[Buddha-l] crazy wisdom

[John Whalen-Bridge]

Hello all.  Thanks for the postings on Crazy Wisdom.  A few notes.  Stuart mentioned a pamphlet.  Tom Clark's NAROPA POETRY WARS is actually a handsome book and gives all the sordid details. I believe Merwin's girlfriend Naone was Hawaiian, though perhaps of Japanese descent.   SHOES OUTSIDE THE DOOR washes the laundry for SF Zen Center.  It's a gripping read.  Many practitioners were drawn to Zen because they felt official values were empty in the worst sense, but the installation of gurus and abbots and so forth did not make all problems go away, especially when teachers used their authority not to correct the errors of mainstream culture but instead to become royalty, get sex, and exploit cheap labor (it was "practice") to get lots of money.  All in the name of Crazy Wisdom, which bohemian Americans found delightful.

The 84 mahasiddhis may be the best textual/traditional source of those mentioned.  Eccentric behavior seems to be possible, and odd experimental practices are certainly more widely respected .  Overall, the impression I get is that eccentricity and rather wild innovation can happen and can be regarded with respect, but that it stretches matters to refer to a "Crazy Wisdom Lineage."  

I heard an academic paper a few weeks ago about the "magical monks" of Thailand who will bless a pile of cash for you, or sell what they claim are the most effective amulets for big money.  Foucault is quoted to argue that these monks are different but that it is hegemonic oppression to regard such differences as less authentic. A bit of Talal Asad sauce was poured on which gave the talk a fresh and zingy flavor...but on the whole I believed the meal was indigestible and that, on the whole, the line between tradition and abuse of tradition is not  such a whoopy-doo Gordian aporia, if you will.  (And if you won't, I take it back.  With apologies before the community as required by the vinaya.

For future volumes of our series-in-progress FINDING THE OX, Gary Storhoff and I would like to have some essays on various teachers (Suzuki, Aitken, Trungpa, Kalu Rinpoche, and so forth) that would steer a middle course between cheerleading and expose.  If anyone has just the right author in mind for one of these essays, please contact me with details.

Sincere thanks,  JWB