According to the Buddhist tradition, the spiritual path is the process of cutting through our confusion, of uncovering the awakened state of mind. When the awakened state of mind is crowded in by ego and its attendant paranoia, it takes on the character of an underlying instinct. So it is not a matter of building up the awakened state of mind, but rather of burning out the confusions which obstruct it. In the process of burning out these confusions, we discover enlightenment. If the process were otherwise, the awakened state of mind would be a product, dependent upon cause and effect and therefore liable to dissolution. But enlightenment is permanent because we have not produced it; we have merely discovered it.

From Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, page 4.

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Chogyam Trungpa circa 1971/1972, the time when the lectures comprising Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism were given and recorded. Photographer unknown.