One of the reasons I think some spiritual seekers don't make more progress is that they don't laugh enough.
If you're not involved in the discussions between solemn, earnest, dedicated, "If you don't take me as seriously as I take myself I'll kill you" spiritual seekers and those who are more lighthearted, and are watching the discussions dispassionately from the sidelines, you can often see that they work out in ever-repeating samskaric cycles. One seeker pokes fun at the other for being so serious, and the first reacts by becoming even more serious. Or one lighthearted seeker, who is having a *really* good day and perceives almost *everything* as funny that day, laughs his way through his posts and includes a bunch of smileys to try to clue others into his mood. And how do the "serious seekers" react to this? They get even more serious, and try their best to keep the first person from being funny, or from expressing it. It's just the weirdest thing. I never found Hindu-based traditions to be big on humor, but to be honest my experience was mainly limited to a Hindu-based tradition that was so uptight that it claimed for decades that it wasn't Hindu. :-) In Buddhism it's a very different story. There is a LOT of laughter in Buddhism. If you get the time, there are a series of light-hearted Web pages called "Laughing to Enlightenment" that have some wonderful essays on this subject, and the ups and downs of actually being a happy seeker in a world full of people who feel that laughter is an affront to being a "serious seeker." In one of them http://www.hundredmountain.com/Pages/pageone_stuff/laughing_feb00/lau ghing5.html the author talks about a wonderful cartoon series called Dharma the Cat, which some of you may know. His insights into what makes the strip so funny have, in my opinion, a lot to say about recent attempts here to berate others for using smileys and just being who they are: "One of the reasons Bodhi is such a funny character is because he takes himself so seriously. Not laughing at oneself in one's earnestness only makes one's predicament funnier to others. In fact I have described Bodhi's character as `a novice monk who is stumbling earnestly along the Buddha's path, stepping squarely into every spiritual pitfall.' I think his unrelenting earnestness is the key to his funniness. "Also, people ask me, `When is Bodhi going to get it together?' Well, there is a lot more humour available in observing people's mistakes than in observing their successes. So if Bodhi is going to continue to give us his enjoyable `how not to' lessons, he is going to have to forego enlight- enment for quite some time -- in the true spirit of a Bodhisattva." That's really the issue, in my opinion. Many people who get uptight at laughter in others and attempt to stifle it are doing so because they are afraid that the others are laughing at *them*. And they're *right*, of course. And the more uptight they get about being laughed at, the more earnestly they attempt to berate others for (God help us!) *laughing*, the funnier they become to the laughers, and the more they laugh. The uptight, oh-so-serious seekers are really missing something. NOTHING is more liberating than *joining in* when someone is laughing at you. It indicates that you don't take yourself seriously, and thus that your problems *with* self aren't that serious. The opposite, seekers who get even *more* uptight when someone laughs at them in an attempt to help them laugh at themselves, may indicate a lot of problems with letting go of self. And thus a lot of laughs ahead for those watching. For those who want to check out Dharma the Cat: http://www.dharmathecat.com/ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
