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i often forget now how buddhism has made me morbid. but i now joke about death, toss off casually that i may not survive the night, and actually contemplate what i’d like to do this week just in case i don’t make it to the next. makes for many awkward moments in conversation. i’m not suicidal or particularly risky in my behavior. i’d don’t want to take my life for granted.
i received this quote from the tibetan master gyalse rinpoche via rigpa’s glimpse of the day email today. so typical of buddhist contemplations:
Planning for the future is like going fishing in a dry gulch;
Nothing ever works out as you wanted, so give up all your schemes and ambitions.
If you have got to think about something -
Make it the uncertainty of the hour of your death.
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read this short interview with steven goodman about crazy wisdom, that was published last spring in inquiring mind magazine. this magazine supports the vipassana a.k.a. theravadan buddhist in the west. theravadan buddhist is most common in southeast asia, but the article explains quite well the unusual and threatening quality of vajrayana buddhism from tibet, nepal, and bhutan. here are short examples:
The mixture of the sacred and profane is common in Himalayan Buddhism. At festival time in Bhutan, people perform these sacred dances of enlightenment, and shadowing these very wonderful dances are trickster figures called atsaras. They’re slightly dangerous, untrustworthy jokers, and their role is to ape and mock the sacred dances at the same time the dances are going on. Often they will go into the audience and do rude things, such as dance around with a wooden phallus with a ceremonial scarf draped over it. The lesson is that it’s healthy to invite all of us into the dance, and every part of us as well. And it’s very healthy to laugh. The holy comes with a sense of humor.
In my workshop at CIIS, Tibetan Buddhist Practices and the Trick-ster, I introduce the notion of “crazy wisdom,” a phrase that got on the map thanks largely to Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. In Tibetan the words are yeshe cholwa, with yeshe meaning “wisdom that’s always been there,” and cholwa meaning “wild or uncontainable.” Trungpa Rinpoche said you might as well just say “wisdom crazy.” It refers to someone who seems to be intoxicated with an un-bounded, luminous, loving energy. What we call crazy is only crazy from the viewpoint of ego, custom, habit. The craziness is actually higher frequency enjoyment. Besides, the great spiritual adepts, the mahasiddhas, don’t decide to be crazy. Crazy wisdom is natural, effortless, not driven by the hope and fear machine of the ego.
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photographer don farber with help from allison steinberg arranged a slide show of tibetan buddhist masters. it’s quite beautiful, includes female tibetan masters which was wonderful, and has a series of quotes and interesting reflections. the first song on the slide show was contributed by my friend ravenna.
i’m continuing to contemplate meaning, nihilism, and where my life is going on a daily basis. the quote by His Holiness Karmapa above - from the slideshow - added to that train of thought. it’s too easy for me to slip into nihilism whenever i contemplate an underlying basis for meaning.
sitting monkey is place where