Laughter Is The Best Medicine

Have you ever heard that laughter is the best medicine? What if we were to lean into that together? How much would we be able to laugh if we dove into the perplexing, unsolvable mysteries of life? Is that we are dreaming or having a nightmare funny? Maybe it is, maybe, sometimes, it is not. Is it funny that we can wake up from the dream at any time? Absolutely hysterical.

Please enjoy these short stories and ideas about how to create the conditions for divinity by having an attitude of playfulness, as well as by capitalizing on opportunities of disaster to transcend our limited perspective into the greater beyond.

Transcript

Hi there.

Welcome to another episode of Illuminated Ideas.

Really,

It's the first one,

So welcome.

I'm glad you're here.

This is Garrett,

And just to give you an idea of what this recording is going to look like,

We're going to start off with a very,

Very,

Very brief meditation to allow us to all arrive here together.

Then we are going to hear some ideas that are based off of the theme of the recording,

And then I will end the recording with some instructions for a meditation also based off of the theme that you can try on your own.

So arriving in the present moment,

Grounding into your body however you know best,

And in a few moments you can entertain,

Introduce a small smile to your lips.

And all we're going to do is just sit with that smile,

Just really the corners of your mouth lifted up ever so slightly,

Observing any shifts within your body,

And appreciating,

Celebrating how easy it is to flood ourselves with positive feelings.

It's amazing.

And really,

The exercise is perfect for today's topic as we wrap up that minute,

Because today's topic is all about playfulness and how we can create the conditions to experience divinity,

Not by seriousness,

But by having fun and celebrating life effectively.

So I will start the talk of today with a question.

Who amongst us would consider meditation to be a serious endeavor?

I would imagine that many of us do,

And I would also imagine that the rigid,

Dusty structures of our religious upbringing had something to do with that.

I have heard that the priesthood created a disconnect between humans and God,

Between creation and creator,

That the common person would not be able to reach divinity without a middleman to get the message across.

Hopefully all of us now know how much of a hoax that was.

If the common person knew of their relationship to God,

And in so knowing that knew who they were,

There would be no need for the church,

And that would probably be bad for the state of society,

Right?

I am convinced that the great disconnect between humans and divinity did not only occur because of the invention of medicine men or priests,

But because the structures of religion that preceded took the fun out of prayer,

The playfulness out of devotion,

And the joy out of God.

Or at least,

They tried to.

Wise saints and mystics have long entertained the rascal playfulness of divine intervention,

And if you were to look at the outrageousness of our predicament,

It is pretty hilarious.

A ton of the same energy stemming from the same source,

Parading and pretending to be strangers,

Pretending to have separate lives and separate thoughts,

Knowing somewhere deep down exactly who we are and what we're up to and why we're doing it.

The subtle angst of possibly being found out,

The depression that follows from upholding an avatar persona for lifetime after lifetime,

All of the suffering of seeming loss and loneliness and lack,

A result of this deeply seated,

Though entirely voluntary,

Play with ourselves.

And simultaneously,

The prospect can appear quite grim,

As most of us carry a guilt from our shared decision to pretend that we are not God that has us convinced that we are damned,

That God is mad at us,

And that our quote-unquote sin is punishable by fiery pits and endless agony.

Yet,

Lift the curtain,

Reveal the odds,

And it is God that is opting for this play with itself.

Why,

You might ask?

Well,

For no reason,

And it can all be over the second we decide to knock it off.

Though will we?

Will we give up our paradise of a world that we have created in our forgetfulness?

With all of the loss and fear and disappointing prospects and hopes fallen short,

We cling so tenderly to our delusional theater.

Unless we can become aware enough of it all to have a good laugh,

Then suddenly we are free.

A couple of stories about people that wake up from the dream through having a good laugh.

A teacher and a student are making their monthly commute from the temple to downtown to gather supplies.

This day is different,

However,

As the teacher seems to be in a great rush.

Where they would usually stop for tea,

The teacher pushed on.

Where they would usually stop for a nap,

The teacher pushed forward.

And where they would normally take a bath in the pond,

The teacher insisted to keep going.

Eventually,

When the teacher opted to stop and use the restroom,

The student peeked inside of the teacher's bag and saw two golden bricks inside.

Swiftly,

The student removed the bars and replaced them with equal weight stones.

When the teacher returned,

They continued on their way.

However,

When they passed the next landmark,

The student inquired about the teacher's rush.

The teacher exclaimed that they had to reach the town because the path was not safe and they were carrying precious items.

The student opened the backpack and revealed the stones,

And the teacher saw that he was mistaken.

He howled with laughter and became enlightened.

Another story that this reminds me of is a professor who arrives at the train station,

Heading to a conference in the city.

To her great distress,

She realizes that she has missed her train.

Without another option,

She halts a taxi cab and jerks out.

Go,

Go,

Go!

I'm in a huge rush!

The cab speeds off as fast as it can,

And about 15 minutes into the ride,

The professor recalls that she never gave the driver instructions.

Excuse me,

She inserts.

Do you know where we are going?

No idea,

Ma'am,

But I'm going as fast as I can!

If we stop and inquire about our perceived values and sense of direction in life,

We will find no answer for why we value what we do or why we're going in that direction that makes any sense.

Yet,

We rush on,

Passing all of our chances to take a nap,

Enjoy some tea,

And bathe in some nice ponds.

Another story.

A yogi is lost in the mountains,

And his thirst and hunger are becoming huge problems for him.

As the sun begins to set on the third day,

The man discovers,

As he turns the corner,

A crystal bowl filled with pristine pure water.

It's illuminating,

And oh my goodness,

It's magnificent.

He consumes the delicate beverage with great haste,

And finally replenished,

Collapses in exhaustion next to the bowl.

Yet,

When he awakens the next morning,

He sees that the crystal bowl was not a bowl at all,

But the remnants of an old human skull.

The pure water,

Murky,

Unknown fluids.

The man,

Realizing his mistake,

Bursts into laughter and becomes enlightened.

How often do we all get lost in the sauce of how we wish things were?

And how many times do we need to go through disastrous circumstances where things that we thought were invulnerable break,

Or the seemingly impossible becomes possible?

Alan Watts once shared that life is like falling off of a crumbling cliffside and clinging to chunks of earth on the way down.

What would happen if we were to let go?

Would it be the same result?

Is the stress of upholding our seeming securities,

Our social and relational importances,

Worth sacrificing our peace of mind?

Eventually the answer we all must come to is no.

And however many lessons it takes for all of us to let go and give up our preferences is however long it takes.

And frankly,

On one level,

We do have all of eternity to figure this out.

Similar to the teacher and the yogi and the professor,

The next time a hope falls short or an important task turns out to be mis-evaluated,

Have a good hardy laugh.

Pat yourself on the back and with a cosmic wink say,

Better luck next time.

It is the game that we are all playing with ourselves.

Today's meditation comes from Bhagwan Rajneesh,

Or Osho,

The champion of playfulness and one of the most brilliant minds of this last century.

Osho shares that playfulness is the only condition in which a human can connect to divinity.

The opposite of serious,

Osho shares the story of a hard-working monk who reaches the pearly gates after passing from this earth only to find out that he has 10,

000 more lifetimes of practice before attaining nirvana.

Frustrated and distressed,

The monk storms off in agony and returns to another lifetime of rigid,

Disciplined practice.

The person next in line at the gates is a flower child dancing with her beads as her hair frolics in the heavenly winds.

When told that she has another 10,

000 lifetimes before attaining nirvana,

She jumped for joy and did a little dance with excitement at the idea of living again,

And instead of 10,

000 more lives,

She is admitted to the kingdom instantly.

Our attitude towards our practices,

Towards the path,

Decide more than anything else how quickly we will attain.

If we are stiff and serious,

We will be longer on the journey because seriousness is of the world.

Divinity,

Like Krishna with his flute,

Is playful and fun and wants to dance with you.

Again we ask,

Who thinks that awakening is a serious task?

Why not instead be wild and free and enjoy yourself radically and expedite the process anyway?

Are we in a rush to get to where we already are?

How can we get to where we have always been any faster or slower than anyone else?

Think about it,

What's the rush?

Why not instead,

As the Yeshua tapes,

The way of self-mastery invites us to do,

When you are at a shopping mall next,

Stand up on the table and proclaim to the crowds,

I am the risen Christ and so are you.

Or at the next red light,

Get out of your vehicle,

Create an imaginary pile of all your worries and baggage in front of your car and pretend to light it on fire and do a little dance around your burning illusions in front of the world.

The promise is that the world is going to dance with you.

Laugh at your apparent problems and the world will laugh with you.

Today's meditation consists of setting a 20-minute timer.

Start with a small chuckle in your stomach,

Like a child.

Let the chuckle grow into a laugh and laugh until your whole body is laughing.

Stay in the laughter,

Become the laughter,

Not at anything in particular,

Just laugh.

Be loud,

Enjoy it.

Laugh until your stomach hurts or until tears come.

If not out loud,

Then quietly inside.

Keep the laughter going until the timer goes off.

When the timer does go off,

Restart it immediately.

Lay down onto your stomach and let the earth hold you,

Like a child resting on the bosom of its mother.

Relax your breath,

Let the earth support your weight and be still.

When the timer goes off again,

Put your favorite songs to dance to on and make sure to have them prepared before beginning so that you can flow right into it.

Your dancing will have a different quality to it.

Enjoy,

Be free,

Celebrate totally,

Be in the joy.

This is divine,

This is true religion,

This is the kingdom of heaven.

Be well my friends.

Enjoy yourself until next time and remember,

If you aren't laughing,

It's just not that funny.