29. Give up poisonous food

• This is the Seventh Slogan/Instruction of Point Six, which consists of sixteen instructions.
• Point Six is “The Disciplines of Mind Training”]

Chögyam Trungpa wrote,

This is a very powerful slogan for us. It means that whatever we do with our practice, if that practice is connected with our personal achievement, which is called “spiritual materialism,” or the individual glory that we are in the right and others are wrong, and we would like to conquer their wrongness or evil because we are on the side of God and so forth—that kind of bullshit or cow dung is regarded as eating poisonous food. Such food may be presented to us beautifully and nicely, but when we begin to eat it, it stinks.

Chögyam Trungpa, Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness

And Dza Patrul, quoted by Traleg Kyabgon to illustrate this slogan, 

One day Geshe Ben was expecting a visit from a large number of his benefactors. That morning he arranged the offerings on his shrine in front of the images of the Three Jewels particularly neatly. Examining his intentions, he realized that they were not pure  and that he was only trying to impress his patrons; so he picked up a handful of dust and threw it all over the offerings, saying, “Monk, just stay where you are and don’t put on airs!”

When Phadampa Sangye heard this story, he exclaimed: “That handful of dust that Ben Kungyal threw was the best offering in all Tibet!”

Patrul Rinpoche, Words of My Perfect Teacher

Thangka with Bejeweled Buddha Preaching, 1648. Nepal. Color on cloth; overall: 109.5 x 82.5 cm (43 1/8 x 32 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art