On a particular Saturday night on an east coast apprentice retreat some time ago, Rinpoche held simultaneous empowerments of Aro Lingma and Dorje Tröllo. When he was asked what about these two yidam were similar enough to give them together, he replied that they were both Crazy Wisdom masters.

Perhaps for us somnambulant students who have become accustomed to Ngak'chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen's over-estimation of our maturity and ability to motivate ourselves, Traktung Rinpoche's no-holds-barred approach was the alarm clock - Big Ben, in fact. Traktung Rinpoche vivifies our Lamas' unrelenting capacity to let us all come to see for ourselves that everything which manifests -and every thought we think and sensation we feel - is Reality itself. No need for manipulation of any kind. Wrathful, don't you think? Of course this isn't always comforting, and we don't always value this approach. In fact, it is extremely easy to lose sight of.

Traktung Rinpoche, Dorje Tröllo himself, is happy to roll around in the mud with us, playing at our games, with our own toys, yet skewering our jealously guarded ideas of ourselves in the process. Dorje Tröllo offers no escape, unless he wants to, and no self-perpetuating strategies remain intact, unless he says they can.

Two Great Mahasiddhas, two Great Styles that make liberation tantalisingly available. Crazy, isn't it?

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