Bedtime Story & Reflection: The Foolish Heart

This talk begins with a short story. A parable titled, 'The Mystic's Last Surprise.' It is a heartwarming tale that explores the gift of laughter and how transformative it can be in different spaces. We discuss the benefits of laughter and philosophize how if laughter is eternal, life is eternal, and the celebration continues. If you can change your sadness to a celebration, you will also be capable of changing your death into resurrection. What an opportunity to learn this art in our current life.

Transcript

Welcome to this moment in time.

I have a parable for you to evoke further reflection of this particular topic.

So I invite you to settle.

Wherever,

However,

In this time,

Space,

Reality that you find yourself in,

How can you be a little more receptive?

Since the body speaks to the breath,

To the emotions,

Find some intuitive movement to nuzzle,

Stretch,

And allow.

Breathe in through your nose.

Let it out through your mouth.

Continue your natural breath.

Feel free to close your eyes or soften the gaze and allow any visual splendor to be painted with the texture and details from these words.

Laughter.

The Chinese mystics' last surprise.

I've heard about three Chinese mystics.

Nobody knows their names now and nobody knew their names.

They're only known as the three laughing saints.

Because they never did anything else,

They simply laughed.

These three people were really,

Really beautiful.

Laughing and their bellies shaking.

And then it would become an infection and others would start laughing.

You know how that goes.

The whole marketplace would laugh.

When just a few moments before it was an ugly place where people were thinking only about money.

Suddenly these three mad people were,

They came and they changed the quality of the whole marketplace.

Now they had forgotten that they had come to purchase and sell.

Nobody bothered about greed.

For a few seconds a whole new world opened up.

They moved all over China from place to place,

From village to village,

Just helping people to laugh.

Sad people.

Angry people.

Greedy people.

Jealous people.

They all started laughing with them.

And many felt the key that you can be transformed.

Then in one village it happened that one of the three died.

Village people gathered and they said,

Now there's going to be some trouble.

Now we have to see how they laugh.

Their friend has died.

They're going to need to weep.

But when they came,

The two,

They were dancing.

And they were laughing.

And they were celebrating the death.

The village people said,

No this is too much.

When a man is dead it is profound to laugh and dance,

They said.

The whole life we laughed with him.

How can we give him the last send off with anything else?

We have to laugh.

We have to enjoy.

We have to celebrate.

This is the only farewell that's possible for a man that's laughed his whole life.

We don't see that he's dead.

How can laughter die?

How can life just die like that?

Then the body was to be burned.

And the village people said,

We will give him a bath as the sacred prescribes.

But those two friends said,

No,

No.

Our friend has said,

Don't perform any ritual and don't change my clothes.

Don't give me a bath.

Just put me in as I am in the burning prior.

So we have to follow his instructions.

And then suddenly there was a great happening.

When the body was put in the fire that old man had played his last trick.

He had hidden fireworks under his clothes.

And suddenly there was a big festival.

Then the whole village started laughing.

These two mad friends they were dancing and the whole village started dancing.

It was not a death.

It was a new expression and moment of life.

Breathe these words in.

Let them go.

Let them flow with any emotion,

Ideas,

Visuals you've had.

Laughter is eternal.

Life is eternal.

Celebration continues.

Actors change but the drama continues.

Waves change but the ocean continues.

You laugh,

You change and somebody else laughs but the laughter continues.

You celebrate,

Somebody else celebrates but the celebration continues.

Existence is continuous.

It is a continuum.

There's not a single moment's gap in it.

No death is death because every death opens a new door.

It is a beginning.

There is no end to life.

There's always a new beginning,

A resurrection.

If you change your sadness to celebration,

Then you will also be capable of changing your death into resurrection.

So learn the art while there is still time.

Can we learn this art?

While there is still time.

Wow,

What a statement.

I love that.

I love that.

You know,

A lot of this can seem like word talk,

Like lip service.

It's like death is not death.

Why be sad?

Of course,

Osho's parables and reflections can be quite controversial.

Spiritual bypassing,

We've heard that term.

It's all in your mindset.

Just change your mindset.

Don't be sad.

As a mental health advocate,

Of course,

Feel it all.

Hit the rock bottom.

And that's the fertile soil to find some more hope.

Something more tactile to reach more up back into joy and bliss.

So it's okay to feel sadness and all of that,

But we didn't come here to make a career out of that.

And it's about not forcing the judgment.

Yeah,

For sure.

I know my father,

He wants to have a celebration with his passing.

Bright colors,

Have some favorite songs.

We all get to choose that.

It was so cool in the story that maybe one of the laughing monk friends knew that the end was coming for the body temple to be returned.

So he was like,

Let me slip some fireworks in here.

I know what we're going to do here.

Yes.

Yes,

Indeed.

But what I love was that phrase,

Learn the art while there's still time.

Because that's the whole thing.

It's the art of living.

The art of living,

The art of grieving,

The art of dying,

The art of celebrating,

The art of being,

The art of doing.

Honestly,

It's an art.

It is an art.

If you know you're not here to suffer,

How can we make it an art when you feel misery or when there's the passing of someone you love?

How can we find this art to evoke more joy?

To have it be less of a gap?

They make sitcoms with that recorded laughter for a reason,

To kind of like feed the laughter and that light heartedness.

But can we figure out the art of laughter and joy?

So it's less of a gap.

You know,

We didn't come here for enlightenment every day,

Joy every day.

It's going to be some dark walks through the night of our soul.

Where can we harness the lightness of being?

Because laughter is important and it's good for your body,

Mind and soul,

The endorphins.

It's true.

That's why laughter yoga,

Whether you've experienced it or not,

You fake it till you make it.

Has anyone ever been there?

I think there's the mantra.

Ho ho ha ha ha ho ho ha ha ha ho ho ha ha ha ho ho ha ha ha.

Very good.

Very good.

Yay!

You can fake it till you make it.

At some point it's going to mirror some real laughter.

The body doesn't really know the difference.

It's a powerful exhale detox.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Sometimes you can do it on your back with your eyes closed.

Oh my gosh,

What am I talking about?

On your back with your eyes closed.

You can be on all fours walking around.

Animalistic.

You're giving me ideas,

Everyone.

Honestly.

Okay.

Death can mean life changes as well.

Major changes can be transformed with joy and laughter as well.

Powerful.

So yeah,

The death as we know it is a change.

It's a chapter.

It's a new cycle.

Can we not need to wait for death in any means?

And just through laughter,

It's a change.

It's a death of a moment.

It's transformative.

There's something powerful and fiery about laughter.

Like a candle,

Like a fire,

Like a rush of something.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

It's almost like a smudge,

Eh?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

That was kind of witch-like.

Don't mind me.

I'm just feeling the vibration.

If you want,

Try it right now.

How can laughter almost be like a.

.

.

Do you see how that shifts the moment?

A Kochi chime.

Hmm.

Can your laughter be a cleanse of the moment in the space?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Even in a light way.

It puts that pause.

It's kind of like the five mindful breaths.

Right?

Just play with it.

Feel it out.

Children are always bringing laughter.

They know.

It's true,

And they have to evoke that in us.

Yes!

That's one of my missions.

Can we have the creative play to be a big kid?

Mm-hmm.

To celebrate the inner child.

The child within.

You don't stop playing because you grow old.

You grow old because you stop playing.

Yeah!

Yes!

Yes!

Mm.

Again,

I'm not lowering the honoring of death.

It's just another perspective,

Right?

It's good to challenge what our associations are to death,

To sadness,

To laughter,

To joy.

Yeah.

And sometimes it's work.

Personally,

I am more of a melancholy spirit.

And it is work.

It's work to make the effort to,

Even if you have five minutes,

To watch a silly cat video or anything like that.

Yeah.

So maybe you make the time for it,

And it's worth making the time for that.

Or you know you're around this friend,

And they're very business-minded.

They're a little too serious,

Or that family member.

And you're like,

I know this person.

They have that gift of the lightness,

The laughter.

So making mindful choices who you hang out with,

Depending on your frequency or what show to watch or movie.

Just because it got good reviews doesn't mean you need to watch the action film or if there's too much violence in it.

Part of the art of living is knowing what you need when you need it,

And how can you teeter-totter this stress state,

Lightheartedness state.

Is laughter the best medicine at that time?

Do you need a few hours to sit in the sorrow?

It's not a crime.

Again,

A lot can be birthed through the frustration,

Anger,

Sore of sadness.

We're not discrediting it.

You just did not come forth to make a career out of that.

Beautiful.

There's the recommendation for Clarissa Pincola.

Estates talks beautifully about life,

Death,

Life cycle,

And the seasons of life and how they're all equally beautiful.

The book is Woman Who Run with the Wolves.

It goes deeper with that.

Wonderful.

Well,

May we take what we took from this parable,

From our little post-reflection,

And may it evoke a shift,

An awareness for you to feel some lightness of being.

Yeah.

Who knows?

You know,

I'm glad I have one more thought before I close this talk,

And that is,

I forget who told me this,

But.

.

.

So there's this whole pressure and goal to be enlightened,

To see beyond the illusions of the body,

Of money,

Of the suffering,

Of career,

Of the ego,

Of the personality.

Let's just get enlightened however we get there.

Meditation every day.

Plant medicine.

Moving away from people.

Enlightenment,

Enlightenment.

There's such a focus on enlightenment.

Often it's associated with peace,

Deep peace,

Which,

Yes,

Is part of enlightenment.

But someone once told me the very last stage of enlightenment is laughter,

Because you see through the illusions.

It's like,

Oh.

.

.

And you know your identity is part of the stars and the cosmos,

And you can visit this one and that one and that ancestor beyond any linear in space and time.

So,

Laughter.

Let's enjoy our journeys to enlightenment.

Find that deep peace.

Enjoy the modalities of how we get there,

Whether you live in a big city or rurally,

With the chick monks and the bugs and the bees in the mountains.

However you choose to get to your level of enlightenment in this incarnated experience.

Along the way,

I bless you,

I wish for you,

Moments and moments and waves and echoes of laughter.

Nothing left to do but smile,

Nothing left to do but laugh.

Put your hand on your belly.

Let's get some deep laughter in and close this out.

Tickle tickle,

I have a goose feather.

Cheers to.

.

.

Cheers to life,

Love and laughter.

We raise that up.

Feel it.

Feel the shift.

Ho ho ha ha ha.

Ho ho ha ha ha.

Ho ho ha ha ha.

Ho ho ha ha ha.

Very good,

Very good.

Yay!

Community breath in.

Community breath out.

Mmm.

Wow.

Thank you.

Reviews

Good program
But why put under the sleep tab
It was a great story well told

So dynamic and imaginative--perfect