Talk six of the eight-part series entitled The Crazy Wisdom of the Mahasiddhas. Renunciation is an important theme in Buddhism, and a successful spiritual life asks for single-minded commitment. Particularly key is our renunciation of the last bit of conceit about ourselves. Here, renunciation is given life in the stories of Luipa the Fish-Gut Eater and Darikapa the Slave-King of the Temple Prostitute.

The final talk in the eight-part series entitled The Crazy Wisdom of the Mahasiddhas. The central issue of the Dharma life, as Sangharakshita articulates, is to develop emotional equivalents to our intellectual understanding. Here Padmavajra uses the stories of Maitrigupta and the De Niro film The Deer Hunter to symbolically point towards the level of wisdom that goes beyond concept. We complete this scintillating series at the place where the path ends and the forest begins.

In this second talk of the eight-part series Crazy Wisdom of the Mahasiddhas, we explore the wisdom of disillusionment in four stories of the Mahasiddhas. First we hear of Yasha realizing the emptiness of sensual pleasure and his encounter with the Buddha. Then the story of the transformation of the suffering of Tantipa the Senile Weaver through the practices of the wandering yogi Jalandhara. Kankaripa, the grieving widower, opens to the reality of impermanence by meditating on his wife as a dakini. And the highly-learned Naropa meets with a frightening crone who challenges his understanding of the Dharma.