st, 2017   Can Spirituality Feed Your Ego? ‘Spiritual materialism’ is a term first used by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche , a Tibetan Buddhist teacher who came to the United States in the early seventies. In his book Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism,  Trungpa expounded on his theories of how the ego likes to use the spiritual path for its own ends, and the mistakes seekers easily fall into in their quest for enlightenment. The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use… even spirituality. ~ Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche In the west, we have come to think of our spiritual quest as ‘self-improvement,’ which is all well and good, except what is the self? Ego. Especially in the west, where we are conditioned from an early age into individualism and material accruement, it is easy to impose these ingrained structures of understanding onto spirituality as well. We can collect courses and retreats and practices like medals, or ch

Spiritual materialism is a term coined by Chögyam Trungpa in his book Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. The book is a compendium of his talks explaining Buddhism given while opening the Karma Dzong meditation center in Boulder, Colorado. He expands on the concept in later seminars that became books such as Work, Sex, Money. He uses the term to describe mistakes spiritual seekers commit which turn the pursuit of spirituality into an ego building and confusion creating endeavor, based on the idea that ego development is counter to spiritual progress.[1] Conventionally, it is used to describe capitalist and spiritual narcissism, commercial efforts such as "new age" bookstores and wealthy lecturers on spirituality; it might also mean the attempt to build up a list of credentials or accumulate teachings in order to present oneself as a more realized or holy person.[2] Author Jorge Ferrer equates the terms "Spiritual materialism" and "Spiritual Narcissism"

Sometimes transliterated as: Adhibhautika, adhidaivika, adhyatmika, Adhibhautika, adhidaivika, AdhyAtmika, Adhibhautika, adhidaivika, aadhyaatmika Adhibhautika literally means pertaining to the bhuta or living beings. Adhidaivika literally means pertaining to the daiva or fate, unseen forces and gods. Ādhyātmika literally means pertaining to the ātma or the body (and the mind). Sorrow and suffering (duhkha, tāpa) are inevitable part of life. Knowledge regarding their origin, causes and even categorization helps one to minimize their effect, if not eradicate them. The scriptures usually call them ‘tāpatraya,’ (‘the three miseries.’) and categorize them into ādhyātmika, ādhidaivika and adhibhautika. The ādhyātmika duhkha or tāpa is that which is caused by bodily suffering and mental anguish. Hereditary diseases like leprosy, disabilities like blindness or lameness and diseases caused by the violation of the rules of health and sanitation are classed und