Inflation

Inflation, in the psychological and spiritual sense, refers to the expansion of the ego beyond its proper function. It arises when insights, experiences, or personal achievements are appropriated by the sense of self, leading to pride, grandiosity, or a distorted view of one’s own importance.

In spiritual practice, inflation is a subtle and dangerous obstacle. Profound meditative experiences, intellectual understanding, or even glimpses of insight can feed the ego rather than dissolve it. The practitioner may come to believe they have attained a higher state, become special, or possess superior knowledge — not recognising that these very thoughts signal ongoing attachment and delusion.

Inflation often disguises itself as spiritual confidence or authority, making it difficult to detect. It may manifest as the urge to teach prematurely, to seek recognition, or to subtly compare oneself to others. In this way, the very path intended to transcend ego becomes a stage for its continued performance.

The antidote to inflation is humility, constant self-examination, and reliance on ethical discipline. Genuine insight is accompanied by increasing modesty, compassion, and a deepening sense of one’s own limitations. The greater the realisation, the less need there is to assert it.

True spiritual maturity is marked not by how elevated one feels, but by the absence of self-concern. The ego’s quiet dissolution reveals the natural ease and simplicity of the awakened mind — without pretension, comparison, or grasping for identity.

“Greater in battle than the man who would conquer a thousand thousand men is he who would conquer just one — himself.”
— Dhammapada 103