Louca Sabedoria

Dharma Ocean

by Chögyam Trungpa, Eduardo Pinheiro de Souza (Translator)

Chogyam Trungpa descreve a “louca sabedoria” como um estado mental inocente, dotado da qualidade do alvorecer – fresco, brilhante, completamente desperto. Esse fascinante livro examina a vida de Padmasambhava – o reverenciado professor indiano que levou o budismo ao Tibete – para ilustrar o princípio da louca sabedoria. Dessa perspectiva profunda, a prática espiritual não fornece respostas confortáveis para a dor ou para a confusão. Pelo contrário, as emoções dolorosas são valorizadas como desafi adoras oportunidades que permitem novas descobertas. Em particular, o autor discute a meditação como uma forma prática de desvelar nossa própria sabedoria inata em meio à vida cotidiana.

Genres: Buddhism, Spirituality, Philosophy, Religion, Nonfiction, Psychology, Metaphysics

209 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Vidyadhara Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (Tibetan: ཆོས་ རྒྱམ་ དྲུང་པ་ Wylie: Chos rgyam Drung pa; also known as Dorje Dradul of Mukpo, Surmang Trungpa, after his monastery, or Chökyi Gyatso, of which Chögyam is an abbreviation) was a Buddhist meditation master, scholar, teacher, poet, and artist. He was the 11th descendent in the line of Trungpa tulkus of the Kagyü school of Tibetan Buddhism. He was also trained in the Nyingma tradition, the oldest of the four schools, and was an adherent of the rimay or "non-sectarian" movement within Tibetan Buddhism, which aspired to bring together and make available all the valuable teachings of the different schools, free of sectarian rivalry.

Trungpa was a significant figure in the dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism to the West, founding Naropa University and establishing the Shambhala Training method, a presentation of the Buddhadharma largely devoid of ethnic trappings. In 1963, he moved to England to study comparative religion, philosophy, and fine arts at Oxford University. During this time, he also studied Japanese flower arranging and received an instructors degree from the Sogetsu school of ikebana. In 1967, he moved to Scotland, where he founded the Samye Ling meditation centre.

Shortly thereafter, a variety of experiences—including a car accident that left him partially paralyzed on the left side of his body—led him to give up his monastic vows and work as a lay teacher. In 1969, he published Meditation in Action , the first of fourteen books on the spiritual path published during his lifetime. The following year he married Diana Pybus and moved to the United States, where he established his first North American meditation centre, Tail of the Tiger (now known as Karmê-Chöling) in Barnet, Vermont.

In 1986, he moved to Nova Scotia, Canada, where hundreds of his students had settled. That Autumn, after years of heavy alcohol use, he had a cardiac arrest, and he died of heart failure the following Spring. His legacy is carried on by his son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, under the banner of Shambhala International and the Nalanda Translation Committee.

Reviews

[Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crazy Wisdom is irrefragable. No bully can bust it. No impartial professional can analyse and thus dismantle it. The world can only try desperately to dumb it down, but will always fail.

It is Vast and Primordial.

Who has it? Children and innocents. Cackling geezers. And the fearless President of Ukraine, Mr. Zelensky.

Such Fools, the Bible tells us, can SHAME THE WISE.

Padmasambhava was just such a man. Coming from India to Tibet - so crazy he didn't dodge the huge difficulty of primitive travel back in those mists of time - he wanted only to bring Gautama Buddha's message of Peace to the poor.

With one big difference.

He was brilliantly canny - saw through every game in town, so to speak - and felt eminently qualified to show the notoriously canny Tibetans that PEACE IS CRAZY, BUT IT WORKS.

And that the Violent will be DESTROYED.

Something us equally canny modern sophisticates should heed.

And what's the reason Chogyam Trungpa survived the Communist Invasion of Tibet?

Simple. He knew Americans are street smart...

So he wanted to travel to America to show us Crazy Wisdom.

And before he died...

He showed us smart alecks that Peace Can Work - and that Violence will always FALL FLAT.

And just like Padmasambhava, he was Crazy -

But he was very, very WISE.

[Leslie Rollins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped me get through the dark days after my husband's sudden death. I started with Pema Chodren's "When Things Fall Apart" but found I needed something meatier. Trungpa is more of a wrestle for me: he irks me then suddenly cuts right through to the heart.

When I reread the book later, it didn't quite have the same effect. Maybe it's best reserved for the dark and troubled mind...?

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second time reading this book, six years apart, and it seems like a completely new book now that I am more familiar with vajra, dzogchen, and Padmasambhara. The book covers: some aspects of the crazy wisdom tradition, including questions by students and Trungpa's answers, relating to hope and fear on the tantric or crazy wisdom path , and the eight aspects of Padmasambava, the kind of original crazy wisdom figure.

As to be expected with Trungpa, his words are bright, provocative, simultaneously crystal clear and cryptic at the same time.

Now it is November, nine months from my second reading, and this has easily been the best book of the year, with the aspects of Padmasambava haunted me nearly daily. The concept of taking the unjust blame continues to blow my mind and leach into my brain follow me wherever I go. It is a suggestion, a riddle, a koan, a challenge, and an answer.

"The approach of crazy wisdom here is to give up hope. There is no hope of understanding anything at all. There is no hope of finding out who did what or what did what or how anything worked. Give up your ambition to put the jigsaw puzzle together. Give it up all together, absolutely; throw it up into the air, put it in the fireplace. Unless we give up this hope, this precious hope, there is no way out at all." p.84

"In other words, you think you are able to deceive the path by being a smart traveler on the path, but you begin to realize that you are the path itself. You can't deceive the path because you make the path." p.89

"We could say that our lives consist of this tremendous vividness all the time: the vividness of being bored, being angry, being in love, being proud, being jealous. Our lives consist of all these kinds of vividness rather than of virtues or sins created by those." p.98

"It is not hard to imagine that when you know what you are and who you are completely, then you can explore the rest of the world, because you don't have to explore yourself anymore." p.101

"Our degree of fearlessness should be, so to speak, the speedometer of our sanity." p.117

"Death is the desolate experience in which our habitual patterns cannot continue as we would like them to." p.129

[Khansa · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب ممتع يتناول فلسفة الديانة البوذية لدى أهل التبت ونظرتهم للبادما سمباهافا كقديس وكمبدأ كوني وأسماءه وطريقة معيشته التي يقتبسون منها أصول طريقتهم وسيكولوجية البوذي. كما عرّف الكثير من الجوانب والأساسيات والطرق بطريقة رائعة.

صياغة الكتاب سلسة وجميلة وقد تم تعريف الكثير من المواضيع المهمة وارتباطاتها بفلسفات أخرى في داخل البوذية. وكون الكتاب عبارة عن ندوة فقد امتلأ بأسئلة المشاركين من الطلبة وإجابة المؤلف عليها وشروحه مما أوضح الكثير من الأمور ولكنه أوجد تكراراً في العديد من الأفكار سواء بما يتعلق بالبادما سماهافا وقصته أو ببعض الأمور الأخرى. وكان يمكن أن يتم ترتيب الكتاب وتبويبه بشكل يقضي على الحاجة لتكرار الأفكار.

والقارئ لطريقة أهل التبت في الديانة البوذية يرى أنها تقضي على الوقت بانشغال الفرد بداخل ذاته. كما تقضي على حماس الإنسان لأنه يروض نفسه بأن ينفصل عن المشاعر الإنسانية ويتعامل مع الأمور كما هي كحقائق لا بد أن تمر دون رغبة حتى لتصحيحها لأنها -كونها حقائق- ستتصحح ذات يوم من تلقاء نفسها والقبول بإلقاء اللوم على الإنسان حتى لو لم يكن مخطئاً ففي يوم من الأيام ستتضح الحقائق ويتم الكشف عن أنه لم يكن مخطئاً وغيره من الأمور. وإلى جانب كون الأمور حقائق، ترى فلسفتهم أنه إذا شعر الإنسان بشيء فإنه جزء منه، أي لو شعر بالغضب فإنه هو الغضب وهذا ما يحتم عليه التخلص من هذه الأمور.

كما أراها لا تسعى لتحسين معيشة الفرد، فمن الألم تنبثق السعادة لديهم فحتى قديسهم -البادما سمباهافا- عاش ذات يوم في كهف مليء بالجثث البشرية لأن الواقع والحياة ألقته هناك فلابد من تقبل الأمور واستشعار الألم. كما تقضي على طموح الفرد بوقوفها على عمادي انعدام الأمل والخوف فالحقيقة فقط هي المتواجدة.

كما تقضي على التساؤلات التي تراود الفرد إذ أنها تبدأ بالشك والتساؤل والإجابة حتى الوصول لمرحلة اللاسؤال واللا إجابة لأن فلسفتهم ترى أنه لا داعي للسؤال عن الحقائق فهي هنا وما نعيشه الآن فقط فلم نسأل عن أمور لا نراها أو نعايشها.

فأراها تقضي على هذه الجوانب الإنسانية التي أعتقد أنها مهمة وجزء لا يجب أن يلغى من الفرد.

وبالتأكيد فكما أن هناك جوانب غير إيجابية، فلكل شيء جوانب حسنة، ومنها عدم الاندفاع في ردات الفعل فلا تسمح البوذية على طريقة التبت للفرد بأن يستخدم من قبل الآخرين حتى بردات الفعل.
كما تحوي جوانب العطاء والسلام مع الآخرين عن طريق العديد من الطرق والأسباب.

[Heathen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book to read about Buddhism (a school of Tibetan Buddhism) if like me you have met too many passive aggressive westerner 'so called' Buddhists who seem to have no real clue and mainly use the philosophy to suppress themselves/escape themselves and the world. No sentimentality, no spiritual consumerism, no escape! Fascinating stuff!

[Jessica Zu · Rating 2 out of 5]

For those of you enchanted by Chongpa's teaching, please first read Heidegger's "on the essence of truth" before pouring out your fulsome adulation of Chongpa's wisdom. Just like D.T. Suzuki who sells Carus teaching as Japanese Zen, Chongpa is selling Heidegger (and probably a few other existentialists) as Tibetan crazy wisdom. I feel sorry that most of the Westerners could not recognize their own reflections in the mystic Tibetan mirror. This makes feel how education is crucial to any cultural exchange. If you don't even know your own tradition, on what basis can you understand a foreign culture?

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always blown away by Chogyam Trungpa's writing. This is a very advanced book dealing with advanced teachings so I was lost for a lot of it but had enough exposure that it sort of tickled parts of my brain. This would not be a great book for those just new to Buddhism but those who have studied at least the Mahayana teachings and have an idea of what's to come, this is a great read.

[Iremler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intense. I defintely recommend this book but, only after you've read a few others on Buddhism. Otherwise, it won't make sense. It's quite good though, a book that may get overlooked by others but you'll be glad you found it and read it.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book helped me finally understand the attraction of Tibetan Buddhism. Full review: http://bit.ly/ZGbu7L

[Lisa Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read most of Trungpa's books. This was one of my favorites. I'm now re-reading some of them.

[TL · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The Buddhist approach to spirituality is quite different. It is nontheistic. It does not have the principle of an external divinity. Thus there is no possibility of getting promises from the divinity and bringing them from there down to here. The Buddhist approach to spirituality is connected with awakening within oneself rather than with relating to something external.'

'A saint in the Buddhist context—for example, Padmasambhava or a great being like the Buddha himself—is someone who provides an example of the fact that completely ordinary, confused human beings can wake themselves up; they can put themselves together and wake themselves up through an accident of life of one kind or another. The pain, the suffering of all kinds, the misery and the chaos that are part of life, begins to wake them, shake them. Having been shaken, they begin to question: "Who am I? What am I? How is it that all these things are happening?" Then they go further and realize that there is something in them that is asking these questions, something that is, in fact, intelligent and not exactly confused.

That happens in our own lives. We feel a sense of confusion—it seems to be confusion—but that confusion brings out something that is worth exploring. The questions that we ask in the midst of our confusion are potent questions, questions that we really have. We ask: "Who am I? What is this? What is life?" and so forth. Then we explore further and ask: "In fact, who on Earth asked that question? Who is that person who asked the question "Who am I?" Who is the person who asked, "What is?" or even "What is what is?" We go on and on with this questioning, further and further inward. In some way, this is nontheistic spirituality in its fullest sense.

External inspirations do not stimulate us to model ourselves on further external situations. Rather the external situations that exist speak to us of our confusion, and this makes us think more, think further. Once we have begun to do that, then of course there is the other problem: once we have found out who and what we are, how do we apply what we have learned to our living situation? How do we put it into practice?

There seem to be two possible approaches here. One is trying to live up to what we would like to be. The other is trying to live up to what we are. Trying to live up to what we would like to be is like pretending we are a divine being or a realized person, or whatever we might like to call the model. When we realize what is wrong with us, what our weakness is, what our problems and neuroses are, the automatic temptation is to try to act just the opposite, as though we have never heard of such a thing as our being wrong or confused. We tell ourselves: "Think positive! Act as though you're okay." Although we know that something is wrong with us on the level of the actual living situation, on the kitchen-sink level, we regard that as unimportant. "Let's forget those 'evil vibrations,'" we say. "Let's think the other way. Let's pretend to be good."

This approach is known in the Buddhist tradition as spiritual materialism, which means not being realistic, or to use hippie jargon, spacing out. "Let's forget the bad and pretend to be good." We could classify as spiritual materialism any approach—such as Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, or Christian—that provides us with techniques to try to associate with the good, the better, the best—or the ultimately good, the divine.

When we begin associating ourselves with the good, it makes us happy. We feel full of delight. We think, "At last I've found an answer!" That answer is that the only thing to do is regard ourselves as free already. Then, having established the position that we are free already, we just have to let all things flow.

Then we add a further touch to reinforce our spiritual materialism: everything that we do not know or did not understand in connection with our spiritual quest we connect with descriptions in various scriptures about that which is beyond mind, beyond words, ineffable—the ineffable Self, or whatever. We associate our own lack of understanding about what is going on with us with those unspoken, inexpressible things. This way our ignorance is made into the greatest discovery of all.'

'The result of all this is that we end up confirming ourselves and confirming that the experience we are proclaiming is a true experience. Nobody can question it. At some stage, there's no room left for questioning at all. Our whole outlook becomes completely established with no room left at all for questioning. This is what we could call achieving egohood, as opposed to achieving enlightenment. At that point, if I would like to practice my aggression and passion on you and you don't accept that, then that's your fault. You do not understand the ineffable spirituality, so you are at fault. The only way left for me to help you is to reduce you to a shrunken head, to take out your brain and heart. You become a mere puppet under my command.'


'That is a rough portrait of spiritual materialism. It is the first of the two possible approaches: trying to live up to what you would like to be. Now let's talk about the second possible approach, that of trying to live what you are.

This possibility is connected with seeing our confusion, or misery and pain, but not making those discoveries into an answer. Instead we explore further and further and further without looking for an answer. It is a process of working with ourselves, with our lives, with our psychology, without looking for an answer but seeing things as they are—seeing what goes on in our heads directly and simply, absolutely literally. If we can undertake a process like that, then there is a tremendous possibility that our confusion—the chaos and neurosis that goes on in our minds—might become a further basis for investigation. Then we look further and further and further. We don't make a big point or an answer out of any one thing. For example, we might think that because we have discovered one particular thing that is wrong with us, that must be it, that must be the problem, that must be the answer.

No. We don't fixate on that, we go further. "Why is that the case?" We look further and further. We ask: "Why is this so? Why is there spirituality? Why is there awakening? Why is there this moment of relief? Why is there such a thing as discovering the pleasure of spirituality? Why, why, why?"

We go on deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper, until we reach the point where there is no answer. There is not even a question. Both question and answer die simultaneously at some point. They begin to rub each other too closely and they short-circuit each other in some way. At that point, we tend to give up hope of an answer, or of anything whatsoever, for that matter. We have no more hope, none whatsoever. We are purely hopeless. We could call this transcending hope, if you want to put it in more genteel terms.

This hopelessness is the essence of crazy wisdom. It is hopeless, utterly hopeless. It is beyond hopelessness. (Of course it would be possible, if we tried to turn that hopelessness into some kind of solution, to become confused again, to say the least.)

The process is one of going further in and in without any reference point of spirituality, without any reference point of a savior, without any reference point of goodness or badness—without any reference points whatsoever! Finally we might reach the basic level of hopelessness, of transcending hope. This does not mean we end up as zombies. We still have all the energies; we have all the fascination of discovery, of seeing this process unfolding and unfolding and unfolding, going on and on. This process of discovery automatically recharges itself so that we keep going deeper and deeper and deeper.

This process of going deeper and deeper is the process of crazy wisdom, and it is what characterizes a saint in the Buddhist tradition.'

'...we see that the Buddhist approach to spirituality is one of ruthlessly cutting through any chance we might have of confirming ourselves at any particular stage of development on the spiritual path. When we discover that we have made some progress on the spiritual path, that discovery of progress is regarded as a hindrance to further progress. So we don't get a chance to rest, to relax, or to congratulate ourselves at all. It is a one-shot, ongoingly ruthless spiritual journey. And that is the essence of Padmasambhava's spirituality.'

'The students he had to deal with were Tibetans, who were extraordinarily savage and uncultured. He was invited to Tibet, but the Tibetans showed very little understanding of how to receive and welcome a great guru from another part of the world. They were very stubborn and very matter-of-fact—very earthy. They presented all kinds of obstacles... Padmasambhava's work is to cut through the Tibetans' layers and layers of expectations, through all their assumptions as to what spirituality might be. Finally, at the end of Padmasambhava's mission in Tibet, when he manifested as Dorje Trolö, all those layers of expectation were completely cut through. The Tibetans began to realize that spirituality is cutting through hope and fear as well as being the sudden discovery of intelligence that goes along with this process.'

'In some ways, Padmasambhava's situation was very similar to our situation here. Americans are hospitable, but on the other hand there is a very savage and rugged side to American culture. Spiritually, American culture is not conducive to just bringing out the brilliant light and expecting it to be accepted.

So there is an analogy here. In terms of that analogy, the Tibetans are the Americans and Padmasambhava is himself.'


'In the case of ordinary craziness, we are constantly trying to win the game. We might even try to turn craziness into a credential of some kind so we can come out ahead. We might try to magnetize people with passion or destroy them with aggression, or whatever. There's a constant game going on in the mind. Mind's game—constant strategies going on—might bring us a moment of relief occasionally, but that relief has to be maintained by further aggression. That kind of craziness has to maintain itself constantly, on and on.

In the case of the primordial craziness of crazy wisdom, we do not permit ourselves to get seduced by passion or aroused by aggression at all. We relate with these experiences as they are, and if anything comes up in the midst of that complete ordinariness and begins to make itself into a big deal, then we cut it down—without any special reference to what is good and what is bad. Crazy wisdom is just the action of truth. It cuts everything down.

It does not even try to translate falseness into truthfulness, because that in itself is corruption. It is ruthless, because if you want the complete truth, if you want to be completely, wholely wholesome, then any suggestion that comes up of translating whatever arises into your terms, interpreting it in your terms, is not worth looking into.

On the other hand, the usual crazy approach is completely up for that kind of thing—for making whatever comes up fit into your thing. You make it suit what you want to be, suit what you want to see. But crazy wisdom becomes completely accurate out of the moment of things as they are. This is the style of action of Padmasambhava.'

'The most difficult discipline is to be what you are. Constantly trying to be what you are not is much easier, because we are trained to con either ourselves or others, to fit things into appropriate categories. Whereas if you take all of that away, the whole thing becomes too irritating, too boring. There's no room for talking yourself into anything. Everything is quite simple.'

'Q: Is sense of humor, the way you use it, the same as crazy wisdom?
A: Not quite. Sense of humor is still too much slanted toward the other side, toward hope and fear. It's a dialectic mentality, whereas crazy wisdom is an overall approach.'

'...anything that is ruthless—anything that knows nothing of hope and fear—is related to spiritual practice.'

'Q: Are you saying that hopelessness and fearlessness are the same thing?
A: Yes. They are the ultimate thing, if you are able to work with that. They are the ultimate thing.'

'...when neurosis and confusion reach an extreme point, the only way to correct the confusion is by destroying it. You have to completely shatter the whole thing. That process of destruction is demanded by the confusion itself rather than it being a question of somebody thinking it is a good idea to destroy the confusion by force. No other thinking is involved.

The intensity of confusion just demands its own destruction. Ruthlessness is just putting that energy into action. It is just letting that energy burn itself out rather than your killing something. You just let ego's neurosis commit suicide rather than killing it. That's the ruthlessness. Ego is killing itself ruthlessly, and you are providing the accommodation for that.

This is not warfare. You are there, and therefore it happens. On the other hand, if you are not there, there is the possibility of scapegoats and sidetracks of all kinds. But if you are there, you don't even actually have to be ruthless. Just be there; from the point of view of ego, that is ruthless.'

'The whole point of ruthlessness is that when you are ruthless, no one can con you. No one can seduce you in an unhealthy direction... you would not accept that. Even attempts to seduce you arouse energy that is destructive toward that attempted seduction. If you are completely open and completely aroused in terms of crazy wisdom, no one can lure you into their territory.'

'You don't maintain the ruthlessness. Your ruthlessness is maintained by others. You don't maintain anything at all. You just be there, and whatever situation comes to you, you just project back. Take the example of fire. It does not possess its destructiveness. It just happens.'

'That's the whole point of the transcendental type of ruthlessness. It does not need judgment. The situation brings the action. You simply react, because the elements contain aggression. If the elements are interfered with or dealt with in an irreverent or unskillful way, they hit you back. Ruthlessness may seem to survive on a sense of relativity, of "this" versus "that," but in fact it actually does not. It is absolute.'


'Padmasambhava's way is that of transcending spiritual materialism, of developing basic sanity. Developing basic sanity is a process of working on ourselves in which the path itself rather than the attainment of a goal becomes the working basis. The path itself is what constantly inspires us, rather than, in the style of the carrot and the donkey, promises about certain achievements that lie ahead of us...in transcending spiritual materialism, there is no goal. The goal exists in every moment of our life situation, in every moment of our spiritual journey.'

'In this way, the spiritual journey becomes as exciting and as beautiful as if we were buddha already. There are constant new discoveries, constant messages, and constant warnings. There is also constant cutting down, constant painful lessons—as well as pleasurable ones. The spiritual journey of transcending spiritual materialism is a complete journey rather than one that is dependent on an external goal.

It is this completeness of the journey that we are going to discuss in relation to Padmasambhava's life. This completeness could be described in terms of certain aspects: it contains basic space, or totality; it contains energy and play; and it also contains pragmatic application, or dealing with life situations as they are. We have three principles there: the totality as the whole sense of environment on the path, the sense of play on the path, and the sense of practicality on the path. These are the three categories that develop.'

'The path is our effort, the energy that we put into the daily living situation; it consists of our trying to work with the daily living situation as a learning process—whether that situation is creative or destructive or whatever. If you spill a cup of coffee on your neighbor's table or if you just pass someone the salt, it's the same thing. These are the happenings that occur all the time in our life situations. We are constantly doing things, constantly relating with things or rejecting things. There is constant play.'

'The path does not particularly have to be labeled as spiritual. It is just a simple journey, the journey that contains exchange with the reality of this and that—or with the unreality of it, if you prefer. Relating with these exchanges—the living process, the being process—is the path.'

'In any case, we never get stuck in any way at all. We might feel bored with life and so forth; but we never really get bored or really get stuck. The repetitiousness of life is not really repetition. It is composed of constant happenings, situations constantly evolving, all the time. That is the path.

From this point of view, the path is neutral. It is not biased one way or the other. There is a constant journey happening, which began at the time of the basic split. We began to relate in terms of "the other," "me," "mine," "our," and so on. We began to relate with things as separate entities. The other is called "them" and this thing is called "I" or "me." The journey began right from there. That was the first creation of samsara and nirvana. Right at the beginning, when we decided to connect in some way with the energy of situations, we involved ourselves in a journey, in the path.

After that, we develop a certain way of relating with the path, and the path becomes conditioned toward either worldliness or spirituality. In other words, spirituality is not really the path, but spirituality is a way of conditioning our path, our energy. Conditioning our path happens in terms of the three categories I have already mentioned... The path is happening anyway, then we relate to it in a certain way, we take a certain attitude toward it. The path then becomes either a spiritual path or a mundane path. This is the way we relate to the path; this is how our motivation begins. And our motivation has the threefold pattern. In the Buddhist tradition, these three aspects of the path are called dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya.'


'We become fresh, inquisitive, sparkling; we want to know more about the world, more about life. All of our preconceptions have been stripped away.'

[Sofia Lipponen]

spiritual materialism:

"... to make this perfectly clear, the difference between spiritual materialism and transcending spiritual materialism is that in spiritual materialism promises are used like a carrot held up in front of a donkey, luring him into all kinds of journeys; in transcending spiritual materialism, there is no goal. The goal exists in every moment of our life situation, in every moment of our spiritual journey."

"you don't achieve anything except path"

"... we have to develop a kind of romanticism. This is equally important as the cynical approach we have been taking up till now. There are two types of this romantic, or bhakti, approach. One is based on a sense of poverty. You feel you don't have it, but the others do. You admire the richness of "that": the goal, the guru, the teachings. This is a poverty approach - you feel that these other things are so beautiful because you don't have what they have. It is a materialistic approach - that of spiritual materialism-and it is based on there not being enough sanity in the first place, not enough sense of confidence and richness. The other type of romantic approach is based on the sense that you do have it; it is there already. You do not admire it because it is somebody else's, because it is somewhere far away, distant from you, but because it is right near - in your heart. It is a sense of appreciation of what you are. You have as much as the teacher has, and you are on the path of dharma yourself, so you do not have to look at the dharma from outside. This is a sane approach; it is fundamentally rich; there is no sense of poverty at all."

mutta huom...

"We tell ourselves: "Think positive! Act as though you're okay." Although we know that something is wrong with us on the level of the actual living situation, on the kitchen-sink level, we regard that as unimportant. "Let's forget those 'evil vibrations,' we say. "Let's think the other way. Let's pretend to be good." This approach is known in the Buddhist tradition as spiritual materialism, which means not being realistic, or to use hippie jargon, spacing out. "Let's forget the bad and pretend to be good." We could classify as spiritual materialism any approach - such as Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, or Christian - that provides us with techniques to try to associate with the good, the better, the best - or the ultimately good, the divine. "

hopelessness:

"...For example, we might think that because we have discovered one particular thing that is wrong with us, that must be it, that must be the problem, that must be the answer. No. We don't fixate on that, we go further. "Why is that the case?" We look further and further. We ask: "Why is this so? Why is there spirituality? Why is there awakening? Why is there this moment of relief? Why is there such a thing as discovering the pleasure of spirituality? Why, why, why?" We go on deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper, until we reach the point where there is no answer. There is not even a question. Both question and answer die simultaneously at some point. They begin to rub each other too closely and they short-circuit each other in some way. At that point, we tend to give up hope of an answer, or of anything whatsoever, for that matter. We have no more hope, none whatsoever. We are purely hopeless. We could call this transcending hope, if you would like to put it in more genteel terms.
This hopelessness is the essence of crazy wisdom."

"Even hopelessness has been regarded as a solution. That cop-out is still happening. We are still going on as though there were this silent agreement that, no matter what we say, we are working toward some kind of happiness. But Padmasambhava in his aspect of rajguru was not concerned about that at all. His approach was, ´Let happiness present itself if it happens, but in the meantime, let me be executed if necessary.´"

"Even believing in no promise is a promise of some kind. That kind of twist is always there."

" TRUNGPA RINPOCHE: It is said that at the end of the journey through the nine yanas, it is clear that the journey need never have been made. So the path that is presented to us is an act of hopelessness in some sense. The journey need never be made at all. It's eating your own tail and continuing until you eat your own mouth. That's the kind of analogy we could use."

"S: It doesn't sound like a waste of time at all.

TR: That's up to you. That's what I'm saying.

STUDENT: When you say the journey need never be made, do you really mean that? We don't have to make the trip?

TRUNGPA RINPOCHE: But then you don't know what the trip is.

S: Why do we need to know that?

TR: To realize you need never make it - it's a seamless web."


Enlightenment:

"There is also a quality of fearlessness in enlightenment, not regarding the world as an enemy, not feeling that the world is going to attack us if we do not take care of ourselves. Instead, there is tremendous delight in exploring the razor's edge, like a child who happens to pick up a razor blade with honey on it."

"In other words, intellect here means absence of watcher. If we watch ourselves learning - watch ourselves growing, developing, becoming more and more scholastic people - then we are comparing ourselves with "other." We are constantly gaining weight in our egos, because we are comparing ourselves with "other." Whereas if there is experience or intellectual study going on without a watcher, it becomes very simple and direct. This kind of intellect without watcher has qualities similar to what we were describing earlier in connection with the experience of the young prince. It is open, willing to explore. It is without a particular attitude. It is without a sense that you want what is happening to be replaced by something else, that you want your ignorance to be replaced by information. It is a constant discovery of new situations in life and what the teachings and scriptures have to say about them. It means discovering the subtleties and feelings related with different aspects of Buddhism."

"we discover the childlike quality in us. We become fresh, inquisitive, sparkling; we want to know more about the world, more about life. All of our preconceptions have been stripped away."

[mohammad Hawatky · Rating 4 out of 5]

الكتاب يتحدث عن شخصية قديس بوذي يدعى بادماسمبافا و هو الذي نقل البوذية من الهند الى التبت و الكتاب يحكي عن رحلته الروحية و السيكولوجية منذ أن ولد داخل زهرة اللوتس و حتى وصوله الى مرحلة البوديساتفا و هي مرحلة الاستنارة الروحية ... و رحلته التعليمية في أرض التبت و الثماني جوانب لشخصيته ... الكتاب مفيد لمن أراد أن يطلع على الفلسفة البوذية

[Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great presentation of the manifestations of Padmasambhava.

[لولوه الرفاعي]

الكتاب عبارة عن تلخيص محاضرة لشخص بوذي ، افكاره غير واضحة و متسلسله ، يشتت القارئ ، و مضيعه للوقت وشكرا :)

[Anthony Trahair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantatic book. Loved it.

[dp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite profound, quite difficult, quite enjoyable

[van1998 · Rating 5 out of 5]

เผชิญสัมผัสความสับสนวุ่นวาย ด้วยสายตาที่มองว่าเป็นสิ่งที่สวยงาม มีระเบียบแบบแผนมากกว่าเป็นความยุ่งเหยิง

จุดมุ่งหมายของการศึกษาธรรม ไม่ใช่หาข้อสรุป แต่เพื่อเข้าถึงสิ่งต่างๆอย่างมีเหตุผล และมีวิจารณญาณ ปฏิเสธการเทิดทูนสติปัญญาอย่างหมดใจ

[Independence Rosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure where, to begin with, a review of this book to be quite honest.
I was first introduced to Trungpa's work when I read "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" earlier this year. This book, Crazy Wisdom, made a riveting and oft intriguing companion to the former. Through the book, I found myself drawing comparisons to the text and situations- experiences, in my own life. I'm surprised to read that others had difficulty understanding the text, for I felt deeply surprised to read situations I could relate to on paper to this much a degree. I found myself laughing at many points due to the irony of the experiences I've had intermingling with the lessons within the pages. Alternatively, were they lessons or a mirror of that which we already know? Is the story of Padmasambhava and his aspects a tale of the extraordinary? Or is his story one and the same as my own and quite ordinary? The answer ends up being whichever one is chosen. Or is the answer the friends we made along the way?
Fantastic book. This would not be a great introduction for people new to Buddhism, or it could serve as the perfect introduction. The only things we know are that we know, that we know, that we know etc. The path is the path is the path.

[Jim Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won't even begin to claim that I understand Crazy Wisdom but this book (actually a series of lectures with questions by students) gave me much to consider. The most through examination of Padmasambhava that I have encountered.

[Seema · Rating 1 out of 5]

الكتاب مقلب! :]

[Gentil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!! Trungpa Rinpoche was one of the greatest XX century buddhist masters. You always get wisdoany of his videos or books.

[Scott Rennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book, very insightful!

[Hollis Fishelson-holstine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had a much harder time with this one vs spiritual materialism (I'll try again at a later time)

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book collects the lessons of two seminars on crazy wisdom taught by Chögyam Trungpa in 1972. “Crazy Wisdom” is an awakened state of mind that was taught by Padmasambhava – the teacher who introduced Buddhism to Tibet from India. The two seminars consist of six and seven lessons, respectively. These thirteen lessons make up the chapters of the book. Each chapter consists mostly of a text discussion of the topic at hand, but with an interview at the end in which the teacher is asked to clarify points mentioned in the text or that are relevant to the topic under discussion.

The book starts with differentiating two approaches: trying to live up to what one would like to be (i.e. spiritual materialism), and trying to live what one is. While the former is a widespread phenomenon across many religions, it’s dismissed as not all that productive. Along the way, the book discusses how being childlike, ruthless, hopeless, fearless, and in touch with death can all have beneficial effects on the mind. Of course, one has to go about such things in a proscribed manner as it’s emphasized that crazy wisdom and being crazy aren’t identical states (even if they may share similar appearances in some instances.)

Like many books on wisdom, this one offers a mix of profound insight and a sort of double speak used to make profound-sounding but ineffable statements, or logically inconsistent statements, seem true and / or thought-provoking. A philosophizing style is employed rather than narrative style, and so it can read a bit blandly.

There are a few notes and several line-drawn artworks in the Tibetan Buddhist style, but otherwise it’s a straightforward text.

I found this book to be intriguing and to offer interesting food-for-thought. It’s a short book, but may be a bit challenging for a reader without a background in Tibetan Buddhism, or in Buddhism in general. If you’re interested in Vajrayana Buddhism, you should give it a read.

[Mark Lajiness · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read most of it, and learned that Chogyam Trungpa was one of many spiritual teachers in the USA in the last 60's and early '70s. The book focuses on the life of an Indian spiritual teacher who traveled from India to Tibet, long ago. Padmasambhava found the Tibetans (at that time) kind of rough and dense -- but Tibetan Buddhism as we know it today exists because of Padmasambhava's influence. I like how Trungpa doesn't talk (since this book is actually the transcription of two series of lectures) about a heirarchy of qualities, but about how Padmasambhava embodied all of them at the same time. As I've said, I read most of the book, but wasn't totally blown away, but I am not the intended audience. I think the intended audience was those young spiritual seekers of the late 60s and early 70s. I liked how the book relates many of their questions, and Trungpa's answers, at the end of each chapter.

[Margaret · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trungpa was a con man who formed a cult, in some ways similar to Donald Trump. Contrary to the descriptions of his sexual relations with students provided by other reviewers, he was a predator who, for example, had his cult followers violently sexually assault poets W.S. Merwin and Dana Noane while he watched and taunted them with racist insults. Trungpa's Shambhala successors carried on his hateful legacy - one of them concealed his HIV infection and infected many students, at least one of whom died, and Trungpa's son has been accused of multiple accounts of rape. I attended a tradition Tibetan temple with my family for years and we were always treated with love consistent with the teachings of the buddha and when I asked about Shambhala, I was told that it had nothing to do with buddhism. I recommend reading Andrea Winn's Buddhist Project Sunshine.

[Guilherme M Porto · Rating 5 out of 5]

A complex topic, made slightly less complex by Chögyam Trungpa’s poetic, dynamic and illustrative narrative.

A mix of story telling, mysticism and deeply-rooted philosophy, Crazy Wisdom brings light to Padmasambhava’s life seen from the Tibetan Buddhist perspective.

The format is made even more engaging due to the interactions from students hearing the talk, on a Q&A structure.

A door-opening book on the complex (yet extremely simplistic) concepts of Crazy Wisdom.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're going to write an exposé on the value of youth, spontaneity, and simplicity, in achieving true wisdom, maybe don't weigh down the bulk of it with a labyrinth of history, academic speak and shoved-in interviews.
Many have done it better like Ruiz.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found cutting through spiritual materialism (also Chögyam Trungpa ) significantly more useful