Week of

Negativity as an Adornment

In relationship to crazy wisdom, we know we are supposed to work with negativity and use it as an adornment. Nevertheless, there is still a sense of trying to find alternatives, trying to find some underlying promise. There is some tinge of hope. The idea of finding the negativity “interesting,” is that somehow we think that, as we go along, we will be saved. The unspoken implication is that finally the whole thing is going to be good and pleasurable. We are still thinking this crazy wisdom might lead us to happiness. No matter what we say, we are working toward some kind of happiness.  But the great teacher Padmasambhava, the embodiment of crazy wisdom, was not concerned about that at all. His approach was, “Let happiness present itself if it happens, but in the meantime, let me take the blame.”

The main point seems to be to cut the self-justification of “It’s going to be okay. There some kind of promise anyway.” Even believing in no promise is a promise of some kind. That kind of twist is always there. And unless we are willing to get blamed unjustly, we can’t cut our deception at all. This is very difficult to do. We are willing to lie for ourselves, take the blame for ourselves, but we are not willing to lie for the sake of others, or take the blame for the sake of others. We are not at all willing to take on somebody else’s pain. The message to us as followers of this tradition is that, since we don’t use such (extreme) techniques too often, it is worth trying to practice this approach  (going along with misplaced blame).

From Crazy Wisdom, excerpted from pages 161 to 163.

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