The Tibetan Buddhist tradition uses the metaphor of the three Lords to evaluate if you are slipping into spiritual materialism:
Lord of Form: the neurotic pursuit of physical comfort, security, and pleasure.
Examples include:
* Using spiritual practice to feel calm or happy
* Going to nice exotic places with nice people doing nice things (aka retreats)
* Creating safe spaces that keep all negative energies out
* Fiercely adhering to a complex diet to optimise physical comfort
Lord of Speech: relating to the world through your intellect, to interpret anything that is threatening or irritating in such a way as to neutralise the threat or turn it into something positive from the ego’s point of view.
Examples include:
* Neurotically holding onto a spiritual ideology
* Seeking self-understanding through concepts and theories (e.g. personality tests)
* Compulsively analysing your experience
* Interpret a lack of understanding as non-conceptual presence or call it “ineffable”
Lord of Mind: Using spiritual and psychological practices as a way to hold onto our sense of self
Examples include:
* Engage in spiritual practice to be seen as a conscious person that makes the world a better place
* Talk about your spiritual accomplishments to receive recognition and feel special
* Establish your shamanic reputation by reporting exceptional psychedelic experiences
* Seek social approval by documenting you psychotherapeutic breakthroughs on social media
Paraphrased/quoted from Chöngyam Trungpa’s “Cutting through spiritual materialism”, examples added.
___________
Interested in cutting through your spiritual materialism?
Join our “crazy wisdom” meditation immersion: www.houseofthebeloved.eu/immersion
Comentarios