“As in music, when we hear the crescendo building, suddenly if the music stops, we begin to hear the silence as part of the music.”
Work
<p>In this modern spiritual classic, the Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa highlights a common pitfall to which every aspirant on the spiritual path falls prey: what he calls <i>spiritual materialism</i>. The universal human 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," Trungpa says, "is that ego can convert anything to its own use, 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 over thirty years and remains fresh as ever today.</p> <p>This edition includes a foreward by Chögyam Trungpa's son and lineage holder Sakyong Mipham.<br> <br></p>
Quotes
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Chögyam Trungpa
Canonical work source
“As in music, when we hear the crescendo building, suddenly if the music stops, we begin to hear the silence as part of the music.”
“We do not have to be ashamed of what we are. As sentient beings we have wonderful backgrounds. These backgrounds may not be particularly enlightened or peaceful or intelligent. Nevertheless,...”
“In the process of burning out these confusions, we discover enlightenment. If the process were otherwise, the awakened state of mind would be a product dependent upon cause and effect and th...”
“Eventually we must give up trying to be something special.”
“Are the great spiritual teachings really advocating that we fight evil because we are on the side of light, the side of peace? Are they telling us to fight against that other 'undesirable' s...”
“Self-deception is a constant problem as we progress along a spiritual path. Ego is always trying to achieve spirituality. It is rather like wanting to witness your own funeral.”