Laugh Your Way to God
“Crying and laughter are deeply related. Whenever you are overwhelmed by something, either you cry or you laugh. Crying is not necessarily sad, laughter is not necessarily joyous. Sometimes crying is a joy, sometimes laughter is ugly and maybe just a device to hide your sadness.
Remember one thing: it is only man who can cry and laugh. No other animal can do it, because no other animal is conscious enough to feel overwhelmed. Only man has that much consciousness that he can feel overwhelmed, flooded with something so much that either he starts crying or he starts laughing — and both capacities are tremendously needed.
Crying will help you to relieve your tensions, laughter will help you to dance, to sing. Both are interlinked. Crying prepares the way for laughter: your tears will cleanse your heart, and then laughter will arise. If the first process has started the second is not far away.”
OSHO
The Dhammapada: the Way of the Buddha, Vol-8
Chapter-13
1. “You will be poor and unhappy until you are forty,” said the fortune-teller to her customer.
“Then what?” asked the worried customer.
“Well, by then you will be used to it,” the fortune-teller replied!
2. A man approaching retirement went along to see the company doctor for one final checkup. To his horror the doctor said, “I don’t know quite how to put this, but your heart is on its last legs and you have only got six months to live.”
“Is there nothing I can do?” asked the shocked man.
“Well,” said the doctor, “you can give up alcohol, and cut out smoking. Don’t eat rich foods, no dancing, and don’t even think about sex!”
“And this will make me live longer?” the man asked hopefully.
“No,” replied the doctor, “it will just seem longer!
3. Mrs. Wimple and her little boy Willie get onto the bus. She pays one fare and walks off down the aisle of the bus, towing Willie by the hand.
“Just a minute, lady,” says the conductor. “You will have to pay the fare for your little boy, too.”
“But he is only three years old,” protests Mrs. Wimple.
“Well,” replies the conductor, “he looks more like seven to me.”
“But he can’t be!” cries Mrs. Wimple. “I have only been married for four years.”
“Look, lady,” replies the conductor, “I only want your money, not a confession!”
4. Sidney Silicon, the San Francisco yuppie, is jogging on a foggy morning along the cliff-tops around the bay.
He loses his way in the fog, gets too close to the edge, trips, and falls over the cliff. He manages to grab hold of a small branch which is sticking out halfway down, and there he hangs, suspended in space.
“Help!” screams Sidney. “Is anybody there?”
There is a long silence, and then a loud voice booms from above, “Yes, my son, I am here. I am God! Just let go of the branch and my angels will catch you and bring you to paradise.”
Some seconds go by, and then Sidney shouts again, “Is there anybody there?”
“My son,” booms the voice from above, “I told you, I am God and I am here! Trust me!”
“I know,” says Sidney, “that you are there. But isn’t anybody else there?”
5. Three sannyasin kids meet in the ashram and start talking together.
“You know,” says the German kid, “my uncle is a priest, and all the people call him `holy father.’”
“That’s nothing,” says the Japanese kid. “My grandfather is a Zen master, and even the emperor touches his feet.”
“That’s nothing, you guys,” says the American kid. “My mother weighs three hundred pounds, and when she walks down the street, people take one look at her and say, `My god!’”
6. “Thanks for the new drum-set you gave me,” says Little Ernie to Uncle Newton. “It is the best present I have ever had.”
“Really?” says Uncle Newton. “I am very pleased you like it.”
“Yeah,” exclaims Ernie, “and I’m getting rich already!”
“Really?” asks Uncle Newton. “Rich? Are you becoming a professional?”
“Kind of,” replies Ernie. “You see, my mom pays me a dollar a day not to play those drums you have given me during the day, and Grandpa pays me ten dollars a week not to play them at night!”
