Kenneth Rexroth once remarked that Chogyam Trungpa had done more harm to Buddhism in the United States than any man living. Trungpa was an influential Buddhist master, artist, and poet credited with bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the west. His brief life was full of what westerners would call contradictions, but what Tibetan Buddhists would actually say they expected from an “enlightened” person.

He was called "the bad boy of Buddhism" and, "one of the greatest spiritual teachers of the 20th century." Twenty years after his death, his name still evokes admiration and outrage. Filmmaker Johanna Demetrakas started studying with Chogyam Trungpa just after he arrived in the U.S. in 1971, and remained his student until his death in 1987.

Demetrakas is making CRAZY WISDOM because she believes Trungpa’s Teaching was a great wake-up call — that the aggression and materialism consuming our planet today is also consuming our hearts and minds.

Along with producer Lisa Leeman, Demetrakas hopes to finish filming in the coming months. The CRAZY WISDOM website is under construction, but you can donate to the production by going to The International Documentary Association, www.documentary.org.
Or email Johanna and Lisa at crazywisdomfilm@aol.com.

For those of you for whom hyperlinks aren’t working, the full URL for the film is http://www.documentary.org/community/IDA-resources/fiscal_sponsorship_donate?film_id=2984