[Buddha-l] crazy wisdom

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

John Whalen-Bridge schreef:

>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.
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>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."  
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It has been argued that many holy men and women would end up in houses 
with men dressed in white in our society these days. So crazy wisdom may 
not always be wise and indeed Foucault would argue that teh concept of 
crazy wisdom has been rejected by the west since the Middle Ages. A name 
that is worth mentioning is Drukpa Kunley, 'the divine madman'.


-- 


Erik


www.xs4all.nl/~jehms