Who Is The Fool?

The fool is the most potent of the archetypes and also the most capable teacher of crazy wisdom.

There are actually two types of fool: the foolish fool and the great fool.

The foolish fool is inept and silly, a clown of the mind. The great fool is wise beyond ordinary understanding. The foolish fool is the one we see every day when we look in the mirror or walk down the street. The great fool is the rarest of beings.

Innocence is the trademark of both fools.

The innocence of the foolish fool makes him clumsy and unsophisticated because he tries to live according to convention. The great fool, however, does not try to fit in; in his innocence, he lives by his own rules.

The foolish fool and his money are soon parted,but the great fool gives his money away. The foolish fool always gets lost, while the great fool is at home everywhere. The great fool has different values from the rest of us and therefore is crazy wisdom's master of ceremonies.

Einstein was a man who could ask immensely simple questions

The great fool, like Einstein, wonders about the obvious and stands in awe to the ordinary, which makes him capable of the revolutionary discoveries about space and time.

The great fool lives outside the blinding circle of routine, remaining open to the surprise of each moment. We are the foolish ones, complacent in our understanding. We take for granted the miraculous dance of creation,but the great fool continuously sees it as if for the first time.

The revelations of the great fool often show us where we are going, or more often where we are.

The great fool shows his true face as the Fool, the first card in the tarot deck. He is the master of ceremonies, smiling and welcoming us to the show, the Grand Illusion, the parade of archetypal characters to follow.

The Fool announces that what we are about to see is only a melodrama, and that we should not take these masks or matters too seriously.

Our personalities are just put-ons, personae. roles we are given to play. We just read the lines and flash out scenes; there's really not much we can do about the plot."

From The Essential Crazy Wisdom Wes Nisker