So, in Monday night, we have a monthly gathering where people, we sit for 45 minutes

and there's questions and sharing and one of the questions this last Monday night was

really about how, in coming to the West, the practices and teachings of Buddhism have been

in different ways affected and the question was, has the deep wisdom been diluted and have

we imposed our Western ego on the spiritual path in a way that contorts it some kind of

like what Togam Trungva described as spiritual materialism, which means that in some way

our meditations become either we're striving or we're proud or we're inflated, I'm now a

meditator, some attempt to control the mind and feel some achievement in that or use the

techniques in a very narrow way, I just trying to soothe something or just relieve stress,

but not really remembering what's possible and certainly we can see in the yoga, which is

part of meditation world, yoga apparel accounts for $6 billion industry a year, $6 billion,

you can buy a Gucci yoga mat for $700, really, is that amazing?

So again, is it about firming up our abs and our butt or is it about experiencing the

truth of who we are?

So when I use the word ego, I'm going to use it some tonight, it's a messy word because

ego kind of refers to that sense of the self that's being the executive that's kind of

making the decisions and guiding us on the path, it often revolves around in the strongest

ways of wanting self and a fearing self that's trying to make it through.

When we look at what's the, how does ego enter into our spiritual activities, it's a given

that our intentions and motivations are always marveled with what the ego wants and fears,

it's a given, it's okay, let me just happen, and this isn't just in the West, it's that

egos have different shapes and different cultures some, but there's still a sense of wanting

...