Crazy Wisdom

Padmasambhava was the Second Buddha who established Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet in the Eighth Century. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche describes the Eight Manifestations of Padmasambhava as an investigation of the nature of perception. The key to understanding Padmasambhava’s accomplishments is ‘crazy wisdom’. Crazy wisdom has no connection with psychosis or with the ordinary craziness better described as neurosis. Crazy wisdom is the activity which springs directly from realisation – and which does not make diplomatic compromises with duality. ‘Crazy Wisdom’ (yeshé cholwa in Tibetan) literally means ‘chaos of primordial wisdom’. Trungpa Rinpoche described it as ‘wisdom gone wild’ – and this describes perfectly how authentic realisation is seen by institutionalised religion. It was Padmasambhava who established the non-monastic Tantric ordination and the validity of crazy wisdom is central to the Aro teachings.

Crazy wisdom ruthlessly cuts through spiritual materialism to discover ‘basic sanity’, or innate wisdom. Developing basic sanity is a method in which the goal is the path – and in which any hope of attaining a ‘spiritualised result’ has to be abandoned. To access basic sanity we must sever our psychological self-definition and self-referencing.

This book is lively, informative, and challenging. Trungpa Rinpoche does not give factual historical accounts, but rather shows how the inspiration of Padmasambhava’s life can inspire our meditation practice and help us discover the innate wisdom in the midst of ordinary life.

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