The Buddha and the Mahasiddhas

Talk five of the eight-part series entitled The Crazy Wisdom of the Mahasiddhas. The Buddha was the first of the Mahasiddhas, or Great Perfected Ones, and tales from the Pali Canon such as his encounter with Bahiya of the Bark Cloth demonstrate his ability to instantly wake others up to Reality. In the sixth century a new kind of Buddhist practitioner appears, picking up on these aspects of the teachings of the Buddha and opening up a new universe of myth, symbol and imagination.