Sense of
Humor
It would be interesting to
examine this subject in terms of what is not a sense of humor. Lack of humor seems to come
from the attitude of “Hard Fact,” things that are deadly serious. It’s like
some people have experienced such a hard fact of life that they loose their souls as a
result. They act like someone is standing behind them with a sharp stick ready to poke
them if they don’t do it just right…if they are not praying just right, sitting
still and upright, if they don’t have the right friends, join the right clubs, (you
fill in the blanks) there will be hell to pay. Then they try to project their state of
mind on others around them.
But actually, behind this
kind of person, the watcher, is nothing more than their own self-consciousness, always in
judgment, always ready to strike. It’s not Big Brother watching, it’s me. And,
while we might immediately crack a joke, trying to ease our own tensions at this
statement, we all tend to do this very thing…we tend to judge ourselves, even unto
sickness and death. This is a byproduct of our culture, not of our religion.
Because of cultural
attitudes, some of us believe that if we align ourselves with the right crowd, conform to
the right church, punish evil in the world, we can stand upright before God and man.
However, I submit, if we go too far in this belief we eventually find that we are unable
to fulfill these high ideals. What is worse, we also believe that if we cannot fulfill our
obligations we will be condemned, reduced to a shrunken pathetic being. Thus with too much
solemnity there is a death, a death in the sense of an end to any further creative
process, resulting in feelings of limitation and rigidity where there is no room to move
at all…thus, people become like a living corpse.
So we ask, “What about
the great religious traditions and teachings? These speak of discipline, rules and
regulations. Aren’t these hard facts? How can we reconcile this in terms of having a
sense of humor?”
Well, let’s begin
answering by asking other questions. “Are these disciplines, rules and regulations we
hold so dear really advocating that we fight evil because we are on the side of light, the
side of peace? Or, are they really based upon purely judgmental attitudes of
“Good” as opposed to “Bad?” the we inherent from our culture?
If there is any wisdom in the
sacred teachings it is that there should not be any conflict, either between people(s) or
within our own psyches. So it follows that as long as a person is involved with fighting,
trying to defend or attack, then this person is not at peace; rather the fight is mundane
and not in keeping with the needs of the soul. One would not expect the sacred teachings
to be as simple minded as teaching us simply to be good, or fighting the bad. Such is the
approach of a
If we regard the path of
spirituality as a battle field either internal to ourselves or external to the world, then
we are weak and feeble, as a result. Our progress in spirit will depend upon how great an
area we have conquered, on the subjugation of our own and other’s faults, upon how
much negativity we have eliminated. One could hardly call this walking the path of Christ.
As I speak of having a sense
of humor, I certainly don’t wish to make a sense of humor into something solemn.
People do this already. Sense of humor means seeing both poles of a situation as they are,
without judgment, as if from an aerial point of view. There is good and there is bad. As
you see both polarities with a panoramic view from above, you see the little people on the
ground killing themselves and each other over ideologies; it is only then we begin to see
the ironic aspect of their clamor.
Actually, a sense of humor
seems to come from all-pervading joy, joy that has room for expansion because it is not
involved with the battle between this or that. Joy develops into the panoramic situation
of seeing the whole ground, the open ground. Because the open situation has no hint of
limitation, no hint of imposed solemnity. And if you try to treat life as serious
business, if your try to impose solemnity upon life as if it is a very big deal, then it
is truly funny.
A person might try to pray
just the perfect way…big deal, funny. Or, on the other hand, a person might try to
develop a sense of humor, always trying to poke fun at things, but isn’t this in
itself a deadly serious game? Again, big deal…funny. It seems that extreme intensity
in anything becomes humor, automatically. Remember, our comedians make a lot of money
getting us to laugh at our extremes.
There is a story of a holy
man who renounced his worldly confused life and went into a monastery with a vow of
silence. Prior to this he worried continually about all the pain and suffering in the
world. Amongst his friends he was called the Black Faced One, because he never smiled at
all but saw everything in life in terms of seriousness. He remained in retreat for many
years, very solemn and deadly serious, until one day he gazed upon his statue of a praying
Christ. That morning someone had given him a beautiful hand carved wooden cup and as he
sat there looking at his good fortune he thought of the Last Supper; 2000 years ago this
cup might have been the cup of Christ, who knows. But as he sat in thankfulness and prayer
a little mouse creped into his hermitage and tried to move the cup. But the mouse failed.
It wasn’t long until the mouse returned with another mouse. Both tried to drag away
the cup and couldn’t do it. So they squeaked together and called eight more mice who
came and finally dragged the cup into their hole. Then for the first time in his life
Black Faced One began to laugh and smile. This was his introduction to openness, a sudden
flash of Joy. Suddenly he understood his own irony towards life, what he, with all his
seriousness, was doing to himself.
So a sense of humor is not
merely trying to tell jokes or make puns, trying to be funny deliberately. It involves
seeing the irony in the juxtaposition of extremes, so that one is not caught taking those
extremes so seriously, playing the games of hope, fear and despair. This is why the
spiritual path is so significant and why forgiveness is the most significant of all.
We must understand that our
areas of concern are not always our areas of influence. And to confuse the two is crazy
making. Christ had an answer to our crazy making. “See the lilies of the field,
neither to they toil or reap. Yet God…”
So what do we do with our
seriousness, our intent on how life is supposed to be, how we as individuals are supposed
to behave, how others are supposed to behave? Is a sense of humor related in any way to
the teachings of Christ? I would say, certainly!
Here’s a story of a
hermit who lived in a far away land:
This hermit’s goal in
life was to witness God by direct experience and he decided to build a hermitage in a cave
in the mountains in order to devote himself to meditation. In his quest the hermit
procured a sponsor to help provide food and the necessities of life. During the months
that followed, however, the sponsor sent his wife, daughter and son to take the hermit his
supplies; but one day the hermit heard that the sponsor himself was coming to see him. The
hermit thought to himself, “I must impress my benifactor. I must clean and polish the
shrine objects and make my room very tidy.” So he did just that. He scrubbed, cleaned
and polished, and when he finished he sat down to admire his work. But, now, everything
looked unreal. Suddenly, to his surprised, he realized he was a hypocrite. So he went into
the kitchen and got handfuls of ash and threw the ash onto the shrine and all over the
floor, walking back and forth to make them mess appear normal. When his benefactor came,
he was very impressed by the quality of the room. Finally the hermit could no longer
contain himself and laughed uproariously. Finally he said, “I tried to tidy both
myself and the room, but then, after I did I realized that I was a hypocrite. So, I
thought you should see it this way.” Where upon the patron burst into laughter, too.
It was a great moment of soulful joy for both of them. The hermit then knew that God
doesn’t care about appearances, or dress codes, or most of the things we humans worry
over. Further, God doesn’t care about our neurosis.
You see, the whole point is
this, if we are seeking a way out all the time, then
we are dealing in fiction, the dream of escape. We need to be practical. We need to
examine what is here, right now. Because once we acknowledge the negative aspects of our
state of being and life in general, we know the way out automatically. The way out is what
Christ taught us, Forgiveness. See the irony of the juxtapositions in life, laugh, forgive
and let it go. This leads to Joy, the path of the Soul.
Perhaps the most important
lesson that I’ve learned in my life is that all Forgiveness begins with
Self-Forgiveness. Why, because all my judgments are self-judgments bound by the limits of
my physical brain.
To me this is all very funny!
And you can believe it!
© Copyright Aug 2009, John Worman
