Laugh your way to enlightenment

We can use laughter and humour to help us along our spiritual path. – July 2022

The traditional Zen stories are full of funny responses and laughter in the face of suffering. Zen Masters were - still are - all people who can have a good belly laugh about unexpected things. In my reading, I found out that there are 6 different kinds of laughter mentioned in the old teachings – I don’t know what that says about it all. Perhaps there was a lot of laughter around back then - and it's a bit like having 20 different names for kinds of snow and ice in Iceland ? ;)

The 6 kinds of laughter are:

1. Sita, a faint smile. This one is also known as the Buddha smile, denoting an inner attitude of detachment “in the world, but not of the world.”

2. Hasita, a smile which slightly reveals the tips of the teeth.

3. Vihasita, a broader smile accompanied by modest laughter.

4. Upahasita, a more pronounced laughter associated with some body movement.

5. Apahasita, loud laughter that brings tears to the eyes.

6. Atihasita, uproarious laughter accompanied by doubling over

We might think that it’s not always easy to laugh. Of course it's easier to laugh when someone else slips on a banana peel or others are wrong, but what about when it happens to us? Or sometimes perhaps it feels it’s inappropriate to laugh, because the world is full of poverty, misery, war, hunger, disease....

To understand a "Zen laugh", it’s important to know that to laugh a Zen laugh comes from a different perspective. Zen’s humour is actually quite serious, and the playfulness doesn’t come from being disrespectful or not having compassion for suffering.

Zen humour is more of a philosophical laugh – Zen finds laughter much more important than lecturing or even thinking. It’s used to transmit what words can’t – to break through barriers – going beyond our preconceptions / prejudices / attachments / our habits of mind. What we can't laugh about highlights for us all the attachments we get caught up in. The emotion we are clinging to – our embarrassment, our humiliation, our anger – our frustration, fears, whatever.

So when Zen jokes about something like death, which is Western world’s ultimate taboo when it comes to laughing - the humour isn't being disrespectful of the dead or suffering of the living – it’s about bringing us to a direct understanding. In this case that everything – not only life, but especially life – is fleeting.

And to remind us when we can’t find the funny side to something – when we become dead serious about things - then we are usually too wrapped up with who we think we are. We become too self important. There’s too much “ME”.

If we can just laugh it off... If we make our self non-serious.... Even ridiculous. What happens if we open ourselves up to being thought of as ridiculous?

Bertrand Russel said” I you are beginning to think what you are doing is very important, you need to take a holiday…

Please take a look at this Sadhguru clip. (here) (if you can't connect, please cut and paste this link into your browser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTOHvPQOlUI

Sadhguru is an Indian yogi. Wise man. Worth watching, even a few times, even if you have seen it before.

Have a wonderful week. Wishing you lots of Atihasita, uproarious laughter accompanied by doubling over.

Metta

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