THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 The ...

264 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
on your chest; you are crushed underneath it. Life loses all joy, all laughter. You simply drag, you don’t live. How
can one live without laughter?
It is man who is the only animal on earth who knows how to laugh. Laughter is the only thing that is special
to human beings, not reason but laughter. Animals can also reason they reason in their own way but they
cannot joke, they cannot laugh, they cannot see the humorous side; that is impossible for them. All animals are
serious people and all serious people are animals! The moment you get rid of your seriousness you get rid of your
animality.
Hence I have no respect for your saints. They are very serious, far more serious than the donkeys, far more
serious than the buffaloes. They have fallen, they have not risen. Your saints are serious, your politicians are
serious, your revolutionaries are serious, your scientists are serious. They are all taking life as if somehow one has
to pass through it not dance. The very concept of dance is far away from them. They cannot even walk, they
drag. They don’t live, they only slowly die. They are all waiting for death to relieve them of the pain and the
suffering of life.
It is very rare to find a human being who has not contemplated committing suicide once or twice. On average,
four times in his life every human being thinks of committing suicide. He does not do it, that is another matter.
Maybe he has no guts to do it, maybe he is afraid of what is going to happen after death. Who knows? It may
be far worse than life itself. At least life is known, familiar; it is risky to move into the unknown.
Indians don’t commit suicide much because they believe that they will be sent back again, so what is the point?
millions of times you have to be born. All Indian religions seek and search not for God, remember, but for freedom
from life, freedom from the circle of birth and death. How can these people rejoice and how can these people be
thankful to God? They are complaining and their complaining is very loud. They are saying, ”We don’t want to
be born. We never wanted to be born. Why didn’t you ask us first? It is unfair! It is not a gift, it is unfair to
send us into a life which we had never asked for. And it is unfair to go on sending us into a life which is nothing
but misery.”
But life is not misery. It is our approach, it is our way of looking at it that has made it ugly. Our vision
is distorted, not life itself. Our mirror is distorted, not life itself. Because our mirror is distorted, life appears
distorted.
Vimalkirti, to me it is all a joke. And I am not joking I am really serious about it!
You say, ”But I don’t get it.”
I have heard that in Germany people are not allowed to tell jokes on Saturday evenings. Why? because they
might burst out laughing in church on Sunday morning. It takes time for them to understand! And you are the
great-grandchild of the German emperor, it may take a little longer for you! But if you are here you are bound
to get it. Don’t be worried. Life is so full of hilarious moments that it is almost impossible to miss them. It is a
miracle how people go on missing them; otherwise you will come across jokes everywhere.
When Winston Churchill was appointed prime minister for the first time he was tired from the election campaign
and all the politics that had gone before and all the struggle to reach the top his wife thought it would be good
to call a friend who knew many beautiful jokes so he could tell a few jokes to Winston Churchill. ”That will relax
him, help him to laugh a little. He has been so serious for so many days and he looks so tired.”
The friend was called; he came with all the latest jokes. He asked Winston Churchill, ”Would you like to know
the latest jokes?”
Churchill looked at him and said, ”Please, no more I have appointed them all in my cabinet!”
If you look around, if you are watchful enough, then you are bound to stumble again into something so beautiful
and so ridiculous. The very idea of creating the world and creating you all is such a cosmic joke! God must have
a sense of humor.
An old rabbi was dying and somebody asked him... because they were afraid for the old rabbi. He was not
very religious, not very virtuous; in fact, he was just the opposite. They were worried. They asked him, ”Are you
ready to meet God?”
He opened his eyes and said, ”Yes, that’s what I am doing I am just trying to remember a few beautiful jokes
to tell him. He must be getting tired of all those long faces, sad saints. He will really enjoy a few jokes, a few
gossips about the earth.”
And I absolutely agree with this old rabbi. If you meet God, don’t fall on your knees and start praying he is
tired of all that! Tell him a beautiful joke. That will be a deeper communion with him. Let him have a good
laugh. In that laughter there will be a revelation.
Vimalkirti, a few jokes for you: