In this beloved classic, Tibetan meditation master Chogyam Trungpa presents an overview of the spiritual path and warns of common mistakes along that path. He then offers a description of the true spiritual path and a broad outline of the Buddhist approach to spirituality This modern spiritual classic highlights a trick we play on ourselves and offers a brighter reality: liberation by letting go of the self rather than working to improve it The Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa calls attention to the commonest pitfall to which every aspirant on the spiritual path falls prey: what he calls spiritual materialism. The problem is that ego can convert anything to its own use, he says, even spirituality. The universal tendency 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.Trungpa's incisive, compassionate teachings serve to wake us up from these false comforts. Featuring a new foreward by his son and lineage holder, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism has resonated with students for nearly thirty years-and remains as fresh as ever today. Foreword xi Introduction 3(10) Spiritual Materialism 13(10) Surrendering 23(8) The Guru 31(22) Initiation 53(10) Self-Deception 63(14) The Hard Way 77(14) The Open Way 91(20) Sense of Humor 111(10) The Development of Ego 121(17) The Six Realms 138(13) The Four Noble Truths 151(16) The Bodhisattva Path 167(20) Shunyata 187(20) Prajna and Compassion 207(10) Tantra 217(27) Index 244