“Humor brings all people down to their normal size… That’s exactly why it works so successfully at leveling pomposity.” — Robin Skynner
Finally, the moment has come to introduce you to my spiritual teacher. When I saw him, I immediately knew it was Him. There was something about his appearance that greatly attracted me, and the freedom and ease radiating from him made me strongly desire to be within the aura of his personal presence.
But since this is currently difficult due to the great geographical distance between us, I managed to find a faithful friend (thank you, V.!) to translate his invaluable advice for the Bulgarian audience and even found a way to upload subtitles to the YouTube video where I first encountered him. I believe that through her contribution, his Word will reach other spiritually seeking brothers and sisters.
I present to you the person who brings me sincere joy—JP Sears!
A friend of mine once suggested that I probably meditate for at least an hour every day. I told him it was nothing of the sort. I don’t meditate at all because I have a much better spiritual practice. It is called the “Sadhana of Disappointment.” It is my favorite because, without any effort on my part, it leads to an absolutely guaranteed effect of permanently and irreversibly shrinking the ego.
I like to practice it in combination with my other favorite spiritual practice—laughter, which Michael Tamura speaks of as the “front line of healing.” With these two, achieving enlightenment becomes a piece of cake. I mean True enlightenment. The very kind Ray Bradbury speaks of when it finally dawns on you that you actually know nothing. That you are a fool.
“The first thing you learn in life is you’re a fool. The last thing you learn in life is you’re the same fool. Sometimes I think I understand everything. Then I regain consciousness.” — Ray Bradbury
If you devotedly practice the sadhana of your thwarted life plans for many years, there is a chance you will realize you are a fool much sooner. After that, you can spend the rest of your life in a permanently “regained consciousness” state. At the same time, your entertainment is guaranteed because, as we well know, you don’t need much brains to laugh. The only thing you need is a certain flexibility of your available gray matter, so that you manage to switch the genre of the movie you are participating in from drama to comedy.
In the chapter “Life is a Laughing Matter,” the famous English comedian John Cleese, in dialogue with his former psychotherapist Robin Skynner, discusses the deeper roots of laughter and a sense of humor. The main reason they included this topic in their book Life and How to Survive It is that a sense of humor is a healthy defense mechanism of the Ego, which allows a person to see the truth about themselves without distorting it, and at the same time, without it being at the expense of their sense of inner worth. In short, a sense of humor is the ability to see the painful truth about yourself in a way that amuses you! It is the mind’s ingenious way of solving the spiritual drama of the primordial duality of human existence when—seeing its absurdity—it turns it into comedy.
“Comedy is probably a very good account of what life is. Comedy is full of absurdities, and tragedies can’t have too many absurdities, or they will become funny.” — Arthur Miller
Proof of the spiritual role of laughter in overcoming duality is Charles Darwin’s theory of emotions, presented in the same book. According to Darwin, every emotion has its bodily equivalent in the muscular posture of the human body, and laughter occurs when a person simultaneously experiences two opposite, mutually exclusive emotions.
“The clash of different types of tension in the muscles, caused by two conflicting emotions or ideas, triggers laughter. If the person is surprised, a convulsive release of muscular energy occurs.”
In other words, if a person simultaneously hears two opposite ideas (experiences two opposite emotions), they resolve the contradiction through a convulsive release of muscular energy, briefly called laughter. I can think of other forms of convulsive muscular release of energy called by an equally short word. Laughter, however, has the advantage that, although dangerously contagious, we don’t have to use a condom while we laugh. It is the short circuit in the brain that, when reconciling two completely opposite ideas, leads to a mental spasm. Like thinking you are the earthly incarnation of Hera, but the last thing you can see in your angry husband is Zeus the Thunderer.
In the same chapter, Robin Skynner explains the extremely important role of laughter in maintaining an “open mode” of perception. This refers to that mental attitude of receptivity and open-mindedness without which there can be no change or development of our already existing views of the world. In contrast, the “closed mode” manifests through a narrowed focus when perceiving information. It acts as a filter and is necessary when we want to achieve a specific goal.
In our lives, we constantly move from an open to a closed state of receptivity, from creative uncertainty to the purposeful implementation of plans in practice. Moving from an open to a closed state is easier, as in the closed state a person acts somewhat like they are on autopilot—there is a goal and a series of actions is triggered to achieve it. What helps us get out of the mode of automated movement, which brings rhythm and security, is for something to happen that thwarts our plans. This forces us to look for new approaches and think “outside the box.” In this sense, when we are confused and not understanding, it is a sign that we have moved into an open mode of receptivity. Laughter has the same function—a story can only make us laugh if it contains an element of surprise that makes unexpected interconnections between things.
For me, it was interesting to learn that, like all other mental states, the sense of humor also manifests in different levels of mental health. At the bottom of the scale are openly hostile jokes that mock other people, and at the top are jokes that include the one telling them.
“The best humor highlights the similarities between people, not their differences… And that is the most valuable thing—the way it reminds us day after day what limitations are inherent to all of us simply because we are human beings, and how easily we forget that!” — Robin Skynner
Finally, here is another charming video from JP Sears, which has this very function—to remind us that we are ordinary human beings and nothing human is foreign to us:
Kameliya Hadzhiyska
Note: The quotations are translated from Bulgarian and are not presented as verbatim citations.
