Crazy Wisdom is the philosophical worldview that suggests going against the flow; happily seizing the short end of the stick, embracing insecurity, honouring paradox, courting the unexpected, celebrating the unfamiliar, shunning the orthodoxy, taking up tasks nobody dares to do, breaking taboos to destroy their strength. I’s the wisdom of those who turn tables on despair by lampooning on it, and who neither seek authority nor submit to it. To widen the horizons of the soul, light up the brain, and liberate the spirit.
Do you ever feel like the rebel inside you is being suppressed or that the revolutionary inside you has been fooled into thinking that theres actually no need for revolution. Or that your internal nonconformist has somehow conformed? Well, u don’t need to be scared.
This article will be a fresh breath of air for each of you. Time to let your freak flag fly. Let your insurgent soul surge. Don’t be serious just be sincere.
So here are seven ways you can bring that crazy wisdom out
1. Go against the flow’ swim against the tide
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what this world needs are people who have come alive.” –Howard Thurman
Break the norms. Toss a monkey wrench into the status quo machinery. Take the ‘monk’ out of “monkey” and interrogate it to the nth degree. Watch it buckle and bend against your monkey holiness. Laugh with the whole of your heart, then shake it off and find another typically to atypically topple with your own unique typology.
Going against the current takes courage, but the joy that comes out from the disruption, especially from disrupting obsolete or unhealthy social structures, is worth the effort.
Always worth the initial effort that may fear you but u’ll find that the more you practise swimming against the current the more you’ll be capable of transforming fear into courage.
2. Embrace Insecurity
“We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.” ~ Helen Keller
Let yourself doubt. Let yourself crack open. The more you do, the more you come back together, and then crack open again, the more you’ll be able to absorb the wisdom of the universe.
Practice defensive pessimism, a phenomenon in which people imagine worst-case scenarios in order to manage their anxiety. There is wisdom in uncertainty that the certain will never ascertain. Security is for the fearful. Don’t be fearful, be fearless. Dance with your insecurity like it was your first true love and it’s the last dance you’ll ever dance. Being honest with what makes us insecure counter-intuitively makes us more secure. Like David McRaney wrote, “You can’t improve the things you love if you never allow them to be imperfect.” And since we can never attain perfection anyway, there will always be the need to embrace insecurity and uncertainty.
3. Respect Paradox
“The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.” ~ Bertrand Russell
It really just comes down to the fact that we are perceiving an infinite reality using finite faculties. Because of this, paradox is inevitable. One of those paradoxes happens to be Meaning itself. Another one is Love. But what deliciously beautiful paradoxes they are. Reality itself is not a paradox, it is what it is. But Consciousness, and all the wonderful baggage that comes along with it, is a paradox. I would even go as far as to say: namaste, the paradox within me honor’s the paradox within you.
4. Court the unknown
“Let go of certainty. The opposite isn’t uncertainty. It’s openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.” ~ Tony Schwartz
don’t let expectations bring you down and make you suffer. Relish in the heavens of unexpected instead. Theres a joy found in things not going according to the plan that only those who don’t take things too seriously can feel. So don’t be self serious. Be seized by surprise.
Be clutched by the beautiful crux of the cosmos. When your plans get dashed, roll with it, learn from it, be it, in the moment. Courting the unexpected is daring the universe to bewilder you. It’s tempting the Great Mystery into a cosmic tango. You might not know the steps, but so what. You’ll either figure it out or make a fool of yourself. Both can be equally fruitful. So grab the unexpected by the hand and give her a twirl. And it wouldn’t hurt you to do a couple of pirouettes in her honor. Like Henry David Thoreau said, “None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.”
5. Shun orthodoxy
The priest is interested in the answers; the shaman is more interested in provoking you to ask the questions that will lead you into paradox and duality. The task of the shaman is not to pursue meaning but to create it, to bring the sacred to an otherwise profane and mundane reality. That takes a daily act of courage and a willingness to make mistakes.” ~ Alberto Villoldo
Hit the truth at anyone who claims to have achieved enlightenment. If they get angry or offended then they are not on the path toward enlightenment. If they shrug it off and laugh and say “ oh well, theres always more to learn” then they are on the path towards enlightenment, and they understand that enlightenment is a journey and never a destination.
Rather than living for a destination, live within one. Shun all those who claim to have all answers, embrace those who ask sacred questions.
6. Do things nobody dares to do
“There are two kinds of suffering. There is the suffering you run away from, which follows you everywhere. And there is the suffering you face directly, and so become free.” ~ Ajahn Chah
Imagine all the tasks that people are afraid of doing for fear of seeming crazy. Then narrow those tasks down to the most important, whatever they might be, preferably the ones that make your heart sing, and then go do them. Be proactive. Be the spark in the dried up kindling of the status quo, then fan the flames. Be the catalyst in their cauldron of catatonia, then stir the pot. Inform the uninformed. Forgive the unforgiven. Help the helpless
7. Break Taboos
But I don’t want comfort. I want God. I want poetry. I want real danger. I want freedom. I want goodness. I want sin.” ~ Aldous Huxley
Break the rules, especially the bad ones. Shatter systems, especially outdated ones. Rewrite doctrines, especially dogmatic ones.
Like William Wallace said in Braveheart, “People don’t follow titles, they follow courage.” Follow courage and you’ll almost always end up with a healthier disposition. And even if you don’t, at least you had an adventure.
At least your life wasn’t just a law abiding, ruled by govt, title honouring order obliging, boring waste of time that made you a slave to the system and only benefited those who had power. Take the power back by having the strength to challenge outdated rules. The next generation will thank you for it.