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CRAZY WISDOM is the long-awaited first feature documentary to explore the life, teachings, and ‘crazy wisdom’ of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, a pivotal figure in bringing Buddhism to the West. Called a genius, rascal, ‘one of the greatest spiritual teachers of the 20th century,’ and the ‘bad boy of Buddhism,’ Trungpa defied categorization.

In 1959, Trungpa escaped the Chinese invasion of his beloved Tibet, just as the Dalai Lama did that same year. Trungpa understood that the Tibetan culture that had fostered great Buddhist teachers for centuries was in grave danger. He knew the teachings would be lost if they couldn’t be transferred to the West, and so his whole role in life was to make that transfer.

For 17 years in North America, Trungpa taught Buddhism as if it was a matter of life and death. He taught to the times, coining the phrase Spiritual Materialism, & telling students that “Enlightenment is better than Disneyland.” Allen Ginsberg considered him his guru; Thomas Merton wanted to write a book with him; Joni Mitchell wrote a song about him. Trungpa always taught with great humor and creativity, and, in the early days, often with a tallboy of Colt 45 and a pack of cigarettes at his side.

His personal life was as beguiling and challenging as his teachings. In Britain, seeing that a cultural gap prevented his students from any deep understanding of Buddhism, he renounced his monk’s vows, put on a suit, eloped with a sixteen year-old, and lived as a Westerner. Trungpa shattered Westerners’ preconceived notions of how an enlightened teacher should behave – yet his teachings are recognized as authentic, vast, and influential.

Our director, Johanna Demetrakas, studied and worked with Trungpa, Rinpoche, over the 17 years he lived in North America, through the founding of Naropa Institute, countless talks and retreats, to shooting his elaborate cremation in Barnet, Vermont. Johanna has been both student and teacher of Buddhist meditation for 30 years. Twenty three years after his death, with unprecedented access and exclusive archival material, CRAZY WISDOM looks at the man and the myths about him, and attempts to set the record straight.

WHY THIS FILM NOW?

After several years in India and England, Trungpa went on retreat to Bhutan, and, in a cave carved out of a mountain-side, wrote a meditation for what he saw as the state of the world and what could come of it. He wrote of the budding Dark Age and of an addiction to materialism that would lead to social deterioration, war and environmental collapse. The year was 1968. Now in 2010, his vision has proven uncannily accurate. CRAZY WISDOM is a film about sanity, compassion and the razor sharp wit of an enlightened being challenging the darkness.

TAX DEDUCTIBLE!

Crazy Wisdom is a fiscally-sponsored project of the International Documentary Association (IDA), a 501(c)(3) non-profit membership organization. Contributions made on behalf of Crazy Wisdom are payable to IDA and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.