Contemplating Crazy Wisdom
Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Times of Chögyam Trungpa premiered almost a year ago at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. Johanna Demetrakas’s feature-length documentary has made its way across North America, playing to sold out audiences in New York; Boston; Los Angeles; Boulder; Vancouver; and Halifax, Nova Scotia, among other locations. Now, Crazy Wisdom is available to download from Alive Mind Cinema.
If you missed its festival and theatrical releases, you can still see the film on your own laptop. The more times I see it, the more I appreciate both the subject, Chögyam Trungpa, and the filmmaker, Johanna Demetrakas. Bravo to both of them for their fearless and uncompromising pursuit of wisdom!
This week Ocean of Dharma offers an opportunity for you to win a download of the film. What does crazy wisdom mean to you? Answer that question here for a chance to win one of four free downloads. To be selected by random draw on February 3. Congrats to Raquel (Surya Devi), Matt, Marc Otto, and Melissa Silva—you’ve each won a download of the movie! Thank you all for your thoughtful comments.
January 24th, 2012 at 7:00 am
[...] Of Interest to Readers What does crazy wisdom mean to you? Answer that question for a chance to win one of four downloads of the full-length documentary Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Times of Chögyam Trungpa. For details, visit the editor’s blog. [...]
January 24th, 2012 at 7:24 am
absolutely nothing, but i aspire that one day it will
January 24th, 2012 at 7:25 am
Crazy wisdom is pure wisdom of energy and intention. However, from the perspective of outward societal norms, it seems to be unacceptable. It serves its purpose.
January 24th, 2012 at 7:52 am
I believe crazy wisdom refers to a view point of another when one tries to express in words the wisdom of their years. For words heard out of the context of their life may seem crazy to another, knowledge can be learned but wisdom you must earn.
January 24th, 2012 at 7:54 am
Crazy wisdom means not necessarily doing what is expected, or what is logical but what feels right at the present time, within the framework of right action and basic goodness.
January 24th, 2012 at 8:15 am
Crazy wisdom is the intelligence that appears when ones Lungta, Windhorse reaches a degree of intensity where it collides with ones sense of self importance, concepts, all the images one has about oneself. This clash calls forth a larger, vaster vision of being a human being. The ordinary fixed part of oneself feels like it is going crazy, and yet the larger vision brings profound clarity, kindness and tenderness.
January 24th, 2012 at 8:30 am
Re: Crazy Wisdom
As to my understanding, “crazy wisdom” is the outcome of a blown mind. Blown either by drugs or endogenetic factors. To call it then wisdom at all, is a contradiction in itself.
WISDOM, however, is neither crazy nor not crazy. To qualify “wisdom” as being crazy only shows the dual-thinking attitude of the judge.
January 24th, 2012 at 8:57 am
To me, Crazy Wisdom means trusting that wildish intuitive lead that offers a leap into uncharted ground that you choicelessly and boldly
follow because it comes with such a powerful “this
feels right” message even when it’s out of left field. Then inner meets outer effortlessly…
unless you resist.
January 24th, 2012 at 8:57 am
Crazy wisdom is…
Hard to describe as it transcends language…
Basically it is the totally letting go of ego/identification & letting go/giving in to absolute spontaneity ~primordial essence~energy.
January 24th, 2012 at 9:08 am
Subtlety and discipline are notions made of ideas. Crazy Wisdom, without effort, steps outside the boundaries of the accepted norm to point out how ridiculous those boundaries can be.
January 24th, 2012 at 9:10 am
The words or actions may appear crazy ,however they are just unconventialThe wisdom is the clear essence manifested.Few people realize how unconciouly bound we are to habit.Crazy wisdom comes from essence not habitual ways of speaking,thinking or acting.
January 24th, 2012 at 9:34 am
Crazy wisdom is always surprising but not necessarily new. Crazy wisdom comes at you from an unexpected place with a truth that you already understood.
January 24th, 2012 at 9:39 am
Crazy wisdom is cutting through to the essence or essential truth of a situation and exposing it to everyone even when it goes against socially accepted behavior or beliefs.
January 24th, 2012 at 9:51 am
“My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah my foes
And oh my friends,
It gives a lovely light! ”
Edna St Vincent Millay
January 24th, 2012 at 10:10 am
In my understanding crazy wisdom is simply wisdom that liberates on the spot.
January 24th, 2012 at 10:10 am
Sensing my Inner chaos, embracing it , staying with it to see where it takes me
January 24th, 2012 at 10:26 am
Crazy wisdom for me is the moments of illumination in the midst of chaos. Those moments when concepts that might seem contradictory open up and become truths infinite in nature; the single point and the vastness, the necessity of moving toward that which repels and frightens us, the freedom in surrender, the courage in accepting, not just overcoming your fears, grief, anger. Crazy wisdom is that which lies just beneath what appears to be reality, that which is only revealed in the silence, in the diligent observation of our material reality.
January 24th, 2012 at 11:06 am
Crazy wisdom is the wisdom of action, gut instinct. Diving in, knowing it is the right thing, but having no idea of the consequence. Much like the concept in “Blink” – one’s gut instinct is normally right, then you spend hours, days, weeks, convincing yourself of it. As Yoda would say – there is no try – only do or do not – crazy wisdom is pure energy and action informed and motivated by spirit.
January 24th, 2012 at 11:15 am
Crazy Wisdom to me is ideas that come from thinking outside of the box.
January 24th, 2012 at 11:21 am
Crazy wisdom refers to the action of a realized master of meditation when his/her insight into the greater good, the transcendant benefit, necessitates the daring to go beyond conventional, small minded-considerations such as “what will people think?” Many of the Kagyu gurus were crazy wisdom masters, starting with Tilopa, the first.
January 24th, 2012 at 11:42 am
Crazy Wisdom is the courage, clarity, and knowing that comes from facing squarely whatever life serves up in order to move forward. What has become apparent over time is that immature neurosies have lost their grip on me and my hard heart has melted from this stance: the willingness to engage life rather than protect myself from it. The more full and solid I become in myself – my core where the crazy wisdom resides – the more I like myself and love my life with all its many challenges.
January 24th, 2012 at 12:08 pm
For me, Crazy Wisdom embodies the understanding that all situations are inherently workable, and asks us to behave accordingly. Embrace groundlessness as part of basic goodness. The universe is not against us. Don’t be so predictable. Say yes.
January 24th, 2012 at 12:34 pm
It is deemed crazy by those who observe it but when they see its effects they call it crazy wisdom. Similar to crazy like a fox.
January 24th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Crazy Wisdom is the naked self as we are, what we were born with, uncovered and raw. There are no pretensions, no grasping, just a brilliant, clear reality.
January 24th, 2012 at 1:12 pm
Wisdom, that which is inherent to our natural humanness if cultivated with awareness. Crazy, the awareness beyond ourselves, beyond space & time, beyond our conditioned earthly experiences. Crazy wisdom, that energetic place of dwelling; groundless, formless, nameless. To touch it is to know it with all your being. Thank you VCTR for your selfless and endless teachings to the West.
January 24th, 2012 at 1:20 pm
When a seemingly irrational choice … but one that you simply feel is right and you must make … leads to joy or success or insight or unexpected new direction.
January 24th, 2012 at 1:47 pm
Crazy wisdom is only crazy for people like me who are ignorant and ego manic…
It sounds crazy as it is beyond our understanding of the truth, as it is beyond our concept..
It is beyond ME
January 24th, 2012 at 2:17 pm
Crazy wisdom is wisdom without ego and without conceptual boundary– it is wisdom based on doing whatever is needed to benefit a bigger situation without an expected outcome or congratulations for doing so. Crazy wisdom will cut to nowness and reflect basic goodness without hesitation.
January 24th, 2012 at 2:26 pm
I like the other translation of ‘crazy wisdom’ as ‘wisdom gone wild,’ a wisdom that sees so clearly through the trance of samsara that appears to be ‘wild’ from an ordinary perspective.
January 24th, 2012 at 2:42 pm
Crazy Wisdom is
Living from a place of reaching into the depths of soul existence, lifetimes and lightyears beyond human form. Automatically operating from that place. Knowing the truth of ourselves and our purpose is sourced there. Following the promptings to live life from that place in trust. Experiencing inner and outer heavens and hells regularly transform as a result.
January 24th, 2012 at 2:54 pm
On the path of Crazy Wisdom, conventional wisdom is abandoned. Only the wisdom of this moment with its very vivid energy and immediacy devoid of concepts offer any value.
January 24th, 2012 at 2:58 pm
Imaging a deity holding a flying sword cautiously cutting through any thoughts, emotions bluntly while they are just arising. It is a one cut deal with flying sword in any reaching distance while the thoughts, emotions just start to come out, and drop it completely.
Cut after cut, we are wildly awake, choice-less transmutation, scrutinizing nakedly with the true nature of mind with this omniscient Crazy Wisdom, cognitive lucidity, rest on the spot and relax with easy.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:01 pm
Crazy Wisdom means Trungpa Rinpoche to me. I can’t separate the term from my experience of him. This is most fortunate, since “crazy wisdom” is non-conceptual and spontaneously arising. The only clue I have to its meaning has been through his presence – “just so” -and his daring to let the “crazy” part shine through. [Thank you for giving others a chance to experience him through this film.]
January 24th, 2012 at 3:01 pm
Expression of natural reality to benefit others.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:33 pm
Making friends with the space you’re in.
January 24th, 2012 at 3:36 pm
Crazy Wisdom
garudas and cheshire cats
neither real nor fully imagined
no place to get to
no finished works
dreamtangles and afterthought
broken twigs and knotted string
slipping through the cracks
try again fail again
disorder opens a space
who is here to see this beauty
when the light changes
in the presence of the dragon throne
January 24th, 2012 at 3:40 pm
Driving through a “solid” community, republican, soccer mom, “I’m better than you, and just about everybody else!”…a black cadillac SUV wouldn’t let me over and paced me, slow down, speed up, no dice!…closer, closer the corner on which I wanted to turn….swerve! she’s Honking! I’m Honking! I let her pass, but I shoooed her away like a stinky thing, Yelling “git! get away!” and she drove on yelling and shaking her fist….
Hmmm. I started to sing….”I feeel gooood! I knew that I would, now! lalalala”
January 24th, 2012 at 4:34 pm
Crazy Wisdom
is the knowledge that takes you beyond good and bad,
is the knowledge that takes you beyond right or wrong,
Crazy Wisdom
is hopelessness and fearlessness!!
January 24th, 2012 at 5:15 pm
FOR ME “CRAZY WISDOM” means just going for it from your Heart, knowning you have done much work changing and letting go of your delusions and illusion in search for the true self within and wanting to be at the one point of open awareness, where all just is. Passing the test that is presented by the Dragon at the Gate.
January 24th, 2012 at 5:19 pm
You are asking for my comment on my comment. I want to be in the world but not of it.
January 24th, 2012 at 5:26 pm
Cutting through chaos with a surgeon’s precision, a poet’s brevity, and a guru’s compassion. Also, folly-turned-grace.
January 24th, 2012 at 5:33 pm
Crazy Wisdom…hm…well all I can say about this form of wisdom is that which I have read about. To me crazy wisdom is putting a gong on your head in front of a large audience in the middle of a serious presentation. In an absolute attempt to lighten the mood of the audience, Chogyam Trungpa was absolutely willing to appear completely foolish while Gary Snyder (I believe) was presenting a rather serious poem at Naropa Institute. Why not. Why not be piss-drunk at all of your presentations and shatter the boundaries of our preconceived notions as to how an enlightened master should act? Crazy wisdom to me is (as my meditation teacher once said): throwing a shoe at someone’s head during a sitting so that they will wake the hell up…in the ultimate sense.
January 24th, 2012 at 5:36 pm
To relate to things as they are, beyond the sense of self, other and convention.
January 24th, 2012 at 5:41 pm
To approach all experiences without any sense of protecting the self.
January 24th, 2012 at 5:42 pm
This is when our (objective thinkers) brain unexpectedly and abruptly changes course; by surrendering unconditionally to our (subjective thinkers) brain. That explains the crazy part of the equation, at least from an observer’s perspective.
The wisdom part knows when to do this. Since all outcomes of our endeavors are gifts, the objective now is to survive our failures with no shame and celebrate our successes with sincerity.
January 24th, 2012 at 5:45 pm
not knowing PLUS not not-knowing RELEASING expectation TO zero
January 24th, 2012 at 5:46 pm
I don´t know if it is crazy enough…simply acting just how I feel it
January 24th, 2012 at 5:48 pm
Crazy wisdom is dangerous, unmerciful compassion, expressed as a bizarre and uncomfortable serenity present in the actions of realized beings. It is so disconcerting, it makes our heart beat like crazy, and it makes us feel deeply scared. When crazy wisdom is present, we know we’ve been caught and it feels like you just want to be swallowed by the earth. It is an agony because the embarrassment is so overwhelming, we can’t hide and that is a blessing, even though it feels like you want to kill your compassionate crazy spiritual master. This crazy wisdom is sometimes manifested in beings, in situations and in ourselves. Because of its illogical patterns, the more you try to decipher it, the more one suffers, hence the only choice left is to surrender and cease. After that, awakenings rise.
January 24th, 2012 at 5:49 pm
Nothing is wrong with me anymore!!
January 24th, 2012 at 5:54 pm
Crazy Wisdom means to me never giving up on ourselves, on cultivating our inherent sanity and goodness- we work on it thru sitting practice and other practices — also taking the view of Great Eastern Sun while the world we live in has setting sun mentality-It’s not easy, but we never give up on ourselves or each other.
January 24th, 2012 at 5:58 pm
NO!
January 24th, 2012 at 6:03 pm
in life the majority of us are taught to follow. go to school, get a good job to have the things we want and need. get married have a family, etc. some of us learn later in life that we took a wrong turn following what we thought would lead to happiness and satisfaction only to find that those things are empty and dont last. i think that is a a major problem of the society we live in today. we are after the wrong things. consuming the planet. taxing the planet by over breeding. crazy wisdom is wisdom that flies in the face of the conventional and i believe is scary to most people. i know it is for me. like the buddha gave up his life of luxury to live as an ascetic for a time. he ended up living an austere life in poverty to find what we all really need which is enlightenment. crazy wisdom offers a large and drastic change to our lives but offers us something much more valuable than the material lives that we lead.
January 24th, 2012 at 6:17 pm
Unconventional actions benefitting all (even the ones offended
January 24th, 2012 at 6:18 pm
A tool for reaching the point of nothingness…to see things as they are without any concept. In art it becomes the creative aspect, it comes as a vision not in word, also needs confidence and restlessness.
January 24th, 2012 at 6:19 pm
Sorry for the typo should read fearlessness not restlessness hope it can be fixed thanks.
January 24th, 2012 at 6:39 pm
As outrageousness and inscrutability dance together,
then comes the sudden
dive
jump
plunge
leap
flight
with precision and poise
into the very heart of the matter.
Cut to the quick.
Instant illumination.
AWAKE!
January 24th, 2012 at 6:51 pm
Action arising from the fearlessness beyond all doubt. In a world replete with doubt, judgement and a crippling lack of self-worth, such action is not normal. It is crazy.
A good example would be when The Vidyadhara appeared on a radio show in Montreal in 1971. Instead of making a pitch for funds, he calmly told everyone listening that they were all “insane”. KI KI SO SO!
January 24th, 2012 at 6:59 pm
Crazy Wisdom is what happens when the gradual wisdom that develops out of the path of meditation reaches such maturity that it becomes entirely spontaneous and non conceptual. The wisdom goes crazy, in the sense that it drops all conceptual reference points and becomes a completely non-perverted expression of the true nature of being, a true expression of basic goodness. That state is the ultimate inscrutability, because there are no reference points which is unfathomable to the conceptual mind.
January 24th, 2012 at 7:06 pm
It sounds like a teaching that forces us to bend and even break our conventional conceptions about ourselves, our culture, our teachers, and ultimately our realities that we cling so tenaciously to.
January 24th, 2012 at 7:56 pm
I received the transmission of crazy wisdom energy from one of Trungpa’s friends. He changed me from someone hunting a deeper life to someone being hunted by a deeper life. I remember him saying to me ‘who the hell is Stephen Moore anyway?’ and in that moment I had no idea and from that moment forward I became the space I was to unravel in. You could say I went crazy, except it wasn’t me anymore.
January 24th, 2012 at 9:08 pm
Crazy Wisdom does not seem to be spiritual. I don’t think it is recognized at the time. It happens when you quite fighting; when you give up trying so hard to find the answer and just do the next thing. You have to be vulnerable to your mistakes. Who wants that? Gradually you find out.
January 24th, 2012 at 9:11 pm
Being who you are and acting naturally without any sense of anything at all
January 24th, 2012 at 10:05 pm
Crazy wisdom has been the encounter with the brutal and ruthless force of nude reality. An encounter with a Guru who’s unlimited love can see beyond appearances and has the power to destroy once and again the remains of ego-based conduct, fears, hopes, in a continuous bouncing of limited projections embraced by his absolute love. Is a chilling journey of opening to the joy of being alive.
January 24th, 2012 at 10:54 pm
Crazy wisdom is embracing the absurd in life and like the Coyote medicine of the Native American tradition, I feel it represents the embodiment of going beyond opposites and seeing the truth of what is, however uncomfortable it may make us, while not judging but laughing at our human imperfections and our ego’s ambition to strive and struggle toward enlightenment, rather than just flowing down the river of life running into a view boulders on the way, nonetheless carrying on. HEYOKA!
January 24th, 2012 at 11:21 pm
Unconditional action. The pinnacle of meditation in action.
January 24th, 2012 at 11:25 pm
Crazy Wisdom:
Is having profound knowledge and acting with this knowledge, in an ultimate and total point of view; which from our small point of view, seems absurd or crazy.
January 25th, 2012 at 12:03 am
such a question cannot be answered with words, but i will attempt: to me, crazy wisdom is accessing and expressing the heart of truth in full alignment with any given circumstance or experience as is in such a profound way that it may look unconventional or insane.
January 25th, 2012 at 12:41 am
I lost my mind years ago – most of the time – and I’m never going back.
January 25th, 2012 at 12:43 am
I see crazy wisdom as unbiased compassion which
only purpose is to awaken without any regard for social convention….
January 25th, 2012 at 2:09 am
What does the elephant mean to the ant?
January 25th, 2012 at 2:10 am
Hehe just pure Dharma without any forms, clothes so to say, like monks clothes or anybody else clothes, just naked and free.
January 25th, 2012 at 2:20 am
–appears crazy yet really wise….
January 25th, 2012 at 2:53 am
From experience it is our innate wisdom that shines through when the masks of ego drop away, in an instant. Maybe it feels like a gradual process, from sustained practice or perhaps it’s in a thunderbolt, but either way it is in a moment, when we are connected to the divine one in all of us. It’s boundless, indescribable in its completeness and impossible to cling to.
Om Ah Hung!
January 25th, 2012 at 2:54 am
It means to be real wicked and raw. I mean truly authentic in having your intent manifest the fullness of you innate wisdom and compassion in often unconventional means to wake people up.
January 25th, 2012 at 3:54 am
Crazy wisdom maybe rikpa.
see what wee can’t see, understand what we can’t explained. Act spontaneously and without error, concepts naked
January 25th, 2012 at 5:48 am
Crazy Wisdom: It is so far reaching and penetrating, that its wisdom and compassion break through barriers of time, space, culture and language to touch the tender heart and fearless goodness of every being and every situation.
January 25th, 2012 at 7:44 am
Crazy Wisdom – NO deception
January 25th, 2012 at 8:17 am
Absolute belief in basic goodness mixed with bare teethed tenacity and an open heart/mind. Apply as necessary.
January 25th, 2012 at 9:04 am
crazy wisdom is the unpretentious wisdom that benefits beings, a lofty goal….
January 25th, 2012 at 11:20 am
crazy wisdom is to the love child of fate and good luck!
January 25th, 2012 at 11:27 am
seemingly crazy? Listen to you heart anyway?
January 25th, 2012 at 11:35 am
I believe Crazy Wisdom means to hold your own council, to listen to your own instinct (this does not mean that you do not listen or consider others’ opinions), consider your options and then act.
The outcome of your actions – whether ‘favourable’ or ‘unfavourable’ – will benefit you, as you will learn and grow from from the resultant situation.
January 25th, 2012 at 2:51 pm
Crazy wisdom seems to be a contradiction of words. an oxymoron. But then it hits me, maybe it is meant initially to bump one out of her comfort zone, to open up to a new way of seeing and doing. That one needs to get a little crazy with the status quo of one’s life, the cocoon of living same old, same old, to gain a deeper, richer wisdom of life.
January 25th, 2012 at 5:32 pm
Crazy Wisdom includes following the loving, authentic impulses within our hearts rather than the fear-based, self-centered impulses embedded by society in our heads.
January 25th, 2012 at 6:15 pm
crazy wisdom it´s a gift from Chogyam Rimpoche life´s for all of us!
January 25th, 2012 at 10:20 pm
crasy a fool of experiance wisdom portraing as a gift of absolution or two alchees egging each other into a sublime form of thinking
January 26th, 2012 at 7:00 am
[...] Of Interest to Readers What does crazy wisdom mean to you? Answer that question for a chance to win one of four downloads of the full-length documentary Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Times of Chögyam Trungpa. For details, visit the editor’s blog. [...]
January 26th, 2012 at 7:36 am
in the millisecond of recognition and awareness of the hindrances that feed the illusion of duality….one of the manifestations of the warriors actions. Playing with the fires of truth.
January 26th, 2012 at 8:06 am
Crazy wisdom is the enlightened nature of one’s Mind (big Mind) sparkling through into one’s little mind.
January 26th, 2012 at 8:11 am
Crazy wisdom means not being too crazy !
January 26th, 2012 at 8:15 am
Knowledge that transcends dualistic thinking, that knows things as they are,not as they conventionally appear. Since it is unconventional , it appears insane or crazy…when what we call ‘sane’ is actually wrong, then to be right is crazy!
January 26th, 2012 at 8:16 am
Crazy wisdom is the sap traveling up the tree of life and then when it reaches two branches, goes up the one that doesn’t bear any fruit. The sap is good but the direction is crazy.
January 26th, 2012 at 8:16 am
Complete realization of emptiness, and absolute compassion. actions born out of this by high Lamas, leave everyone embarassed, exposed, and, if they’re lucky enough, much more realized and touched by such compassion. Actions born of crazy wisdom cut through dillusions instantly, can bring a direct experience of emptiness to those in the room!, and show us how tiny, silly, and powerful, our ‘solid’ ideas and concepts really are!
January 26th, 2012 at 8:37 am
Pressing “Submit Comment”, right on the button.
January 26th, 2012 at 8:47 am
crazy wisdom has no master and no servant
and has vitality
January 26th, 2012 at 8:54 am
Being totally indiscriminate in a society that discriminates.
January 26th, 2012 at 9:45 am
“Crazy Wisdom” is the inherent seed of wisdom in full bloom. The pracitioner has passed through the voids of boredom, anger, materialism and emotional poverty. A connection the deaply personal has thus opened up the deaply universal.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:14 am
Crazy is as crazy does. In other words you get through life with an attitude of playing with what you have on hand in the moment. You throw together a dinner with what’s in the fridge. You put together a plan without any problems using local resources and no expertise except that which is here now. You don’t ask why, you don’t cry, or wound yourself. You just get through it easily without any success in mind but remain active anyway in the presence of the great unknown.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:25 am
Crazy wisdom is liberty to the mind.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:34 am
Crazy is as crazy does.
The wisdom of crazy is the openness with which I engage in each moment.
It leads to everything as a real, human experience.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:21 am
Crazy wisdom-Wisdom that transcends itself.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:51 am
Crazy Wisdom
riding on the wind,
not stuck in old emotions or experiences,
Crazy wisdom …. laughing in the face of disappointment
feeling from the Heart
this is not mean to hurt.
Crazy Wisdom
burning in the fire,
free from old patterns and platitudes,
Crazy wisdom …. smiles despite the heat
feeling from the heart
this too is the root of learning
Crazy Wisdom
flowing in the water,
free from constrictions, shoulds and shouldn’ts,
Crazy wisdom … riding on the flow
feeling from the heart
this is the place to be … in the flow
Crazy Wisdom
dark and deepening in the earth,
pregnant with juice, sparking with possibility
understanding from the heart
this rootedness in ‘being’ beyond, above, under, thoughout
ALL
January 26th, 2012 at 12:06 pm
It is an ability to see all of experience at all times as if through the third eye with perfectly clear truth from all. No human attachments clingings judgements, rather to live as a enlightened sentient being.
January 26th, 2012 at 12:13 pm
crazy wisdom for me is operating from a non-attached standpoint so that one reacts to a situation openly, spontaneously and often uniquely in a way that’s inherent in the situation itself, not from any dogmatic place or set referential rules or ideas. This sort of wisdom therefore may seem crazy to the outside world, which usually reacts through the filters of dogma, prejudice and set referential rules and ideas.
January 26th, 2012 at 12:18 pm
Cutting Loose
Sometimes from sorrow, for no reason,
you sing. For no reason, you accept
the way of being lost, cutting loose
from all else and electing a world
where you go where you want to.
Arbitrary, a sound comes, a reminder
that a steady center is holding
all else. If you listen, that sound
will tell you where it is and you
can slide your way past trouble.
Certain twisted monsters
always bar the path — but that’s when
you get going best, glad to be lost,
learning how real it is
here on earth, again and again.
William Stafford
January 26th, 2012 at 3:35 pm
Crazy wisdom is realizing all of Life is a stream of gifts to be wholly received and freely offered to others in forms most helpful to the well-being of all beings and things.
January 26th, 2012 at 5:41 pm
I see Crazy Wisdom as being authentic and true to yourself in the face of all odds. By being this way, others may see you as inconsistent or even incoherent, yet you still insist on carrying yourself in a way that you can be proud of. This practice is motivated by the wish to help others in whatever way is suitable for them, rather than what your ego would prefer.
January 26th, 2012 at 6:38 pm
Crazy Wisdom is an expression life in its pure unpredictable dynamism, it always changes in a variety of guises as it meets life’s uniqueness directly and courageously. It is not a state of reckless abandon, but rather a boldness in life that allows one to adapt to one’s environment, no matter what the circumstance, while ornamented with a gentle and compassionate heart. It’s peculiar compassion is unstoppable, and cuts through life’s illusions within its very conditions and mundane situations without second-thought, aware of this, Crazy Wisdom is also accompanied with a great joy in one’s spontaneous participation in life that may also rub off others in shared excitement and joyfulness.
January 26th, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Crazy Wisdom is an expression of life in its pure unpredictable dynamism, it always changes in a variety of guises as it meets life’s uniqueness directly and courageously. It is not a state of reckless abandon, but rather a boldness in life that allows one to adapt to one’s environment, no matter what the circumstance, while ornamented with a gentle and compassionate heart. It’s peculiar compassion is unstoppable, and cuts through life’s illusions within its very conditions and mundane situations without second-thought, aware of this, Crazy Wisdom is also accompanied with a great joy in one’s spontaneous participation in life that may also rub off others in shared excitement and joyfulness.
January 26th, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Crazy Wisdom embraces paradox, crazy wisdom is the mind beyond naive judgments of good and bad
January 26th, 2012 at 9:16 pm
crazy wisdom to me would seem to be a wisdom used in hypocrisy and wouldnt benefit either the giver or the reciever If i look at this in error,please teach me
January 27th, 2012 at 8:24 am
Is crazy wisdom forcibly kissing the face in the mirror which I have loved to loathe,
graciously accepting the kiss,
and turning the other cheek in welcome?
January 27th, 2012 at 8:30 am
Sanity in it’s brilliant manifestation coming from basic goodness blossoming all over.
January 27th, 2012 at 12:56 pm
Action emanating from the purest perception dubbed crazy by those whose perceptions of perceived appropriate limitations for thought and action are shaken.
January 28th, 2012 at 2:13 pm
To me it means both “Nyingje Shiwa” & “Jigme Tungpa”
January 28th, 2012 at 4:51 pm
Crazy Wisdom – There is traditional wisdom. It’s not that. There is far out wisdom. Maybe. There is book wisdom. No. There is insanity. No. There is a way to go beyond the theory of wisdom. Ah? Too many words. What is it that comes through. Crazy? No. Crazy wisdom.
What Crazy Wisdom means to me is the assurance that no matter why we don’t know how the inner knowledge grows, it will continue to permeate us if we continue to acknowledge it. Alas, there is no answer. Crazy. and Wisdom. Uh
January 28th, 2012 at 11:39 pm
What does crazy wisdom look like when it manifest?
One example is Muhammad Ali when drafted said something like “I ain’t got no quarrel with the Vietcong.” And it wasn’t just words; he went to jail. Simple and direct even under great pressure.
One can’t say what it is yet crazy wisdom just might visit us if we learn to meet each breath in gratefulness.
January 29th, 2012 at 4:04 pm
Crazy Wisdom is the ‘Wisdom Crazy’ teachings on the 8 Aspects of Padmasambhava; the lineage of the wisdom tradition of the Nyingma tradition on the natural arising of primodial wisdom, without effort or exertion. It is naturally arising and an inherent aspect of basic goodness. It is the manifestation of ground, path and fruition, or, view, action and result, a path of the vajra sanga that brings the practitioner to swift realization.
Om Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hum!
January 30th, 2012 at 3:35 am
To me crazy wisdom means putting others first to the point where you don’t care how others will perceive you and how an action will affect you body and your life; the important thing is that it benefits. Going beyond your own ego and also the egos of others.
January 30th, 2012 at 8:37 am
Crazy wisdom is the clarity to see things as they are without the filter of ego and the fearlessness to do whatever needs to be done, no matter how outrageous, to wake up everyone around you.
January 30th, 2012 at 12:49 pm
Like Robert Zimmerman says, crazy wisdom is “No direction home, like a complete unknown.”
January 31st, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Crazy wisdom only appears “crazy” to the samsaric mind. Crazy wisdom is actually brilliant sanity.
January 31st, 2012 at 5:03 pm
Maybe Crazy Wisdom is a kind of grown up re-assessment of our long lost jouissance, which we enacted as a child. It’s wakeful intelligence connected to the heart of existence, softened but edgy at times.
To-day crazy wisdom should show us a away to a better balanced society by means of taking the individual risk of deviating from the mainstream according to the middle path…
January 31st, 2012 at 5:08 pm
My understanding of Crazy Wisdom is when our basic intuition is met with the underlying compassion we enjoy from our basic practice of meditation, we generate wisdom of bluntness, a direct form if compassion which isn’t the same feeling of compassion emanating from being tied emotionally to others. The crazy part of this wisdom comes from the ability to practice this blunt compassion in our outside world,to speak with open heart.
January 31st, 2012 at 5:16 pm
Crazy Wisdom is that which is afar the main stream of self-centered thinking and looking out at the world.
January 31st, 2012 at 5:18 pm
It’s when after practicing for years, you’re surprised by what comes out of your mouth.
January 31st, 2012 at 5:36 pm
I heard a saying “Wisdom tells me I am nothing and Love tells me I am everything. ”
Crazy Wisdom is letting both of these views disolve itself into One Pointdedness, One Taste.
January 31st, 2012 at 5:39 pm
Crazy wisdom is unconditional clarity and compassion.
January 31st, 2012 at 6:05 pm
brilliance + unpredictability
January 31st, 2012 at 6:12 pm
to me crazy wisdom means the inherent intuitive wisdom, that one hears, sees, smells, breathes, feels when ‘sitting’ at the moment of present loving kindness. i think it is called crazy, because to hear it, see it,know it, feel it, is loving kindness, but to live it is contrary to the accepted norms of society.
January 31st, 2012 at 6:13 pm
When you can diverge from the dominant paradigm and can see the light of wisdom in all beings, they may call you crazy.
January 31st, 2012 at 11:18 pm
Unbridled joy and happiness!
January 31st, 2012 at 11:57 pm
Not bound by samsara, wisdom is crazy. Not being a slave to the eight worldly concerns, wisdom is crazy. Not indulging in self-centered thoughts, wisdom is crazy.
Just Say No (and then yes)
February 1st, 2012 at 12:00 am
I see it as the ability to roll with the randomness and absurdity of life, and to be able to keep a sense of humor and lightness and compassion, even in the most bizarre and unexpected circumstances.
February 1st, 2012 at 12:09 am
Such present and compassionate and conscious behaviour so as to appear ‘crazy’ (or unreal! But in fact very real!) to those who witness it.
February 1st, 2012 at 12:14 am
Milarepa, entering into a yak horn lying by the roadside – and not changing his size in any way. Then, very relaxedly telling Rechungpa, “come on in, there’s plenty of room”. But Rechungpa can not even manage to get his head inside, although he can see the master, sitting there, at his ease.
Also, there’s crazy wisdom in the writer’s advice to “cut it down by half, leaving nothing out.”
February 1st, 2012 at 12:32 am
Crazy Wisdom to me means that once I found Wisdom
I thought I was going crazy.
February 1st, 2012 at 10:13 am
That somewhere, in the midst of all this craziness I’m constantly struggling against, is everything I am now searching for.
February 1st, 2012 at 1:06 pm
Crazy: a student has doubts about the teacher. he thinks, “It seems to me he’s drunk”.
Wisdom: the teacher calls the student, and suggests, “why don’t we meditate together?”
After a time, (through Grace) the student comes upon the Clear Mind of the teacher.
When all these come togther, this is crazy wisdom.
February 1st, 2012 at 4:48 pm
crazy wisdom
That which you know and you know you know, that which is as clear as a bell to you but it came out of nowhere, you don’t know how you received it or where it came from. It makes no sense in one sense, yet it makes absolute sense in another! Its absolutely crazy, man!
February 1st, 2012 at 6:45 pm
Crazy wisdom is holding two completely contradictory ideas in your mind at the same time and being comfortable with the contradiction!
February 1st, 2012 at 7:45 pm
I was just thinking today that I feel fairly certain there’s some crazy wisdom being imparted as I attempt to redesign a meditation teacher’s web site. I am surely going crazy while looking for the wisdom to be gained from the experience!
February 1st, 2012 at 8:26 pm
Crazy Wsidom means: CRAZY! WSIDOM! WIDE AWAKE!
February 2nd, 2012 at 12:54 am
Crazy wisdom is seeing things precisely as they are – unobstructed, clear, vast, and juicy.
February 2nd, 2012 at 2:11 am
The courage to completely ride the energy that presents it self.
February 2nd, 2012 at 4:08 am
clear awareness through chaos
February 2nd, 2012 at 7:00 am
[...] Of Interest to Readers Last chance! What does crazy wisdom mean to you? Answer that question for a chance to win one of four downloads of the full-length documentary Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Times of Chögyam Trungpa. For details, visit the editor’s blog. [...]
February 2nd, 2012 at 8:01 am
POW!
February 2nd, 2012 at 8:45 am
¿Quien define la locura?
¿Quien define la sabiduria?
¿Quien puede unir la locura y la sabiduria?
Este es nuestro linaje
Who defines craziness?
who defines wisdom?
Who can join craziness and wisdom
This is our lineage…
February 2nd, 2012 at 9:05 am
“Crazy wisdom” for me seems to be: Going beyond borders in life. Feeling free to show your way of living to others. Being open and at the same time vulnerable. But vulnerability with a strength inside. It also helps others to feel more at ease, because they can let go their masks a little bit…
Thinking about “crazy wisdom” gives me a cheerful feeling.
February 2nd, 2012 at 10:57 am
I never knew Chogyam Trungpa when he was alive. But I have another crazy wisdom master I have studied who is still living. His name is Wavy Gravy and he runs Camp Winnarainbow, a camp for kids (and sometimes adults) that is stitched together with crazy wisdom. Whimsical costumed characters and improvised skits give the kids serious safety training for both bodies and emotions. Walking the sand and pennyroyal labyrinth barefoot by starlight is the camp’s highest ritual. And at night before bedtime, Wavy scares the kids into brushing their teeth by shining a flashlight briefly into his open, toothless mouth (rainbow dentures removed) and saying “Brush ‘em if you got ‘em!” That’s crazy wisdom.
February 2nd, 2012 at 11:01 am
Crazy wisdom clears out the attic of the mind
completely at home in the cobwebs
and the dreamtime
looking forward
to what
comes
next.
February 2nd, 2012 at 11:04 am
To me, Crazy Wisdom means accessing insight beyond traditional boundaries. It is forgetting what “should” be in favor of what is.
February 2nd, 2012 at 11:16 am
Crazy Wisdom looks from the outside as insanity and from the inside is “known” to be right action and right view.
February 2nd, 2012 at 12:11 pm
It is crazy so many here have an understanding! It is wisdom to collect and present this collectively. With great appreciation for this forum and for your work.
February 2nd, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Crazy Wisdom is the wisdom that recognizes egolessness. Crazy Wisdom is the bold, daring, appropriate action that cuts thru delusions with equanimity and no reference point of self.
Acting when necessary, it is spontaneous and brilliant.
Not being caught up in an idea of self or even non-self, it is luminous and powerful.
May all Beings be well
-M
February 2nd, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Crazy Wisdom is that act, that word, that event, that meem that in the instant your heart/soul receives it, you know it’s true; but then your mind/thoughts get involved and you’re like, “what? ?” “What was that?” “That didn’t make any sense!”
It’s playful & powerful at the same time. It slaps you in the face and smiles because you are laughing. It’s crazy, and it makes perfect sense. Most of us just won’t admit it though. We’d rather be seen as ‘nice’ & ‘sane’.
February 2nd, 2012 at 2:29 pm
Crazy wisdom, to me, means unwavering allegiance to helping others wake up, without regard for convention or “rules.”
“He is inseparable from peacefulness and yet he acts whenever action is required. % He subdues what needs to be subdued, he destroys what needs to be destroyed and he cares for whatever needs his care. % “
February 2nd, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Who knows.
February 2nd, 2012 at 2:55 pm
to be here now
February 2nd, 2012 at 4:12 pm
In the face of the seeming insanity of life on this planet we can feel the inherent goodness and beauty of the world, others, and ourselves – crazy wisdom
February 2nd, 2012 at 4:49 pm
crazy wisdom promises survival in an overwhelming world, it illuminates the path through the madness of greed and inhumanity that seems to be colonising us
February 2nd, 2012 at 6:08 pm
Crazy Wisdom is in essence saying Yes to life. It is living with the view that all experiences and situations contain within them the potential to wake us up. It is the willingness to live with the vulnerability and openness of heart to be receptive to life in all its manifestations.
February 2nd, 2012 at 8:49 pm
Is when you jump out of an aeroplane and then really feel the air around you.
February 2nd, 2012 at 9:31 pm
Como tantas cosas que suceden gracias a la meditacion.La loca sabiduria es la manifestacion de nuestra confianza en la bondad basica inherente a todo proceso y a todo fenomeno. Es cuando un pajaro aterriza como respuesta, o un trueno completa la idea y estanos dispuestos a fluir en la danza de la vida siendo unos con esta respuesta.
February 2nd, 2012 at 9:57 pm
Crazy wisdom is controlled chaos.
February 3rd, 2012 at 4:36 am
If someone says he’s crazy, he is not really crazy. If someone inspires you, it’s due to your wisdom. Crazy & Wisdom & Crazy Wisdom all come from your mind, not someone else or something, somewhere.
February 3rd, 2012 at 7:26 am
It is difficult to define crazy wisdom because by its very nature it is indefinable.However observers recognize it. Crazy wisdom is part of the spiritual path and one has seen it in for example in such masters as Ma Ananda Moyi, Drukpa Kunley, Mulla Nasruddin. However for the observer to recognize crazy wisdom he must have it already within himself. In fact all beings have crazy wisdom as they do have the seed of Buddha.
February 3rd, 2012 at 10:08 am
Crazy wisdom is being “appropriate” from the largest possible perspective.
February 3rd, 2012 at 10:16 am
Ah Crazy Wisdom. Well, one dances in the pure experience which comes from one’s own consciousness. Being in each moment present with all that arises to one’s senses….staying with the heart ache and suffering, staying with the joy and happiness, with all that one’s consciousness produces. And in that pure staying with all that is…we are the wisdom, the pure awareness. We embrace it all without judgement or thought we stay present over and over again…and that is the crazy.
February 3rd, 2012 at 10:28 am
To me, Crazy Wisdom is the ultimate wisdom. It’s doing and/or saying what needs to be done and said, what must be expressed, regardless of the social restrictions or taboos. Sometimes when we work with “mentally ill” folks, true wisdom comes from them, even though it may come out in a less-than-accepted way. We see this in sweat lodges in the Native American tradition, too. We sometimes see it in our own meditation, if we’re lucky!
February 3rd, 2012 at 10:53 am
Crazy wisdom leads our consciousness out of its habitual comfort zone so radically with sudden insight that we’re not only jolted into an unbidden broader horizon, but ever going back into our restrained box just isn’t even an option. (The box is in smitherines!).
February 3rd, 2012 at 12:01 pm
crazy wisdom means for me, that we all have this wisdom in us, and that we all can find ways to be crazy enough, to manifest it into this world.
February 3rd, 2012 at 12:24 pm
Trusting the “me” that is not wrapped in ego, and acting.
February 3rd, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Crazy wisdom: you are so wise that others think you are crazy…..seriously…..you are in your own world….you are connected to others, but others try to disconnect from you because they think that you are nuts. But your wisdom is based on reality, and theirs may be delusional. We are wise in our view of the world as it is, but we are seen as being outlandish.
February 3rd, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Crazy wisdom is the spontaneous intelligence, wisdom and confidence that is our natural birthright. We practice in emptying our minds so that we can connect with this aspect of our nature which is vast, open and limitless.
February 3rd, 2012 at 4:49 pm
Crazy wisdom. Is a quality of deep knowing that may seem crazy to the rest of the world. A place that does not necessarily intersect with rationality and so for many it may not appear to be something that would be deemed wise. Another element to crazy wisdom is the joyful, humorous experience of things that don’t make sense but are deeply true.
February 3rd, 2012 at 11:27 pm
Crazy wisdom is just wisdom, but it seems crazy for the us unenlightened and ill prepared for it.
February 5th, 2012 at 8:35 pm
Crazy wisdom to me means to go Opposite
To listen to what u want don’t. Are what others think
And do not be afraid.
You have one Chance too live life So take some Chances.
Be inspired,be Happy be crazy and don’t let life
Crumble u,Enjoy life and Fight for what U believe in.
February 6th, 2012 at 5:13 pm
A constant reminder that Samsara is not good enough. =)
February 6th, 2012 at 9:28 pm
the edge of no edge that you didn’t expect.
February 20th, 2012 at 7:52 pm
crazy wisdom breaks the conventional… it may be a nice fish, but thats not important, hes not willing to be with the wound, the hurt underneath, and differentiate the danger from the tenderness… trungpa isnt doing anything to him, hes getting triggered and not being able to work with his experience. Trungpa is a teacher and is always teaching. if you there to get some egoic praise hes going to feel that and bring it out for you to face. so you have the opportunity to face it. no one is forcing him to be there or cook for the guy… this is the hardcore vehicle, for those who want to merge with the devine non dual, for those who want to integrate the nondual, for those who want to deepen and root into the nondual by becoming aware of where they are not rooted to the nondual… it does get scary because your doing yoga. and that is exactly the point. the question is where is your alligance. to Merging, or avoiding your wounds, always trying to get away from them and the stimulus that elicit them. more advanced students jump at the opportunity to face something new, to deepen more and to be with what arises. to work WITH their experience. the point is when you deepen and deepen and deepen into the nondual (integrate more and more) less things trigger you because you see through them. and that is the point of the dharma!!! to see through and be with what is real
March 29th, 2012 at 7:25 pm
I think Crazy Wisdom speaks to living outside the cacoon
March 30th, 2012 at 6:43 am
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