Spiritual Materialism

In my last post I called using the AA program as a way to feel good a form of 'spiritual materialism' (also known as 'spiritual narcissim').  As I understand it, spiritual materialism (a term coined by the Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche) involves ego inflation rather than the AA goal of 'ego deflation in depth'.  We inflate our egos when we use our program as a source of temporary pleasure, as a tool for feeling good, rather than as a tool for changing ourselves in a fundamental way, surrendering to our higher power and facing reality.
.We can fall into spiritual materialism in a lot of ways.  A classic is turning your sober time into a badge of honor or authority.   This is the guy who says "Listen, kid, I have 23 years, so I know what I'm talking about", thereby proving he doesn't know jack.  A humble reference to your experience is ego deflating; a claim of superiority isn't.  The classic formula for becoming an old timer is "Don't drink and don't die."  Yes, that will get you sober and old, but if that's all you do that's all you'll get.

Another form of AA as spiritual materialism is viewing the service you have performed as a source of merit badges.  "Yes, sonny, I've made coffee, been a GSR, a DCM, served on more commitees than I can count..."  I find this manifestation of spiritual materialism to be particularly sad.  At Area Assemblies I have encountered people who have done years of very valuable service only to fall into the trap of thinking that work below the group level is the core of AA rather than just working on the plumbing that makes the groups function more easily.  From there to the proud collection of merit badges is a tiny step.

By far the most common form of spiritual materialsim in my AA experience is viewing the program as emotional therapy, a feel good program. The problem here is thinking that the AA program is about how we feel, not about how we are and what we do.  A 'feel good' program is clearly ego inflation; actually it is a form of narcissism, claiming the most important thing in the world is how I feel.  Our goal is to change how we are, the changes in how we feel that do come are a side effect, not the goal.