“Subject for today’s discourse is, ‘Laughter is Meditation’.”

I welcome you all with My love and respects and My sincere love and thanks to the governor of Ohio and to her representer Kim for their proclamation and the warm reception, good words they gave to receive Me. So, by giving a clap, we will give them our respects. [claps]

Subject for today’s discourse is, ‘Laughter is Meditation’. According to My understanding, laughter is one of the greatest meditation techniques. Almost every intelligent individual has recognized the power of the laughter or the transformation which it can bring into our body, mind and the soul. The healing effect of laughter is realized immediately. You don’t need to believe on this meditation technique.

There are few things which proves the power of laughter as a meditation technique. First thing, immediate effect. Other techniques, first thing you will need to believe the technique will help. Next thing, you need to practice. Third thing, you will need to wait for the result. But, laughter does not need anything else, anything of this sort. It doesn’t need your faith, it doesn’t need your belief in it, you don’t need to wait to have the result of it. Immediately you experience the result which is created by laughter physically and mentally.

Almost, all the great mystics, all the masters, have realized the effect, and understood the transformation which happens by laughter. It's one of the subject which is analyzed by almost all the great masters. Somehow, man never take notes of laughter as a meditation technique. Laughter is never considered as a spiritual quality. Because, we associate spirituality always with seriousness. Spirituality is taken as something dead. Something serious. Something only for the people who have got long face.

But, according to Me, spirituality is something to do with Life. Always, we think spirituality is for the people who are old. When you don’t have anything else to do, except knitting the sweaters, you need to take Bible, or you need to go to church. There’s a saying, ‘Go to church, don’t wait to be carried by four men’. We always wait to go to church. We don’t actually go, we wait to be carried by four men. We always think religion is something for old. Religion is something to do with dead things.

Whenever we think religion is for the people who are old, we make it too complicated, too serious. The juicy portion of spirituality is lost. But, religion is not for only the old people. Religions based on fear are nothing to do with religiousness. There’s two things - religiousness and religion. Just dead rituals are religion and the juice which is inside the rituals is religiousness.

The religions based on religiousness has always emphasized the beauty of laughter. They always use laughter as a technique to transform. But whenever religions grow based on just rituals, then you miss the whole juice. Religion is living thing. It is not part-time job. It is not only for the old people. It's a quality of your life. It is just total quality of your very life.

Laughter is not taken note by the intellectuals or the serious guys, because it is very simple. Anything simple, we miss. We miss many things because they are very simple. When it is complicated, we don’t miss. Our ego feels satisfied by doing complicated things. But, whenever something is simple, something is very ordinary, you miss it. Anything very simple, it always escapes our eyes. You bypass it, you don’t look into it.

So many beautiful things can happen into you, into your Being, by simple laughter. And most intelligent communities of the world are the communities who have produced more jokes. In the world, you can see, who have produced more number of jokes, the intelligence in their life, in their community. For example, there’s only three field in the world. One is ‘out world’ belongs to logic, mathematics, science - science. Another one is inner world - religion, mysticism, spirituality. Third is in between - psychology. The world related to outer world - science, inner world - religion, between - psychology.

The outer world, if you see the top person - Einstein - Einstein is one of the genius mind in the science, in the field of science. Inner world, Jesus. Today, more than half of the universe is followers of Christ. Between - psychology - father of psychology is Sigmund Freud. Jesus, Einstein and Sigmund Freud. According to My understanding, laughter and jokes play major role in intelligence. Communities which created more possibilities to laugh, more possibilities to joke, more possibilities to open the energy, have created intelligent people. They have presented intelligent minds, genius minds to the world. Because, when you laugh, your whole being opens up. A new kind of energy enters your being.

Just a simple understanding about the jokes. How these jokes work, how the jokes make you laugh. Actually, when you listen to a joke, slowly, slowly, slowly, your mind is tuned to certain kind of rational thinking. You come to a conclusion. But the last word, the punchline, is always something beyond your expectation. The moment you listen something beyond your expectation, your logic is put off. Your rationality is relaxed. Immediately you open and you burst into the laughter.

A small story. One guy was trying to tell a joke to group of his friends. To tell a joke, you need intelligence. This guy was trying to tell a joke to the group of friends who are sitting and chatting with him. But somehow, he missed the punchline. Nobody was feeling like laughing. Everybody was silent, keeping quiet. But one guy who was in the group, started laughing uproariously. Full-belly laughter. The others were not able to understand why he is laughing. One guy said, “Why are you laughing? Neither we understood, nor he himself understood what he has said.” The guy who was laughing, somehow slowly controlled himself and said, “Laugh now itself. Otherwise, he will tell the same joke once more.”

Your logical expectation is different. And, the punchline totally gives a different view. The moment your logic is put off, the moment you see something different than what you expected, you open up, you burst out. I think, few of you have not laughed, I should try once more. [laughter]

Whenever your logic is pushed aside, you open up. A light of energy, a ray of energy enters into your being. It’s like, in a dark room, a ray of light enters - just like that. A ray of energy comes out to your body from your Atman, the source of all energies. From that ocean of energy, a ray of energy is supplied to your body, the moment your logic is pushed aside. That is what happens when you laugh, or when you listen to a joke.

But, there are few hard nuts who are continuously intellectual, who are continuously thinking. It is very difficult to make them laugh. It’s very very very difficult to make them laugh. Understand, when I say the word ‘intellectual’, I don’t mean they know everything. I mean, they don’t understand anything. They don’t have sensitivity towards the reality. They are continuously thinking.

A small story. There was a competition in Bharat. If you don’t laugh for one hundred jokes, you will be given ten lakh rupees. And five people will be made to sit. Those five will continuously crack jokes. You are supposed to stand on the dias, without laughing. One guy entered the competition. Somehow he managed forty jokes. But forty jokes - he was not able to manage, he laughed. Second guy entered, and managed eighty. The third guy - really hard nut to crack - managed ninety, even up to ninety five, ninety six. People who are telling the jokes, they were not able to understand what is happening. And these guys have prepared from all possible sources. Getting jokes and arranging. The people who are seeing the program, they all started getting stomach pain by laughing, laughing, laughing. But this guy is just standing! By ninety eighth joke, a small smile started appearing in his face. This guy’s wife was sitting in front. She started shouting, “Hey, keep quiet, keep quiet, don’t open the mouth. It’s only two more jokes. Don’t miss ten lakhs. Don’t laugh. Close your mouth”. But somehow ninety nine, he was not able to control and started to laugh. Gave a full-belly laughter uproariously. The moment he came down from the stage, wife shouted at him, “Fool! You missed ten lakh just by one joke! One minute you could have shown your original face. Why did you laugh?” This guy said, “No, no, just then I understood the first joke!”

Hard nuts. Don’t think they are very intellectuals. When you don’t have the sensitivity to the reality, when you don’t have the sensitivity to what is happening around you, you keep your face long. And I tell you, really, a man who is alive, cannot keep long face. When you are continuously thinking, if your whole energy is sucked by your mind, if you are a great intellectual, just thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking - actually, if you become a great intellectual, you stop living. You stop living with reality. Only the guys who have become great intellectuals, who have disconnected themselves from the reality, they miss the whole joke of existence, whole universe. They miss the whole joy. They miss the whole play.

Because, the existence is the ultimate joke. The existence is the ultimate bliss. If you have the sensitivity to live in this body, if you have the sensitivity to see the things around you, if you have the sensitivity to hear what is happening, if you have the sensitivity to feel what is going on, you will see, your life will be filled with laughter.

Your life will be filled with laughter because laughter is one of the important quality through which existence expresses itself. When you laugh, for that one moment, you become one with energy. And there’s a great story of Bodhidharma, when he became enlightened the first thing which he did, the next thing which he did, the last thing which he did, was laughing.

When you laugh, you fall in tune with existence. When you fall in tune with existence, you start laughing. You may think, “what is this?” The story goes… Buddha came to give his everyday discourse early morning. Ten thousand Sannyasis are sitting in front of him. It is always believed Buddha had ten thousand enlightened disciples along with him, always travelling. So, ten thousand enlightened disciples are sitting in front of him. One guy, who is yet to become enlightened, is Bodhidharma. He has not become enlightened.

Buddha when he came, he brought a rose flower. He was just sitting, without speaking, looking at the rose flower. He was looking, looking, looking. Suddenly he calls Bodhidharma and gives that flower to him, and says, “Do you understand?” Bodhidharma starts laughing uproariously. He neither gave a reply “I understood” nor he said “No, I have not understood”. Just he started laughing uproariously. Buddha says, “You understood, sit”. And, from that moment, Zen buddhist scholars and buddhist scholars are writing volumes after volumes, what has happened between Buddha and Bodhidharma. Why did he laugh? Why did he laugh? So many volumes have come out. But these volumes are all totally serious.

According to My own understanding, what would have happened is - a simple clarity. Bodhidharma would have been running, running, running, searching for the center of the consciousness, for enlightenment, himself. The moment Buddha gave the rose, he has understood, it is inside. So when he stopped searching, he got it. the n he would have laughed, “Oh, what foolishness! And what rut I was wasting my life! I was searching everywhere myself, except where I am placed. My own inner being!” The moment he has turned himself towards his inner being, he has experienced his Self, and started laughing. The whole existence is nothing but a great joke! Nothing but a big joke.

When you continuously think intellectually, you can’t understand the whole play of existence. A great professor, professor of Philosophy, goes to a Zen master and asks him, “Master, please teach me the secret of Universe. Why all these things are happening? What is happening? Why all this suffering? Why God created the world? Why all these things are happening? Teach me”. The Master suddenly started laughing uproariously. You do not know how these Zen Masters laugh. Their laughter is so strong and infectious.

It is said, Zen Masters don’t laugh only by mouth, they laugh with the whole body. It is said, they roll on the ground and laugh. There are clear records, Zen Masters if they laugh, they don’t sit and laugh, they don’t laugh only by mouth. They laugh with their whole being. They roll on the ground and laugh. His laughter is uproarious. Infectious. First few minutes, the professor was just feeling uncomfortable. “What has happened? Why is he laughing like a mad?” Of course, for thick heads, you need few minutes. After a few minutes, slowly he started analyzing. “After all he is a Master. He will not do anything without proper reason”. After few minutes, the laughter was so much, this guy is not able to control. He started laughing. The professor also started laughing. Because, how long you can stand? How long you can stay? Either you have to leave the hall or you have to start laughing. There is no other way.

So he also started laughing. Laughing, laughing, laughing. The story said, at one point, suddenly, the professor became enlightened and never stopped laughing till his death. Of course, logically we can’t understand the last line. Because, we are also professors. You may not do the job of professor, you may not be professionally professor. But, we are professors by nature. So much of our energy is sucked by our head. So much of our energy is stored only in the head. We almost stopped living.

There is a small scale, there’s a small method to find out whether you are a professor or not. Being professionally a professor is nothing wrong. But being a professor 24 hours is something wrong. Being professor professionally is nothing wrong. Being professor 24 hours is something wrong.

A small incident, which happened really. One guy came to Me and started literally weeping. He said that I am having marital problems. And he introduced himself as a doctor. I asked him, “What your wife is doing?” “She is B.A.B.L.” B.A B.L means lawyer. I asked, “She goes to court regularly?” “No, no, Swamiji, she argues in the house itself. That is the whole problem!”

You see, if you are professional in your professional place, nothing wrong. But when you bring your profession in your life, then there is something seriously wrong. A small scale, small method to find out whether you are professor or not throughout 24 hours. You see a rose. Suddenly, what we do? Generally, immediately the word ‘rose’ comes in our mind. And, you start thinking about the roses which you presented to somebody. Or, the roses presented to you by somebody. The next thought will be, how he reacted or how you reacted. The third will be, the loving moments, loving memories or the disturbed memories which is associated with that incident. The fourth memory will be, how you related with that person, loving way, or in a wrong way or anything. Memory goes on, goes on, goes on, you miss the real rose. Already you are, you are lost. You missed the real rose which is laughing, smiling at you. It is welcoming you to appreciate itself. Which is giving its being to you to enjoy. The moment you start arranging the words, the moment you associate thoughts continuously, be very clear, you are ‘24-hours-professor’. You are ‘24-hours-professor’.

When I say professor, I mean, continuously playing with words. Not with the reality. Example, Sigmund Freud says beautifully. He says, all our thinking is association. It has no logical clarity. For example, you see a dog in a street. Suddenly you remember about the dogs which you have seen in your childhood. Suddenly you remember the teacher who taught you the lessons when you were a child. Then, you remember where your teacher used to live. Then you remember the school. Logically, there is no connection between the dog which you have seen in the road, and your teacher. Even though both of them have barked at you, there is no logical connection. But, the mind associates.

If you are continuously thinking based on association, not based on logic - then be very clear you ARE professor, ‘24-hours-professor’. We lose the living connection, a ‘alive’ experience of existence. The story says, the professor laughed, laughed, laughed and he became enlightened. Never stopped laughing till his death. You may think, “how laughing can make somebody enlightened?” According to Zen buddhism, if you laugh just for 42 seconds continuously, 42 seconds continuously, you can become enlightened. Again, shocking thing!

We are all laughing continuously, sometimes even one minute, two minutes. But we have not become enlightened. Many people do you think? One thing. What Zen people say by the word laughter, is the ‘total laughter’. When you really laugh, your mind stops thinking. For that one minute, for that one second, for that one Kshanam, you fall between the gap of one thought and the other thought. You can do only one thing - either you think or you laugh. When you laugh, you can’t think. If you are thinking, the laughter is not total.

If you are thinking, or doing something else, then, be very clear, laughter is not total. Your being is not totally into that laughter. Laughter brings you to the present moment. By thinking, you travel either in the future or you are worrying about the past. But, when you laugh, automatically you are brought to the center. You are brought to the moment, to the present moment. You live, you experience the consciousness which is present. Even the doctors who have done research on the effect of laughter, they give amazing reports. They say, first thing, it slows down the aging process. The first effect of the laughter is, it slows down the aging process. Aging process means getting old. You don’t get, you don’t look very old. You can see, there are few people, even after reaching the age of 70-80, they look very young and healthy. Full of enthusiasm, spirit. And the curiosity to learn. The search to know things. Alive, vibrant.

There are few guys, who are out by 40, who are out by 40. Why? The laughter is one of the important ingredient for your health. We add so much, so many things to extend our life. Understand, laughter is one of the important ingredient. Many doctors who have done research on the laughter, they give testimonial, they give their proofs, how laughter helps.

The second thing they say, anti-depressing chemicals are released in your system. Anti-depressing chemicals - the chemicals which removes the depression from your body-mind. The anti-depressing chemicals are released in your system. Third thing, the important thing, they say, your body starts radiating the beauty. You become more beautiful. Laughing is one of the important technique to really become beautiful. Even without the make-up you can look beautiful. According to Me, laughter brings more grace to a person. Beauty comes because of make-up. Laughter comes, the grace comes because of laughter. Laughter brings new grace to your being.

Even the physical point of view, laughter does so much to your being. So much to your body. And there are few more researchers. They say laughter can rejuvenate your whole nervous system. Any other refreshing techniques - whether it is yoga, or it is exercise, or any other system - it takes care only some part of your body. But laughter is such, it takes care - the whole body. The whole body is flooded with energy.

You can see it in your own life. That is why, now, everywhere the laughter clubs are getting inaugurated. I am seeing all over the world, suddenly, a big understanding has come, about the laughter. People have started realizing the importance of the laughter. The importance, the important role laughter plays on our physical health. At least 30 thousand laughter clubs are inaugurated just in 2003. I read a statistics - 30 thousand laughter clubs! It is not a small number - all over the world. Then you understand, how people have started recognizing the importance of laughter.

They do nothing. Laughter club means, they all gather morning at a particular time, just 10 minutes they’ll laugh loudly. Nothing else. They depart. That is all. But the beauty is, when you laugh as a group, it brings a new energy. Because laughter is infectious. When you laugh alone, it’s like you earn ten dollars and you spend ten dollars, that’s all. When you laugh as a group, just understand one small thing, ten people if they put ten ten dollars, it will become hundred dollar. But, all the ten cannot enjoy the hundred dollar. Only one can enjoy that hundred dollar. If all ten has to enjoy means, again it will come only ten ten dollars.

But, if it is energy, for example, ten persons are putting ten-ten volts current. It becomes 100 volt. If all the ten touches that 100 volt, all the ten will have 100 volt current shock only. It is not that they will have only ten ten volt, No! All the ten will have 100 volt. So, when it is energy, each one receives the total effect of the group. As far as laughter concern, according to My own understanding, when the ten people put ten-ten volt current, not only it becomes hundred, there’s a new transformer, which is called ‘group consciousness’ is created and the hundred volt becomes ten thousand volt. You put ten volt and you receive ten thousand volt!

The ‘group consciousness’ means, a deep love and understanding between the whole group. When you laugh, you show you are innocent. You open up to the new relationships. You show a positive sign to the next person. You show a green signal to the people who are around you - they can come into your space. And you are welcoming them. If they allow, you are ready to enter into their space. Letting somebody else to come into your space is the greatest technique to create any relationship.

Why people suffer so much in aloneness? See, I have always seen, the countries which are most depressed are the countries which are suffering the aloneness. Why? Why you suffer so much with aloneness and loneliness? Because you don’t have courage to open your space for others. I have never seen anybody suffering in aloneness or loneliness in Bharat. Very rare. Very rare. People there suffer because of too much crowd. Never by loneliness. Why?

Somehow from the young age the techniques are taught to open up almost everything. The going to temples, doing group prayers, almost in ever step you are taught to open yourself up for the others. Letting the others to enter into your space is one of the important technique to extend your life and to live more. Because, the doctors say, if you are alone, if you don’t have good friends, there is every chance, there is more chance of you dying eight years ahead of your time, scheduled time. They say eight years, eight years is not a small time! Eight years you can die earlier than your schedule if you are alone and if you don’t have good friends. And there are statistics says, if you are retired early, and you are not letting the people to get into your space, you are welcoming the heart attack. You are welcoming the cardiac problems.

There are so many things, so many proofs even in the medical field, which says, letting the other people into your space, or you entering into somebody else’s space, heals your mind, heals your being. Gives you a fresh energy. Gives you the fresh feeling. There is a book titled, by Me, the book title itself, ‘Open the door. Let the breeze in’.

We are so much filled with insecure feeling, we continuously cover, cover, cover, cover, cover ourselves. Finally, we make our own jail. The worm which creates a net for him to stay safely, finally he creates a jail instead of just net. And he forgets he is in the jail. Most of our houses have became almost like a graveyard. When you are alone, when you are not letting anybody into your space, when you are not entering into somebody else’s space, when you are not sharing your space with others, your house is nothing more than a graveyard. It’s a tomb. Maybe you are preparing it. Maybe you are getting ready.

Be very clear. Laughter is a green signal for the other to come and relate with you. It’s a wonderful signal which you are giving to the other and open to let you into My space. Laughter heals lot of diseases. Especially, the diseases related to naval center and throat center. There are so many records. Of course, I Myself have worked with the laughing meditation. I have seen so many people getting healed by this one meditation. And, such a powerful meditation - almost every person feels the effect. Except the ‘24-hours-professors’! And even they are, they somehow open up. Because the group energy is such a infectious, you can’t resist such a big group laughing.

If you are alone, or if you are only with your wife, you can tell, “Keep quiet. Shut up! Behave yourself” - something you can tell. If you are just with your kid, then you can say, “Shut up, Sit. Sit quietly. Behave yourself”. But when you are with the whole group, you cannot resist. It’s too infectious. See the children. Have you seen a single ugly kid in the world? Not only in our country, look at all the cultures. Even in Ethiopia, where kids are suffering due to poverty, where there is no food, even in Ethiopia, they may be lean and thin, but you can never see a ugly kid. Have you seen any single kid who is ugly? No! Have you seen single grown-up man who is beautiful? No! [laughs] Why? You lose the spontaneous laughter.

When a kid laughs, the whole body vibrates. Whole body vibrates. Kids never laugh only by mouth. They laugh with the whole body. Their laughter is with the whole body. When you laugh through the whole body, your whole body is flooded with energy. That is why kids are so alive. But, we people, we are actually jealous with kids. Never think you are helping your kids. You have a subtle kind of jealousy. That is why you again and again control, “Keep quiet. Behave yourself. Sit straight. Sit in the corner. Who asked you to draw in the wall? Where is your book? Study!”

Why do you think you shout? It is always a subtle jealousy. You will not be able to put up, you will not be able to manage the energy bubbling. You are actually jealous. That is why we always control the kids. Once they become dull, dead, buffalo, then you feel, “Ah, we produced our, our, what, child”. Or your next generation. We feel comfortable once we make them dull. When they laugh, their whole being vibrates. That is the reason, we feel little jealousy. So much of joy is too much! It is too much!

If you are laughing in the house, then you can say always, you can tell the people, “keep quiet, enough, behave yourself, it is too much”. But when you are laughing with others, you cannot say. The whole group is infectious. That is why the laughter clubs have become the place for getting therapy and getting healed. According to Me, laughing clubs are more religious than any other church, any other temple, any other mosque, any other synagogue. Because laughing clubs are creating more life, more energy, more positivity into the world.

In our Ashram, they have a place called ‘laughing temple’. The place itself is named as ‘laughing temple’ where I conduct regular discourses. Somebody asked Me, “What is this, Swamiji? New name? Laughing temple?” I say, “In this place, you are supposed to offer laughter as your offering. That is why I make, I have named this place as a ‘laughing temple’”.

Laughing is one of the greatest religious quality. Sense of humor is one of the greatest expression of enlightenment. According to Me, there is no Enlightened Master who has not expressed this one quality - the sense of humor. There are so many Enlightened Masters. You see, some master expresses the love. Somebody expresses the compassion. Somebody expresses the silence. Somebody expresses the great intelligence. Somebody expresses by dancing. If you see the Krishna, he always sings and dances. If you see Buddha, he is silent and graceful. If you see Mahavir, always meditating. If you see Rama, always living righteousness. Every Master expresses one one quality. But here is one quality which all the Masters have expressed. This must be the basic quality of enlightenment - sense of humor. Every Master who is born, every Enlightened person who is born on this Planet Earth, has expressed a beautiful sense of humor.

Ramakrishna’s books, if you read, Bhagavan Ramakrishna’s books, the direct recording of his teachings, there’s a beautiful book called ‘Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna’. Every other page you will see a bracket - everybody laughed, everybody laughed. After every other page, you will see a small bracket - everybody laughed. And actually, the translation is done with a very polite way. Because, in original Bengali he used to speak in a very slang language. He spoke all his teachings in original Bengali. The original Bengali, if you read, you will be shocked! Is it Ramakrishna who is speaking?

He is a very simple type of person. He is not high intellectual. He doesn’t know how to use those ‘cultural terms’ or how to present things. He is very heart, it is just heart-to-heart gossip. I always tell people, “More than the word ‘gospel’, ‘gossip’ is right word for his teachings! Because it is something to do with heart to heart. He is so innocent, so simple! And, all sorts of dirty jokes! You can never expect that enlightened man can give, can make, so many dirty jokes. He gives all sorts of dirty jokes. If you read the original Bengali version, or intimate reminiscence with him, you can understand, what are the type of jokes he makes. One of his disciples is asking him, “Master, you are an enlightened one, why are you making such dirty jokes?” He says, “What? I just tell jokes. You make it dirty. What can I do?” [laughter] “I just tell jokes, you feel it is dirty, what can I do?” That’s the beauty of innocence. Beauty of Enlightened Masters.

He says, “when you speak in a cultured way, it means you are editing your words. Two things will start happening - first, verbalization, then editing, you present it. But, when I speak with my people, I don’t edit. When I am speaking to the public, when I am speaking to the common man, a newcomer, I give them edited version, censored version. When I speak, when I open my heart, to my own people, to a group of seekers, I give the uncensored edition”. He says, “I just tell jokes, you make it dirty!”

Beautiful thing we need to understand. It is we who make anything dirty. It is we who make anything dirty. For him, it is really normal, simple. Of course, according to Me, Ramakrishna is one of the greatest Master who has used laughter itself as a meditation technique. And, there is a record, a reminiscence of his disciples. They say, “Sometimes, we will roll and laugh so much, his laughters and he mimicking somebody, he imitating the people, we used to get even the stomach pain! And we will sometime feel that it is enough and we used to escape from his presence. We used to run away from him!” You can’t imagine that Ramakrishna used to make so much of jokes!

And, every Master, sense of humor was seen in every expression of enlightenment. According to Me, this quality must be, that must be the basic quality. That is why, every Master expresses it! In other qualities, as far as dancing concern, there is no expression of dancing in Buddha’s life. In Mahavir’s life, there is no expression of music. In Krishna’s life, the silence is never expressed. In every Master’s life, something is missing. But, as far as the sense of humor concern, it is expressed in all the great Masters’ lives. And, moreover, if you see the Masters laughing, you can see, the ultimate expression of existence.

One Master, great Enlightened Master, used to tell his disciples, “Meditate on me as if I am laughing. Meditate on my form of laughter”. Somebody asked him, “Why? Why Master? What is the speciality? What is the speciality?” He says, “A miser will be in his optimum energy, he will be in his maximum energy when he is counting the money.” People never get tired counting money. Have you seen? Even if it is somebody else’s money! [laughter] In the bank, even if you are working in the bank, people never get tired of counting money. A miser will be in his optimum, his maximum, when he counts the money. A womanizer will be in his optimum, in his maximum, when he is enjoying women. The same way, Enlightened man will be in his optimum, will be in his maximum, he will be in his total energy, when he laughs. Because, for that moment, he is directly expressing the existence.

There is one of the important saying by Zen Buddhist Master. Somebody goes to him and asks, “Master, always you say, whatever is done by you is different than whatever is done by us, it is different. You yell at us, you say it is good for us. You say, it is expression of compassion. But, if we yell at somebody, you say it is expression of anger. Whatever we do, you find some fault. And the same thing you do, you justify it with something. Whatever we do, you say it is something else, and whatever you do, you say it is something else. Tell me some one action where we both meet and merge with each other, where both are one and the same”. Master says a beautiful thing. He says, “If I touch a rose flower, I am totally different, and the rose flower also feels totally different. If you touch a rose flower, you feel totally different and (lotus feels) rose feels totally different. Because, your sensitivity is very less. My sensitivity is too high. When you touch a rose, only half of your being touches. And the same way, half of the rose feels response. But when I touch a rose, my whole being feels it. That’s why the whole rose responds to it”.

There is one important thing in Zen. They will make a lawn, grass lawn, around your house. You have to go to the house and come back, only walking on the lawn. If you don’t make the path on the lawn, if the grass does not die by your walking of one year, only then you will be initiated into monkhood. Important thing you should understand. They say, if grass does not die by your walking, then you are qualified to become a monk. Means, you become so graceful, so vibrant, filled with positive energy, grass never feels hurt by your walking! Grass should never feel hurt by your walking.