This should give us some understanding of spiritual materialism. The danger of spiritual materialism is that under its influence we make all kinds of assumptions. First, there are the domestic or personal-level assumptions, which we make because we want to be happy. Second, there are the spiritual assumptions that are made because that transcendental, gigantic, greater discovery is left mysterious. This brings further great assumptions: we do not know what we are actually going to achieve by achieving that unknown thing, but nevertheless, we give it some vague description, such as “being absorbed into the cosmos.” And since nobody has yet gone that far, if anybody questions this discovery of “absorption into the cosmos,” then we just make up further logic or look for reinforcement from the scriptures or other authorities. The result of all this is that we end up confirming ourselves and confirming that the experience we are proclaiming is a true experience. Nobody can question it. At some stage, there’s no room left for questioning at all. Our whole outlook becomes completely established with no room left at all for questioning. This is what we could call achieving egohood, as opposed to achieving enlightenment.
— Chögyam Trungpa, from “Padmasambhava and Spiritual Materialism”, in “CRAZY WISDOM SEMINAR I, Jackson Hole, 1972”
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