ISBN 0.91392275.7
Keith Dowman
Dawn Horse Press, 1983.
Paperback, 200 pages
Radical Enlightenment
In the as yet unwritten history of "mad monks", from Saraha to Rasputin, the Bhutanese Drukpa Kunley (1455-1570) - dzogchen adept and master of tantric crazy wisdom - ranks among the finest; i.e. most elegantly and humorously radical (if such a qualification is possible).
In this book, Keith Dowman has collected and translated many of the incredible stories surrounding this cultural hero (of the trickster-type) and some of his songs; showing him as a completely anarchistic, fully enlightened, down to earth radical. Being regarded as a reincarnation of the Mahasiddha Sahara (8th-9th century), he enlightend his peers by antagonizing and taunting them, and his own mother by running through the village screaming that she had "done it" with him.
What came first for Drukpa Kunley, radical s.e.x or radical enlightenment, remains a question only to those not ready to transcend linear thinking. For our Bhutanese folk-hero, certainly, the two were one.
Review: RCC
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