Crazy Light

lobster

Dear Friends, sister loons and fellow crazies,

As we know the Buddha considered us sleepy heads crazed by attachments, delusions and befuddlement.

As a committed loon, it is potentially possible to be objective about our need for treatment, medication and acceptance.

We mad people are often creative, innovative and an often unused resource. Sometimes during extreme episodes, lack of medicine etc we may become a danger to ourselves or others. Mostly we are harmless, sometimes harmless to a degree that puts the Jains to shame.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahimsa_in_Jainism

beyond the norm, beyond the moon, the finger, there is light

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement

What light can you shine?

SarahT

Just the name "bonkersfest" for the festival that used to be held in Camberwell, London has shone some light into my life!

I am proud that I took responsibility for my pre-disposition to immobility after being over-stressed for too long, despite the stigma attached to being diagnosed with a "mental" illness. I am grateful for the book Stress Induced Depressive Illness; The Curse of the Strong by Tim Cantopher. I am grateful that strength is perfected in weakness.

Light? I can receive light when I open to it. For me, it is easiest to do this through my crown chakra. And, once I have done this but only when I have done this, I can share it. Perhaps you will forgive a Qabalistic story about love, given to me by a dear Rabbi friend who called me his "Princess of the Spheres" and gave the address at my (Anglican) wedding in November 2013:

Once, in the incomprehensible length of infinity, the Creator (Ein Sof) was on its own. This was the energy of all that was and all that could be. At some point in this vast, infinite existence, the Creator possessed a desire to give to something that could benefit from its energy. (The Creator wanted the pleasure of doing something generous.) To do this, the Creator formed a void, often called a Vessel. The Vessel was empty, a vacuum (which was still part of the Creator but was also without the Creator's energy and light). The Creator then filled the Vessel with light and was fulfilled in its desire to give. The Vessel was full.

The Vessel became the light itself, but it was still contained in a finite space. It got a little too full and burst. It couldn't contain all the light that the Creator could give.

The shards of the Vessel splintered out across the great space that existed, and formed our very universe. Some found their way back to the source of the Creator, but some drifted into what is now our world. This was the moment of that line in Genesis, "And God created light." Those shards of light from the broken Vessel were the beginning of our existence. Those shards of light are fragments of the original Vessel. It's up to us, according to Qabala, to put those shards back together, to form the Vessel once again. Once the Vessel is intact and full, we will all be reunited in the Creator's infinite light.

silver

That makes me wanna cry - and I don't know why, @SarahT‌...well sort of. 'Tis beautiful.

Kundo

Kabbalah FTW.

The only "light" I can shine is when I................... let's not go there on a family friendly board. Suffice to say I'm a loony, crazy Aussie

_ /\ _

Nirvana

I dunno what to say other than when I read the things that people on NewBuddhist write On Other Threads, any doubts I ever had about my own sanity quickly flee away.

Jeffrey

I feel the same sentiment @lobster maybe I will have more to say? My meds kind of dry up my 'colors' a little, but there is something that has transmitted. Sogyal Rinpoche in a talk said his teachings 'make your screw a little more loose'. I definitely am a stronger person from being in a mental hospital with the only thing I have is my brain and body and a gown. (and chocolate milk and fun group activities )

SarahT

Thank you, @Jeffrey. A song that helps me when I feel black and white (or, more often, grey):

Nirvana

Sarah, that's a powerful video! Thank you.

It's a funny thing about colors, though, that they are subjective. The actual pigmentation cannot be seen except through the filters (or lack of them) that are there in us. And the pigmentation is perfect, because it is there more thoroughly than we mere observers are.

The truth is that unclouded vision sees beauty and truth everywhere, but the clouds of mistrust, dislike, comparison, and memory so obstruct our vision that we are put into darkness.

We ought to be renewed daily in looking again, less selfishly, for truer colors.

Nirvana

And Hey! It's more than quite all right to be different. What the world needs is lots more unconventional acts of kindness and understanding. Among a multitude of other things, people who stand outside "the box" are there to help wake us up from our preconceived notions. And if someone is not easily understood, why should that "problem" rest only on their shoulders?

Alas, our lives are chock-full of wasted opportunities to expand into the Light. "Crazy" people can rock the world if we let go our mental leashes.

lobster

@Jeffrey said:
I feel the same sentiment lobster maybe I will have more to say? My meds kind of dry up my 'colors' a little, but there is something that has transmitted. Sogyal Rinpoche in a talk said his teachings 'make your screw a little more loose'. I definitely am a stronger person from being in a mental hospital with the only thing I have is my brain and body and a gown. (and chocolate milk and fun group activities )

There is a stigma, which is unhelpful. I feel given sufficient resources and comprehension, perhaps with more Buddhist Tantra mental institutions (yet to be implemented?), we may find the balance of tighter dharma and patient sanity.

In other words the value of experiences may be interpreted positively as @Jeffrey‌ mentions.

In the UK mental health is likely to be a big issue in the elections this year. Maybe if we declare the Houses of Parliament an asylum for the criminally and insanely political, we may be making some progress . . .

Sanity is a spectrum. Most people considered my teacher crazy, his behavour was reflective of a particular role of the awake. Strangely being outside of the norm is not unusual for Mystics, Lamas and Gurus of a certain insight. However choice of behavour is often a mature balance.