Crazy Wisdom
Thursday, September 19, 2024
I have found copies of old blog posts on my computer from an earlier incarnation of my website. This one was from I know not when, but will guess around 2010. I have edited the post lightly to provide link references and clarification where appropriate.
While in New York last week for Thanksgiving and a host of other family events I visited the wonderful Rubin Museum (which sadly on October 6th, 2024 will close and move to a “global museum model.” More information here.) dedicated, for the most part, to Buddhist art from the nations that straddle the Himalayas. My wife introduced me to the museum a couple of years ago and I was won over as soon as I walked in. A return trip was always on the cards.
While we were in the city the museum was showing the new documentary film Crazy Wisdom, about the life and times of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Trungpa Rinpoche has been a presence in my life from the time that I first met up with Tibetan Buddhism at the end of the 1980’s. While I never met him, I remember picking up a copy of his book “The Myth of Freedom” while studying in the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India. Before even opening the book the title itself caught me. We are always looking to get away, this title appeared to imply that there was no away. I still have a copy of the book, and made reference to a passage from it in the thesis to my Masters Degree.
Speaking of the Masters Degree, that also had a connection with Trungpa Rinpoche in that the school that ran the program I took was Naropa University, which was founded by Rinpoche.