Divine madness, also known as Theia mania or Crazy wisdom, is the phenomenon of unconventional, outrageous, unexpected, or unpredictable behavior that is believed to be directly related to spiritual insight.

The concept is ancient, and found in many cultures. In Greek civilization, it was suggested by Plato as a gift of god, with Socrates stating in Phaedrus, "in fact the best things we have comes from madness".^[1] In eastern cultures, it has been deployed as a catalyst and means for the deeper understading of spiritual concepts.^[2]

Divine madness may be seen as a means of communication from spiritual teachers, in which the divine madman uses esoteric and seemingly unspiritual methods to expand an aspirant's consciousness.^[3] It is considered to be a manifestation of spiritual accomplishment evident in specific strands of Tantra, Vajrayana, and Zen, and also Sufi, Bonpo, Taoism, and shamanism.^[2]

Etymology

According to George Feuerstein, the term "crazy wisdom" was coined by Chögyam Trungpa.^[4] In his book "Crazy wisdom", the Tibetan tülku Chögyam Trungpa describes the phenomenon as a process of enquiry and letting go of any gope for an answer:^{[note 1]}

We go on deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper, until we reach the point where there is no answer. [...] At that point we tend to give up hope of an answer, or of anything whatsoever, for that matter. [...] This hopelessness is the essence of crazy wisdom. It is hopeless, utterly hopeless."^{[2][note 2]}

According to Georg Feuerstein,

Crazy wisdom is the articulation in life of the realization that the phenomenal world (Sanskrit: संसार saṃsāra) and the transcendental Reality (Sanskrit: निर्वाण nirvāṇa) share the same essence."^{[6][note 3]}

Phenomenon

Culturally universal

Feuerstein lists Zen-poet Han-shan (fl. 9th century) as one of the crazy-wise, explaining that when people would ask him about Zen, he would only laugh hysterically. He also counts Zen master Ikkyu (15th century), the Christian saint Isadora, and the Sufi storyteller Mulla Nasruddin among the crazy wise teachers.^[7] Other adepts that have attained "mad" mental states, according to Feuerstein, include the masts and bauls of India, and the intoxicated Sufis associated with shath.^[8]

June McDaniel, in her work on the divine madness of the medieval bhakti saints in Bengal, mentions multiple parallels to this phenomenon in other cultures. Plato in his Phaedrus and his ideas on theia mania, the Hasidic Jews, Eastern Orthodoxy, Western Christianity and the Sufi all bear witness to the phenomenon of divine madness.^[9] The bhakti divine madness may show itself in a total absorption in the divine, complete renunciation and surrender to divinity and the participation in the deity and divine pastime rather than its aping or imitation.^[10] Though the participation in the divine is generally favoured in Vaishnava bhakti discourse throughout the sampradayas rather than imitation of the divine 'play' (Sanskrit: lila), there is the important anomaly of the Vaishnava-Sahajiya sect.^[11]

Divine madness may also be seen in the biography, hagiography and poetry of the Alvars. It has parallels in others religions, such as the Fools for Christ in Christianity, and the Sufis (particularly Malamati) in Islam.^[12][13]

Avadhuta and the Sacred Fool

Feuerstein frames how the term Avadhuta (Sanskrit: अवधूत avadhūta) came to be associated with the mad or eccentric holiness or "crazy wisdom" of some antinomian paramahamsa who were often "skyclad" or "naked" (Sanskrit: digambara):

The appellation "avadhuta," more than any other, came to be associated with the apparently crazy modes of behaviour of some paramahamsas, who dramatize the reversal of social norms, a behaviour characteristic of their spontaneous lifestyle. Their frequent nakedness is perhaps the most symbolic expression of this reversal.^[14]

Feuerstein equates the Avadhuta with the "sacred fool":

The crazy wisdom message and method are understandably offensive to both the secular and the conventional religious establishments. Hence crazy adepts have generally been suppressed. This was not the case in traditional Tibet and India, where the "holy fool" or "saintly madman" [and madwoman] has long been recognized as a legitimate figure in the compass of spiritual aspiration and realization. In India, the avadhuta is one who, in his [or her] God-intoxication, has "cast off" all concerns and conventional standards.^[14]

Theia mania

Theia mania (Ancient Greek: θεία μανία) is a term used by Plato and his protagonist Socrates to describe a condition of "divine madness" (unusual behavior attributed to the intervention of a god) in the Platonic dialogue Phaedrus.^[15] In this work, dating from around 370 BC, Socrates' character describes this state of divine inspiration as follows:

"In such families that accumulated vast wealth were found dire plagues and afflictions of the soul, for which mania devised a remedy, inasmuch as the same was a gift from God, if only to be rightly frenzied and possessed, using proper atonement rituals." ^[16]

Socrates expounds a similar concept in Plato's Ion.^[17]

The poet Virgil, in his Aeneid, describes the Delphian priestess (Pythia) as prophesying in a frenzied state:

"...neither her face nor hue went untransformed; Her breast heaved; her wild heart grew large with passion. Taller to their eyes, sounding no longer mortal, she prophesied what was inspired from The God breathing near, uttering words not to be ignored."^{[citation needed]}

In the classical world, the phenomenon of "love at first sight" was understood within the context of a more general conception of passionate love, a kind of madness or, as the Greeks put it, theia mania ("madness from the gods").^[18]

Cause

From a particular Buddhadharma spiritual lexicon and perspective, Georg Feuerstein implies nonduality in his equating the essence of Saṃsāra and Nirvāṇa as the root of crazy wisdom: "Crazy wisdom is the articulation in life of the realization that the phenomenal world (Sanskrit: संसार saṃsāra) and the transcendental Reality (Sanskrit: निर्वाण nirvāṇa) share the same essence."^[19] Generally, the difference between Sanātana Dharma and Buddhadharma conceptions of "Samsara" and "samsara", respectively, are the former, a proper noun denoting a relative apparent locality, and the latter, an interiority or state of mind, the two are resolvable when understood from a nondual perspective.

Feuerstein then enters the spiritual lexicon of Advaita Vedanta with what may in an etic Anthropological discourse be proffered as its culturally relative memes, archetypes, literary motifs and cultural tokens of Atman, Brahman, Paramatman and Satcitananda (which Feuerstein glosses to the contraction of Being-Consciousness with bliss implied or transcended) to identify the root of crazy wisdom:

Seen from the perspective of the unillumined mind, operating on the basis of a sharp separation between subject and object, perfect enlightenment is a paradoxical condition. The enlightened adept exists as the ultimate Being-Consciousness but appears to inhabit a particular body-mind. In the nondualist terms of the Indian teaching known as advaita vedanta, enlightenment is the fulfillment of the two truths: the innermost self (atman) is identical with the transcendental Self (parama-atman); and the ultimate Ground (brahman) is identical with the cosmos in all its manifestations, including the self.^[19]

See also

• Antinomianism
• Crazy like a fox
• Divine ecstasy
• Foolishness for Christ
• Heyoka

Notes

References

Sources