Highlights and snippets from my notes on: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism (Trungpa, 1973)

Key Points

Some key points I love:

Enlightenment is about removing the barriers in your brain to let it shine through, it’s not about external additions to the brain, it’s about real change using the material already there – Buddhist teachings are meant to be experienced personally – enlightenment doesn’t have hierarchies – as you continue along the path, you become more grounded and down to earth.
Spirituality is not a fight between good/evil, because a battle between “this” and “that” is still just the ego asserting itself and trying to set its territory – involvement in worshipping deity is just ego assertion of bigger/smaller power
Our main suffering in life is the struggle in maintaining and enhancing our image of ourself, an image which is particularly transient, yet we want it to be solidified, so we constantly grasp at doing so, and it continuously slips out of our reach – this is the struggle of ego – feel like we have to watch ourselves/check ourselves to fit our own mold – meditation allows gaps in this suffering, we can observe our mind patterns and recognize that we are living in a state of paranoia
We have this confused perspective of duality – we feel like there is someone conscious inside of us, that is separate from the world, when this is not true: we are literally the world itself, there is no separation
“Spiritual junkyard” can end up forming if we just collect philosophies / studies of texts and never apply them, just let our ego think that we are wise – never working to experience real spirituality is a function of our ego recognizing that doing so would eliminate it, so it’s threatened by this (obviously)
To be completely open requires trusting yourself – if you really make friends with yourself, you wouldn’t be afraid of making mistakes all the time
We project our version of things onto what is there in the world, and we become immersed in our world of conceptions and categories. We read into meanings that we created, which the world doesn’t actually have. Our preconceptions about the world are a form of security, and we must drop the need to feel secure in every moment in order to see the world “as it is”, and accept it.

INTRO

spiritual materialism: distorted view of spirituality wherein the ego gets boosted from undertaken spiritual techniques, instead of the techniques building real spirituality
enlightenment is not about building an awakened state of mind – it is about using the current material of the mind, not adding something to it – “burning out the confusions which obstruct the awakened state of mind”
man’s main confusion: “sense of self which seems to him to be continuous and solid” – when thought/event/emotion happens, we feel a sense of someone being conscious of what it happening. We take our confused view as real because we are so engrossed/absorbed in it.
this sense of self is transitory and discontinuous, but we feel like it is solid, and we struggle to maintain and enhance it.
“the struggle to maintain the sense of a solid, continuous self is the action of ego”
“no need to struggle to be free; the absence of struggle is freedom” – Buddahood is this “egoless” state
enlightenment is not an upwards/hierarchical movement, it is lateral and downwards – it strengthens and deepens the roots of our existence; we come down to earth

SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM

teachings are not passed down / along as information / like an antique. Teacher uses teachings to inspire next student, student becomes enlightened. It is a real, individual, personal experience which gets passed down.
You are not trying to replicate/imitate the teacher.
don’t collect a hoard of knowledge, apply yourself to experience the teaching!
“spiritual collections are a function of the ego soothing itself/protecting itself” – “look I have so much knowledge / such diversity in my studies of texts, philosophies, ideas, etc.” – but I have never worked to experience spirituality, because that threatens the very existence of the ego – “spiritual junkyard”

SURRENDERING

opening completely; acknowledging rugged/shocking aspects of our ego
we may find our own self-hatred as an occupation for our minds, and feel like we lose something/like a piece is being taken from us by surrendering, so we resist (Are people addicted to the entertainment of self-awareness? (see pg140))
self-evaluation is ego tendency born out of lack of confidence in ourselves – not knowing that we can afford to open
don’t take refuge in worship of higher power/deities of any kind - this is just our ego assessment of bigger/smaller - surrendering has nothing to do with being elevated or feeling higher/profound, we don’t have to classify ourselves
“acknowledge our fundamental richness instead of bemoaning the imagined poverty of our existence”

THE GURU

give up trying to impress the teacher / stop trying to take notes / receive “secret doctrine”, one must go through life experiences, not just theoretical readings
teachings become a part of you if you experience them
“impulse of searching for something is, in itself, a hang-up”
“when we first experience true ordinariness, it is something very extraordinarily ordinary…” eventually this wears away and we can relax seeing things as they are – ordinariness as in being present in real-time without ego’s paranoia / us watching ourselves

INITIATION

do not try to prove you have joined the “side of right” … give up trying to be something special – viewing enlightenment as something sacred means we have evaluated it, so it will fade away
commit yourself to opening completely, not creating a mask/facade; drop the idea of securing yourself entirely, don’t want to evaluate at all
mind is overcrowded with info and defense mechanisms of the ego – when we finally give up struggling to figure out what to think, we have space to make progress
the fear itself of losing openness/egoless state once we are there is ego itself in action

SELF-DECEPTION

ego is always trying to achieve spirituality
viewing enlightenment as external to ourselves will make it not last; do not try to capture the experience, or risk evaluating it and having it disappear
if we regard the experience as valuable, then it becomes separate from us
to have the experience now, give up the evaluation of how wonderful it was; drop searching, drop trying to prove yourself
do not let the mind create the “I” and “this” ie, “I am doing this, I am experiencing this” – eliminate the “I” or “this”, and both fall – “take away the watcher/observer, and the whole structure falls apart” – the bureaucracy of the ego falls
the watcher is not efficient enough to perform the function of being present – meditation is

THE HARD WAY

one must be willing to unmask, to stand alone
do not take on attitude of heroism (forced austerity, etc.)
do not imitate the spiritual path(s)
give up hope of receiving something in return
committing to the spiritual path is painful (for ego)
“written teachings are always open to the interpretation of ego” – need to experience them
do not attempt to unravel the past - it just involves us in a struggle in the present – be able to accept the present moment as it is
“…involving yourself with the heroic way adds layers/skins to your personality because you think you have achieved something… to your surprise, later you realized something else is needed – you have to remove the layers”

THE OPEN WAY

first experience self-deception
don’t try to prove anything, don’t try too hard – give up speed and aggression of searching – there is no “big deal” about your state of mind
develop compassion for ourselves; meditation becomes act of trusting yourself, continual act of making friends with yourself, trust in yourself allows you to dance with life
without developing compassion we would remain in ego’s desire of improving ourselves/achieving imagined goals (and suffering or becoming egotistical from failing/succeeding)
“When a person develops real compassion, he is uncertain whether he is being generous to others or to himself because compassion is environmental generosity without direction, without ‘for me’ and without ‘for them’”.
compassion is “ultimate attitude of wealth”, and anti-poverty attitude, a war on want, “it is the attitude that one is born fundamentally rich, rather than one must become rich”
Main theme of the open way is to begin by abandoning the basic struggle of ego… to be completely open, to have absolute trust in yourself (to abandon ego), is real compassion and love.
can’t force love – “if your love is moving with the same speed and drive of other people’s hatred, then something appears to be wrong”
we are too involved with trying to prove something – this stems from ego’s paranoia and feelings of poverty – constantly have to check that we did things “correctly”
don’t have to constantly manage ourselves
Situations themselves are profound enough to be regarded as knowledge – they don’t need secondary source of info/analysis – reinforcement is provided by situation itself – situation itself demands the type of response
fear comes from uncertainty, uncertainty related to distrust in yourself, feeling inadequate to handle situation in front of you – world reflects your uncertainty back to you
Tibetan word for wisdom is “yeshe” – means “primordial intelligence”
If you really make friends with yourself, you wouldn’t be afraid of making mistakes all the time – unoriginated trust in yourself – no beginning of this trust – beginningless primordial situation

SENSE OF HUMOR

NO! I am part of some church so I must be solemn.. NO!
do not observe yourself unnecessarily – it’s not “big brother”, it is “big me”! – this is death, in the sense of no further creativity, limited, rigid life
“If there is wisdom in the sacred teachings, there should not be any war” – talking about how religious texts tell us to fight against “bad”/“dark side”, and therefore they involve us in a battlefield, which is not sacred. – great teachings are expected to transcend simple-mindedness fighting of two sides / fighting in general
regarding path to spirituality as a battlefield implies relative-ness (relativity?) of liberation – how much light we have created / territory conquered – battle between “this” and “that” – (still just the ego asserting itself)
have sense of humor to see both poles of situation as they really are. trying to make something super serious becomes funny
don’t place value on meditation

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EGO

we project our version of things onto what is there –> hallucinating/dreaming –> we become immersed in a world we created, with conflicting values, opinions, categories – we read into meanings that we created, which the world doesn’t actually have. This distorted state of mind is where we start our path.
reaching out and feeling the qualities of “other”, reassures us that we exist. “If I can feel that out there, then I must be here”
when we don’t know the relationship between “that” and “this” when we perceive something in the world, we feel for our ground (of categorization) (instead of accepting that we have created our own categories/judgement projections that are not real, and just relaxing in the moment without a category to hold onto to judge whatever is in front of us)

THE SIX REALMS

cyclical ego-driven rise and fall
intellect of the Human Realm gives us the possibility to escape the cycle, possibility to question the solidity of the worlds one experiences
laugh through the conceptualized world, discover that by not fighting the walls, they are penetrable
realize that the world was never outside of yourself, it was your own dualistic attitude/mind state that created the problem – being able to see this allows us to laugh at it, and see how to overcome it (via meditation, which allows gaps in the mind’s chaos, so we can see other angles/aspects to our own situation)

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

The truth of suffering – the mind constantly spinning; constant search for something more; always trying to fill the gap – enjoy pleasure? become afraid to lose it.. in pain? want to escape it – one becomes irritated of just being “me”
The truth of the origin of suffering – continual struggle to maintain and enhance ourselves to satisfy our ego – cannot improve ourselves through struggle, can’t “fight” the ego, it will just usurp the drama for itself
The truth of the goal – “non-striving” – drop effort to secure and solidify ourselves – “letting go” is not enough, we must “let be”
The truth of the path – meditation; not an attempt to enter trance state – instead, want to transcend to non-dualistic life; don’t become dogmatic/solemn/introverted about it – work with present moment, not idealized future moments/future attainment of idealized goal – techniques will eventually be given up, they are just a tool to step out of ego – whole meditation practice should be based on the relationship between you and “nowness” – see nowness of every moment

THE BODHISATTVA PATH

“see pattern of our fantasies rather than being immersed in them”
let be and allow a gap / waiting for next communication, instead of filling that mental space with ego/analysis of what just happened/checking yourself
don’t possess the “letting be” as belonging to you/as your creation; “open, let be and disown”
transcendental – whole idea is to see through our limited notions/conceptions/ “warfare mentality” of this vs. that, don’t manufacture a version of what we see and take that to judge it/reject it, etc.… be completely open, not watching ourselves at all, don’t expect anything in return – conduct yourself like walking elephant – slow, surely, steadily - steps are solid and definite
transmutation of ego into discriminating knowledge – accurate knowledge of seeing everything as it is
seeing things as they are requires a leap that’s only possible without leaping from anywhere – seeing things in contrast to / from a viewpoint of another spot, implies relativity / us viewing ourselves from somewhere else – can only see things as they really are in the midst of nowhere - like “one cannot taste his own tongue” – cross the bridge to realize we were there all along, very paradoxical

SHUNYATA

shunyata – perceiving things literally – absence of concepts/forms, absence of duality and conceptualization – “clarity which transcends conceptual padding and unnecessary confusions” – no more fascination with object nor being involved as a subject – what remains is opens pace, the absence of the this-and-that dichotomy
“Form is that which is, before we project our concepts onto it – it is the original state of “what is here”"
evaluations of form are created in our minds after seeing things
BUT, emptiness is also form - to see things as empty clothes them in a concept – form comes back!
“form is no other than emptiness; emptiness is no other than form” – don’t need to find profundity – looking for philosophical meaning to life is a way of justifying ourselves – come down to earth and see things as they are
reality/“experiencing reality” implies separation between experiencer and experience
have to “learn in order to unlearn” the absence of ego – to get to the point where we don’t see the mind or thought derived from the mind
don’t need to worry about understanding the patterns of the future – live in now

PRAJNA AND COMPASSION

preconceptions are a form of security
next stage is to give up ambition to see form as empty
“true compassion is ruthless, from ego’s point of view because it does not consider ego’s drive to maintain itself. it is “crazy wisdom”"
point of meditation isn’t to be honest/good person to maintain our ego, it is to become compassionate and wise fundamentally, open and relating to the world as it is
Love generally takes 2 forms: babying someone (holding them), or someone babying us (jumping into their lap) (also institution/organization could baby us/us baby it, etc.) – “either we would like to control the excitement or become a part of it” – but there is another option: be as you are, do not reduce yourself to a baby nor demand someone leap into your lap
this removes emotional/philosophical/psychological interpretation, and opens communication and space without playing any games/ without territorial limitations, “be an adult as you are, while still maintaining a childlike quality”
sometimes when we say “I love you”, we are hoping to lure someone into our territory/onto our side - “proselytizing” love - suspicious - controlling
no audience involved, no “me” and “them”, no relative notions of giving/receiving
“If you can afford to be what you are, then you do not need the ‘insurance policy’ of trying to be ag ood person, a pious person, a compassionate person."
there is danger that ruthless compassion ends up being the releasal of aggression – one must work on their path a lot before completely opening
opening to yourself without fooling yourself is important, otherwise compassion will just be another pattern for the ego to take hold of

TANTRA

complete absence of conceptualization, added with an awareness of the energies/brilliance of everyday things; direct, naked experience without any forms/preconceptions, no veil between “him” and “that”
tantric tradition doesn’t even speak of going beyond ego because that’s too dualistic – tantra is more refined, past that point
tantra means “continuity” – involves something more than simply going beyond uality, more than non-dualistic understanding – ability to see the “non-dualisticness” – “emptiness is emptiness – it is not empty simply because form is also form”
tantric wisdom brings nirvana into samsara
life flows around you, don’t have to force results – this is mandala principle
“mandala depicted as circle which revolves around center –> signifies that everything around you becomes a part of your awareness, the whole sphere expressing the vivid reality of life”
the higher our spirituality, the more we come down to earth
meditation steps/path: penetrate neurotic thought pattern/fringe of ego –> see through complexity of thought-process and meaningfullness of concepts/conceptualization –> create space between “this” and “that” –> create direct link with life experience
transmutation of emotions into a particular wisdom or aspect of the awakened mind
transmutation happens with the understanding of shunyata and then sudden discovery of energy – you realize you don’t have to abandon everything, you can transform your energy/emotions – don’t need to supress them, but transform
if we become involved with the fascination and satisfaction of energy, we cannot transmute it
we have never actually experienced our emotions, only experienced in terms of ‘me and my emotion’, where me is a central governing structure – we have to feel emotions and their living quality instead of feeling them/experiencing them as being separate from us
when we act out hatred/desire/other emotions on physical level, we are trying to escape from these emotions, just like trying to repress them
we think that fighting expresses anger, bu tit is an escape, a release rather than experiencing the emotion as it is
“when a person actually understands that he is in a state of paranoia, then that implies an underlying deep subconscious understanding of the other side, some feeling of the other aspect of it in his mind” – the other side where he would not be paranoid – “then he has to really take the leap”
leap is beyond words to describe – have to put yourself willingly in the situation and surrender
see naked quality of emotions without preconceptions – once you can do this, you are ready to leap
“It is with our emotions that we create demons and gods” – clinging to the notions of “good” and “bad” – subjugating/taking hold of demons is transmuting emotions – accept things as they are

END

Contents

Key Points

INTRO

SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM

SURRENDERING

THE GURU

INITIATION

SELF-DECEPTION

THE HARD WAY

THE OPEN WAY

SENSE OF HUMOR

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EGO

THE SIX REALMS

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

THE BODHISATTVA PATH

SHUNYATA

PRAJNA AND COMPASSION

TANTRA