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On Not taking Yourself Too Seriously.
Citta
Veteran
" A sense of humour is not merely a matter of trying to tell jokes or making puns, or trying to be funny in a deliberate fashion.
It involves seeing the basic irony of the juxtaposition of extremes, so that one is not caught taking them seriously..so that one does not seriously play the game of hope and fear ".
The Vidyadhara Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. " Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism ".
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Comments
"Nothing left to do but laugh"
What first attracted me to Buddhism was the laughing Buddha. The other religions I'd tried to get into all took themselves and the world too seriously. After all, if you're engaged in a world-wide battle for souls between ultimate good and ultimate evil, then where is there room to laugh at ourselves?
Fantastic lesson for us all members to learn: not to take themselves too seriously
I am not gonna take this post seriously.
Can we really do it? Can we laugh at our convictions, our past, our anger when things don't go as we planned? I'll admire someone who laughs at himself realizing how absurd is to think that the world will work in the way one's ego wants, because in this moments we usually don't laugh, we weep.
The op is good, the author means well, I am sure.
But we shouldn't push it too far. A healthy self-respect is essential.
That's quite fair,
given your share of posts...
I am sure that Trungpa Rinpoche didnt mean well at all in the sense that you mean..
He did everything he could to undermine our ( his students ) sense of specialness..
An example..during one-to one interviews he gave one friend instructions to do 4 fours a day meditation during a retreat we were on.
The next friend went in and was given 5 hours a day.
We were all sitting outside his office..it was my turn next, " I wonder how many hours I will get" I said aloud.
Thinking that it would be at least 6. After all I had been his student longer than them.
"Two hours a day for you " he said with a grin.
Seeing my face fall he came round the desk and bumped my forehead with his.
Well, there's the "Heehawyana" branch of Buddhism, whose adherents believe in pointing out the absurdity of life by playing practical jokes on each other. But the Master of the last temple was short-sheeted one time too many and dissolved the sect, claiming nobody got his jokes anyway.
Then there's the "Yahooyana" branch, which believes in waiting until they're in a big crowd and then yelling "Yahoo!" at the top of their lungs to shock people into mindfulness. But they were banned rather quickly from most towns on market day. A few of the monks tried forming a "Yeehawyana" branch where they wait until they're in crowded elevators before yelling, but discovered the general population was more prone to heart attacks than satori.
And in the end, we strut around or sit and stare at a wall half our lives, and the world keeps turning and people keep squabbling like children fighting over the same toys. And just when you've given up, something happens to give you hope enough to go on. When we get tired of weeping, all that's left to do is laugh.
What did the Buddha say to the hot dog salesman?
Time to vacate the building @Nevermind, the broken biscuit, is here...
See you later guys
^Yawn^ "make me one with everything."
And when he asked for his change, the Hot-dog salesman pointed out that 'change comes from within.'
Next!
William James
No, he said speak from the heart and ye shall finduth the truth. And no fries! Lol
hot-dog salesmen don't sell fries.
So I'm told......
Exactly lol!
I humbly respect that no one answer @Nevermind tonight
Metta
What's this topic about, anyway?
I humbly respect that no one answer @Nevermind tonight Metta
I think you mean request, you humbly request that no one answer me tonight. Well heck, it's Friday night and I'm sure the good folk here have better things to do anyway. I'm stuck here tending to a sick bird, so I'll be available should any wish to not take themselves so seriously.
Oh shut it, the pair of you.