The Laughing Buddha🔗

As I understand it, laughter is one of the greatest meditation techniques. Almost every intelligent individual has recognized the power of laughter and the transformation it can bring to our body, mind and soul. The healing effect of laughter can be felt almost immediately.

One does have to believe in this mediation technique to know its full effect on our being. However, there are two aspects to its effect which prove the power of laughter as a meditation technique. Firstly, unlike with other techniques where we first need to believe that the technique will help, with laughter as a meditation technique, the effect is immediate. The next aspect is that we hardly need to practice laughing…it is spontaneous. We may need to practice other techniques to see its results. However with laughter the result being instant nothing more is required. It does not need our faith, it does not need our belief in it…we don’t need to wait to experience its results. We experience the effect that is created by laughter, both physically and mentally… immediately!

Almost all great mystics and Masters realized the effect and understood the transformation which happens through laughter. It is a subject that has been analyzed by all great Masters. Yet, somehow, man has never taken note of laughter as a meditation technique. Sadly enough… laughter is never understood as a spiritual quality because we always associate spirituality with seriousness.

Spirituality is taken as something dead…something serious…something only for people who put on a long face. But according to me, spirituality has everything to do with life and the joy of living. We always think of spirituality as something for people who are old. Countless number of times we have thought to ourselves, ‘I shall make time for this when I am old and retired and have nothing else to do.’ When you don’t have anything else to do except knit sweaters, you feel you need to pick up the bible or go to church.

Incidentally, there is a saying, ‘Go to church by yourself, and don’t wait to be carried by four men’. We always wait for someone to take us to church; we don’t actually go…we wait to be carried by four men. We always think of religion as something old…something to do with dead things…to do with rituals and monotonous prayers. Whenever we think of religion from these angles…it too complicated…too serious and the juicy portion of religion which is spirituality is lost. Who says that religion is only old people and it has to be serious and boring?

Understand clearly…there are two important aspects of religion, religiousness and religion itself. Religions based on fear have nothing to do with religiousness. Rituals constitute a religion, while the juice which is inside religion is the religiousness. Religions based on religiousness have always emphasized the beauty of laughter and use laughter as a technique for transformation at the deepest inner levels of the being. Be clear…whenever religions are based more on rituals, rules and regulations… then the juice that lies within is totally missed. Understand that religion is a living entity, a part of our everyday life. It is not a part time job or only for old people. Our understanding of it and exploration of the religiousness in it is the quality of our entire life!

Laughter is not taken note of by intellectuals and serious people because it is so innately simple. We miss the importance of something so simple. We miss many things because they are simple and take more notice of things that are complicated. It is just as Woody Allen once said, 'I'm astounded by people who want to know the Universe when it is hard enough trying to find your way around China Town.'

Our egos feel satisfied by doing complicated things but whenever something is simple or ordinary, we miss it. Anything simple always escapes our eyes and we don't look deeper into it but instead we gloss over it. When you tend to forget this, remember the saying, 'the greatest truths are the simplest.'

There are so many beautiful things that can happen to us ...to our being, through laughter. The most intelligent communities of the world are also the communities that have produced the most number of jokes. One such community is that of the Jews and the other of Sardarjis or Sikhs from the state of Punjab in India. These two communities have produced many jokes and the beauty of it is that most of the jokes are about them. Strangely enough, you will find that they are also very intelligent communities.

Let me explain this through an example. There are only three fields in the world. One is the outer world which belongs to logic, mathematics and science. The other is the inner world of religion, mysticism and spirituality. The third one, which is psychology, lies between the two. Einstein, a genius in the field of science belongs to the outer world. Jesus Christ belongs to the inner world. Today, more than half the universe follows Christ. Sigmund Freud, a notable person dedicated to the study of the mind or psychology belongs to the third field that lies between the outer and inner world. While all three are different fields, if we draw a parallel between them we find that all the three are Jews. Intelligence and humor are deeply connected...do you see it?

My understanding is that laughter and jokes play a major role in intelligence. Communities which created more possibilities to laugh...to joke, to open up energy have created intelligent people. They have presented geniuses...intelligent minds to the world simply because when you

laugh your whole being opens up and a new kind of energy enters the being which pushes us to explore unknown exciting frontiers and areas!

Here is a simple understanding about jokes...how they work and how jokes make us laugh. Actually when we listen to a joke, our mind is gradually tuned to a certain kind of rational thinking and we come to a conclusion. But the last word, the punch line is always something beyond our expectation. The moment we listen to something beyond our expectation, our logic is turned off; our rationality is relaxed...immediately we open up and burst into laughter. There is a willing suspension of disbelief for anything logical that happens here and remember that to create and tell a joke you certainly need intelligence.

A short story about someone telling a joke...

There was this fellow telling a joke to a group of his friends who were sitting and chatting with him. But somehow he missed the punch line and nobody felt like laughing. Everyone fell silent. Suddenly one fellow in the group started laughing uproariously...a full bellied laugh. The others were not able to understand why he was laughing. One of them said, 'Why are you laughing? Neither did we understand the joke, nor did he understand his own joke sufficiently to relate it to us.' The guy who was laughing managed to control himself enough to say, 'Laugh now or he will tell us the same joke once more.'

Understand that our logical expectation is different and the punch line gives a totally different view. The moment our logic is put off, the moment we see something different from what we expect, we open up. Whenever our logic is pushed aside, we open up. A ray of energy enters our being. It is like being in a dark room through which a ray of light shines through. Laughter is just like that. A ray of energy connects to our body from our atman (Self), the source of all energies. The moment our logic is pushed aside an ocean of energy is supplied to our body.

This is what happens when you laugh or when you listen to a joke. However, there are a few hard nuts that are continuously intellectual...who are continuously thinking. It is very difficult to make them laugh. Understand, when I say the word intellectual I don't mean they know everything. I mean they don't understand anything. They don't have sensitivity towards reality. They are continuously thinking and analyzing the logic.

Once, an unusual competition was held in India. A group of five persons had the job of continuously cracking one hundred jokes. The people taking part in the competition had to withstand laughing at any of the hundred jokes to win a million rupees. All that they had to do was stand on the stage without laughing.

One of the competitors, in the competition somehow managed to remain straight faced through forty jokes. At the fortieth joke he laughed. The second one managed eighty jokes. The third fellow was a really hard nut to crack. He managed ninety, and then went through to ninety-five, ninety-six, yet the jokes carried on and people could not understand how he could remain without laughing. They had prepared really funny jokes from all possible sources. The people who were watching the program were laughing through the jokes so much that their stomach started aching. While they were all continuously laughing, the third competitor remained standing poker faced all through it, without cracking up.

By the ninety-eighth joke, a small smile appeared on his face. His wife who was sitting in the front row of the hall started shouting at him, 'Hey, keep quiet, keep quiet...don't open your mouth. There are only two more jokes, don't miss a million rupees...don't laugh.' But

somehow, at the ninety-ninth he could not control anymore and started roaring with laughter and so lost the competition and the million rupees. The moment he came down from the stage his wife shouted at him. 'You fool; you missed the million rupees just by one joke. Could you not

keep a straight face for just one more minute?'

The guy said, 'No, no...I had to laugh as it was only at that point that I understood the first joke!'

Hard nuts! They are not very intellectual. When we don't have the sensitivity towards reality, when we don't have sensitivity to what is happening around us, we put on long faces. And I tell you, a man who is alive cannot keep a long, unsmiling face for long. When you are continuously thinking, if your entire energy is sucked by our mind, if you are great intellectual, just thinking continuously, you actually stop living...living in reality. Those people who have become great intellectuals, by disconnecting themselves from reality miss the whole joke of existence...the whole universe. They miss the whole joy, the whole play that is life!

Existence is the ultimate joke. Existence is also the ultimate bliss. If you have the sensitivity while in this human body, the sensitivity to see and hear things around you, the sensitivity to feel about what is going on everywhere; you will find that your life will be filled with laughter. Laughter is an important quality through which existence expresses itself. When you laugh, for that one moment you become one with energy!

A great story of Bodhi Dharma, Buddha's disciple says that when he became enlightened the first thing he did, the next thing he did, the last thing he did was to laugh.

Be very clear…when you laugh, you fall in tune with existence. When you fall in tune with existence you start laughing!

You may wonder, ‘What is this all about?’

The story goes that early one morning; Buddha arrived to give his daily discourse. Ten thousand sanyasis were sitting in front of him. (It has always been believed that Buddha had ten thousand enlightened disciples with him, even when traveling.) He sat for some time looking at the flower without speaking. In one of the rows sat a disciple who was yet to become enlightened. Suddenly Buddha called him forward and giving him the rose told him ‘Do you understand?’ The disciple began laughing uproariously. He didn’t give Buddha any answer but continued laughing. Buddha then told him, ‘Yes, I can see that you have understood.’

Zen Buddhist scholars and Buddhist scholars have been writing volumes and volumes ever since, about this exchange between Buddha and Bodhi Dharma. They question, ‘What was the reason the disciple laughed…Was there a deep meaning to that instance…’ So many volumes have come out about this; however note that these volumes are totally serious!

My understanding of that whole incident is a simple one. It was a mere moment of simple clarity. Bodhi dharma had been in search of the centre of consciousness for enlightenment, himself. The moment Buddha gave him the rose he immediately understood that it is himself, so when he stopped searching he got it. Then he might have laughed with the thought, ‘Oh, in what foolishness, in what rot I was wasting my life. I was searching everywhere for myself, except where I am presently…my own inner being.’ Very simply the moment he turned himself inside his inner being, he experienced himself and the total simplicity of it all made him laugh.

Understand clearly…this whole existence is nothing but a great joke.

When you continuously think intellectually, you cannot understand the play of existence. A great professor of philosophy once went to a Zen Master and asked him, ‘Master, please teach me the secret of the universe. Why do all these things happen? Why is there so much suffering? Why did God create the world? Please teach about all these things.’

The Master started laughing uproariously. You do not know how these Zen Masters laugh. Their laughter is so strong and infectious. It is said that Zen Masters don’t only laugh with their mouths, they laugh with their whole being. It has been recorded that they roll on the ground and laugh. Seeing this, for the first few minutes the professor felt uncomfortable. He was wondering what had happened to the Master and whether he had gone mad. Of course, for thick heads you need a few minutes! After a few minutes he slowly began analyzing to himself…He is a Master after all…he will not do anything without a proper reason. After a few minutes the Master’s laughter was so much the professor too could not control himself and began laughing. You must have notices that when you see someone laughing you cannot stay for long without joining. You either have to leave the hall or you have to join in the laughter, there is no other way. The story goes that at one point the professor became enlightened and never stopped laughing till his death.

Of course, logically we cannot understand the last line, because we are also professors. You may not be professors literally but we are professors by nature. So much of our energy is sucked by our heads. So much of our energy is stored in our heads…we almost stop living. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with being a professor professionally. But being a professor twenty four hours a day is wrong. Let me narrate a small incident that actually happened.

The other day someone came to me and started weeping. He said he was having marital problems. He introduced himself as a Doctor. I asked him what his wife was doing. He said she was a B.A. B.L (Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Law). I asked him if she went to the court regularly and he replied, ‘No, no, Master. She argues in the house itself.’ That was their whole problem.

You see, if you are a professional in your professional place of work, there is nothing wrong. But when you bring your profession into your life and home, then things can go seriously wrong. There is a small method to find out whether you are a professor or not throughout the day…try it out on yourself. If you see a rose, immediately the word ‘rose’ comes to mind. You start thinking about the roses you may have presented to someone, or the roses presented to you by someone. The next thought will be how he reacted or how you reacted. The third will be the loving moments or memories or disturbing memories which are associated with that incident. The

fourth is how you related with that person, lovingly or not so lovingly. The memory goes on and on until you reach a stage where you have forgotten the real rose at hand and are lost in the thoughts of associated memories. You have missed the real rose.

Now you are lost, having missed the real rose which was smiling at you, which was welcoming you to appreciate it, which was giving its being to you to enjoy. What happened here? Simply put the moment you start arranging the words, the moment you associate thoughts continuously, be very clear, you are a professor twenty four hours. When I say you are a professor, I mean you

are continuously playing with words and not with reality.

Sigmund Freud says beautifully that all our thinking is through association, it has no logical clarity. For example, when you see a dog in the street, you then remember the dogs you may have seen when you were a child. You remember the teacher who taught you lessons when you were a child. Then you remember where your teacher used to live. You then remember your school. Logically there is no connection between the dog you saw on the road and your teacher, even though both of them may have barked at you. There is no logical connection…yet the mind associates. If you continuously think based on association not based on logic, then be very clear, you are a professor for twenty four hours. This is the perfect path to lose the live connection, the live experience of existence.

The story of the professor recounts how just by laughing hard and long, he became enlightened… and he never stopped laughing until his death. You may wonder how laughing can make someone enlightened. According to Zen Buddhism, if you laugh continuously for 42 seconds you can become enlightened because laughter brings us back to the Now, Here…the Present!

People may think, and naturally so, we are all laughing sometimes for one or two minutes, but we have not become enlightened!

Understand clearly…what the Zen masters mean by laughter…it is total laughter. When you really laugh, your mind stops thinking. For that one minute, that one second, that one moment, that kshana, you fall between the gap of one thought and the next.

You can do only one thing at a time, either you think or you laugh. If you think, laughter cannot be complete and wholesome. Your being is not totally into laughter. Laughter brings you to the present moment. By thinking you travel into the future or you think about something in the past. However when you laugh, you are automatically brought to the centre of your being, in the present moment. You experience the consciousness of the present.

Doctors, who have done research on laughter, have amazing reports to give. They say that it is the least expensive means to slow down the ageing process. Have you noticed …there are some people who even after reaching the age of seventy continue to look very young and healthy, full of enthusiasm and spirit. They have a curiosity to learn and are always engaged in knowing new things. They are alive and vibrant with life. On the other hand there are some who are out of it all by the age of forty.

Why does this happen? A good question…let us look at the reasons. One of the reasons for this is the main ingredient which we add to life which is ‘laughter’. We add so many things to extend our lives, but of all of these, laughter is the most important. Many Doctors who have done research on this aspect and they give vital proof of the importance of laughter for longevity. How many of you have ever given serious thought to the old proverb ‘Laughter is the best medicine?’

Another important reaction of our system is that anti-depressing chemicals are released into our system. In other words, chemicals that alleviate depression pour into our body and mind system. Biologically also changes take place. In the process of the act of laughing, endorphins and other chemicals essential for the brain are released…giving us a sense of well being. At the same time, we inhale deeply providing extra oxygen to our entire system. Understand clearly…laughter is a catharsis for negative emotions to be harmlessly released.

The third and most important effect of laughter is that our body starts radiating a beauty.

Laughter is an important ingredient to become beautiful…even without make-up. According to me, laughter brings more grace to a person. Beauty comes because of make-up but laughter brings grace to this beauty and your being. Notice how many advantages …even from the physical point of view laughter brings to our being…to our body.

Another school of research says that laughter can rejuvenate our whole system. It can balance all components of the immune system, helping to fight off diseases. Any other refreshing technique whether it is yoga or exercise or any other system takes care of only some parts of our body. However, laughter is such that it takes care of our whole body. The whole body is flooded with energy. We can see it in our own lives. That is why every now and then Laughter Clubs are being inaugurated all over the world!

I see a tremendous appreciation for the importance of laughter. People have begun to realize the importance of laughter on our health…both physical and mental. At least thirty thousand clubs have been inaugurated all over the world in the year 2003 itself. From this you can realize that people are recognizing the importance of laughter. People are now making it a point to gather in the mornings at a particular time, laugh loudly together and then go their way.

Laughter is known to heal a number of diseases, especially those diseases that related to the nervous system and the Vishudhi or throat charka. I have personally worked with laughing meditation Techniques. I have seen so many people getting healed just by this one meditation. It is such a powerful meditation…almost every person feels the effects from this, except the ‘twenty four hour professors’. And even they too somehow open up and cannot resist the powerful effects of a hearty laugh. The group energy is so infectious that few can resist joining in. It is only if you are alone or only with your spouse where you can tell your partner to keep quiet or behave that laughter can be resisted. However when you are with a group it is difficult to resist. The beauty of this meditation is that when you laugh as a group it brings in energy as laughter is infectious. When you laugh alone, it is like having ten dollars and spending the ten dollars…that is all. However if ten people put in ten dollars at the same time it becomes a hundred dollars. If it is a real amount of one hundred dollars, all cannot enjoy it at the same time. Only one person can enjoy those hundred dollars. If each one is to benefit and enjoy the hundred dollars then it

will have to be divided amongst them and with that they will be back to their own ten dollars.

This is not the case with energy. When it comes to energy…when ten persons put ten volts of electricity together in one instance, it becomes a hundred volts of electricity. If all ten touch the hundred volts, be clear all of them will get the impact of the hundred volt shock. So in an infectious group of people laughing, through the energy generated each one receives the total effect of the group.

As far as laughter is concerned when ten people put together ten volts of electricity, not only does it become a hundred volts, there is a new transformer called group consciousness that is created, converting even a hundred volts and collectively converting this to ten thousand volts.

Group consciousness means a deep love and understanding among the whole group. When you laugh you show you are innocent, you open up to new relationships. You show a positive sign to the next person. You show a green signal to the people around you. You permit them into your space and you welcome them. If they allow, you are ready to enter their space too. Letting someone else come into your space is the greatest technique to create any relationship.

Why do people suffer so much from being alone? I have always noticed that countries which are most developed are the ones which suffer most from loneliness. Why do people suffer so much from loneliness? This happens only because we do not have the courage to open our space for others to enter. I have not seen people suffering from loneliness in India. It happens only in very rare cases in India. People in India suffer because of too much crowd, never from loneliness!

In India, we are taught from a young age to open up to almost everything…for instance it may be going to the temple and taking part in group prayers…understand in this situation, we are opening ourselves up to others and letting others enter our space. This becomes an important technique to extend our life, to expand more and more and to live more.

Doctors say that if you are alone and you don’t have friends around, there is every chance of your dying eight years ahead of your time. Statistics show that when you retire early and do not allow people to enter your space, you are welcoming a heart attack and related cardiac problems. There is much proof even in the medical field which indicate that by letting other people into your space or by your entering into someone else's space it leads to healing of one's mind, healing of one's being. It infuses fresh energy and a feeling of freshness with a zest for life. Why talk only of friendship? Recent research indicates that married couples are better able to cope!

There is a book aptly titled ‘Open the Door Let the Breeze in’. People are so filled with insecure feelings that they continuously cover themselves within layers and finally make their own jails. The worm which creates a furrow for himself to stay safely in finally creates a jail instead of just a mesh. Finally he gets so used to it; he doesn’t realize he is in jail! Many of our own homes have almost become graveyards. When you are alone....not letting anyone into your space or when you are not entering into someone else’s space…not sharing your space with others be very clear…your home is nothing more than a graveyard. It is a tomb which you are preparing and getting ready for!

Be very clear about this…laughter is a green signal for another to come and relate with you. It is a wonderful signal which you are giving another person saying, ‘I am open to letting you into my space.’

Observe children all over the world. You will never find a single ugly child, no matter which country you look in. Even in Ethiopia and Somalia, where children are suffering due to extreme malnutrition and poverty; they may be lean and hungry looking but you will never find an ugly child. Similarly, have you ever seen a single grown man who is beautiful? The reason is man has lost his spontaneity to laugh. When a child laughs his whole body vibrates, flooding it with energy. That is why they are so alive and vibrant with energy. We grown ups are actually jealous of children and having lost our spontaneity we end up controlling children so that they behave like adults!

Never think you are helping your children when you try to control and discipline them. You have a subtle jealousy which is why you try to control them, their spontaneous behavior and their every action. Why do you think you shout at them? It is because of this subtle jealousy. You are unable to manage the energy bubbling up within them. Once they have become dull, dead buffaloes, then we sit back satisfied that they have shaped up and are well behaved. We feel comfortable when they have become dull. The instinctive joy they express is too much for us to handle.

When there is laughter within our homes, we can try to control this, but when there is shared laughter outside, we cannot control these situations. Such laughter in groups is infectious and draws us within to respond likewise; which is why Laughter Clubs are places for group therapy and healing. According to me, Laughter Clubs are more religious than any church, temple, mosque or synagogue, because these create more life, more energy… more positive vibrations in the world! In our Ashram, we have a place called the Laughing Temple where I conduct regular discourses. People question me about this new place and my reply is that this is a place where people are to make an offering of their laughter.

Laughter is one of the greatest religious expressions and a sense of humor is one of the greatest expressions of enlightenment!

According to me there is no enlightened master who does not express a sense of humor. Some express love, some compassion, some silence, some express great intelligence…yet there are others who express themselves by dancing. If you notice…Krishna is always singing and dancing…Buddha is observed to be silent and graceful…Mahavira is always seen as meditating, while Rama is observed as always living in righteousness. Every Master expresses some quality, but here is one quality which all Masters express…humor. A sense of humor is the very basic quality of enlightenment expressed by every enlightened person on planet earth.

If you read Bhagavan Ramakrishna’s books, the direct record of his teachings, particularly the translation of his words into a book called the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, on every other page you will see a set of brackets enclosing the words…everybody laughed. Naturally the translation is done politely because in vernacular Bengali it is very coarse. If you read some of the original transcriptions in Bengali you will be quite shocked and wonder if it is really Sri Ramakrishna speaking. He was such a simple person…not an intellectual at all. He did not know how to use cultured language but used phrases straight from his heart…very earthy and coarse…more like gossip. I often tell people instead of using the word ‘gospel’ we should use the word ‘gossip’ for the title of the book. His words were innocent and simple. He also recounts some dirty jokes which you would never expect from an enlightened man.

There is one particular intimate recount of the time when one of his disciples asked him why as an enlightened person he was cracking such dirty jokes. Sri Ramakrishna replied with great surprise, ‘What! I just tell jokes, if you make them dirty, what can I do.’

That is the beauty of innocence…the beauty of enlightened masters. He went on to say, ‘When you speak in a cultured manner you are mentally editing your words. Two things start happening, first, verbalization, then editing, after which you present it…having chosen your words carefully. But when I speak to my people I don’t edit my words. When I speak to the public, the common man, a new comer…I give an edited or censored version of what I really want to say However when I open my heart to my own followers and seekers I give an uncensored edition.’

The beauty in this instance is that we turn honest words into something dirty. For him it is normal and simple. Of course, according to me, Sri Ramakrishna is one of the greatest masters who used laughter itself as a meditation technique.

There is another recount of how some of his disciples sometimes rolled around with so much laughter whenever he used to mimic or imitate someone, they used to get stomach aches and had to escape from his presence when it got too much. Hearing this, it is not hard to imagine that Sri Ramakrishna used to crack so many jokes.

Every Master’s sense of humor is seen in every expression of enlightenment. According to me, this ability to be able to laugh spontaneously must be the basic quality for meditation, which is why every Master expresses it. Other qualities such as dancing for instance, finds no expression Buddha’s life. In Mahavira’s life there is no expression of music and in Krishna’s life, silence is never expressed. In every Master’s life, a certain aspect may be found to be missing but as far as a sense of humor is concerned this is expressed in all the great Masters’ lives. Moreover, if you could see these Masters laughing you will have seen the ultimate expression of existence.

One great enlightened Master used to tell his disciples, ‘Meditate on me as if you see me laughing. Meditate on my laughing form.’ Someone asked him why it was so special. He replied, ‘A miser will be at his optimum energy when he is counting his money. You will find that people never tire of counting money, even if it is someone else’s money. Even when working in a bank some people derive pleasure from counting other people’s money. A master is at his maximal energy when he is laughing. He is in ultimate bliss. So, focus on a master’s form when he is laughing…meditate on it.’

May you all be in Nithya Anandam!