The Divine Madman Ebook
The Divine Madman is the secret biography of one of Tibet's best-loved saints, the buddha Drukpa Kunley. Drukpa Kunley was a 'nyomba', a crazy yogi who taught through outrageous behavior and ribald humor, through symbolic action, songs and poetry. Using people's emotion, neuroses. Abbot Adept Adzom arrow asked Atisha avadhuta beggar begged Bhasu Bhutan blessing Bliss Bodhisattva body Buddha Buddhahood called chieftain chung Crazy Dakini Dawn Horse Dawn Horse Press demon Demoness devotion Dhasu disciple Divine Madman Dorje drink Drukpa Kunley Enlightenment Faint Heart fish Free John gain Buddhahood girls gold Gomchens. The Divine Madman is the key biography of 1 of Tibet's best-loved saints, the buddha Drukpa Kunley.
Lama Drukpa Kunley (1455–1529) is one of Bhutan's favourite saints and a fine example of the Tibetan tradition of 'crazy wisdom'. He was born in Tibet, trained at Ralung Monastery, and was a contemporary and disciple of Pema Lingpa. He travelled throughout Bhutan and Tibet as a neljorpa (yogi) using songs, humour and outrageous behaviour to dramatise his teachings to the common man, earning him the nickname 'Divine Madman'. He felt that the stiffness of the clergy and social conventions were keeping people from learning the true teachings of Buddha.
The Divine Madman Ebook Pdf
His outrageous, often obscene, actions and sexual antics were a deliberate method of provoking people to discard their preconceptions. Tango Goemba is apparently the proud owner of a thangka (painted or embroidered religious picture) that Kunley urinated on! He is also credited with having created Bhutan's strange animal, the takin, by sticking the head of a goat onto the body of a cow.
His sexual exploits are legendary, and the flying phalluses that you see painted on houses and hanging from rooftops symbolise the lama. Kunley's numerous sexual conquests often included even the wives of his hosts and sponsors. On one occasion when he received a blessing thread to hang around his neck, he wound it around his penis instead, saying he hoped it would bring him luck with the ladies.
The eyebrow-raising penises you see painted around the villages work on many levels – to protect fertility, as a symbol of Drukpa Kunley's unorthodox crazy wisdom, or, as one notice board at the site says, to 'symbolise the discomfort that society expresses when facing the truth'.
For a biography and collection of songs, poems and bar-room anecdotes concerning Drukpa Kunley, try Keith Dowman's book The Divine Madman: The Sublime Life and Songs of Drukpa Kunley.
Shock is the medicine, shaking the reader into awareness and assisting one on the path to enlightenment. And, yes, one will be shocked. It is in that shock that all preconceived ideas and judgements are eliminated.
It needs to be read with an open mind and a readiness to accept a weird and wonderful cleansing humour.
I would not recommend the book to someone who is rigid in discipline, religious beliefs or not prepared to relinquish their sexual 'hang ups'. It has the power to change one's perceptions.
I loved it!