Crazy Wisdom
By Chögyam Trungpa
Padmasambhava was the Second Buddha who established Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet in the Eighth Century. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche describes the Eight Manifestations of Padmasambhava
as an investigation of the nature of perception. The key to
understanding Padmasambhava’s accomplishments is ‘crazy
wisdom’. Crazy wisdom has no connection with psychosis or
with the ordinary craziness better described as neurosis. Crazy wisdom
is the activity which springs directly from realisation – and
which does not make diplomatic compromises with duality.
‘Crazy Wisdom’ (yeshé cholwa in Tibetan) literally
means ‘chaos of primordial wisdom’. Trungpa Rinpoche
described it as ‘wisdom gone wild’ – and this
describes perfectly how authentic realisation is seen by
institutionalised religion. It was Padmasambhava who established the
non-monastic Tantric ordination and the
validity of crazy wisdom is central to the Aro teachings.
Crazy wisdom ruthlessly cuts through spiritual
materialism to
discover ‘basic sanity’, or innate wisdom. Developing
basic sanity is a method in which the goal is the path –
and in which any hope of attaining a ‘spiritualised
result’ has to be abandoned. To access basic sanity we must
sever our psychological self-definition and self-referencing.
This book is lively, informative, and challenging. Trungpa Rinpoche
does not give factual historical accounts, but rather shows how the
inspiration of Padmasambhava’s life can inspire our meditation
practice and help us discover the innate wisdom in the midst of
ordinary life.
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