Zen short story: The Zen value of humour
By emptychair
@innertalks (23748)
Australia
December 24, 2022 10:32pm CST
The Zen master, Artove Zerploxski, was known for his wry sense of humour.
One day, a passing tourist, asked him what the real value of humour is anyway. What is humour to Zen?
The master looked thoughtful for a while, and then he gave the man his reply:
"Humour sits within God, but God needs mankind to get it out of him."
"Humour, to be real humour, needs to be shared and understood as humour by more than one for the connection to become real and the humour palpable."
"Zen is a way to share the humour, and to see the funny side of life from its zany approach to life."
"Zen humour cuts through duality, and shows you how to then splice it back into oneness again. Zen is a humorous intervention into both sides of duality, stitching them together for you again."
"The falseness of flashy intellectuality does not allow humour to emerge, as real humour emerges from the heart it lives in, not from the mind, that might see it, but can never create its real depth."
The old master chuckled, and laughed rather musically then.
Finally, he said:
"Humour connects you inwardly to your real self, and this helps you then to release the divine humour within your nature."
"When we live from the humour in our hearts, we are our real selves then."
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
The old Zen master had an endearing smile. It reached you from right out of his heart.
2 people like this
2 responses
@Deepizzaguy (122443)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
25 Dec 22
Humor for me is watching shows and movies with a person that knows how to poke fun at him or her self.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23748)
• Australia
25 Dec 22
Humour, perhaps, has a different slant on it for each person. We all enjoy our own brand of it best.
I think that we do need to be careful sometimes, as not everyone sees our humour, as we see it.
I also like someone who can poke fun at themselves, as it shows they are good natured too.
@Deepizzaguy (122443)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
25 Dec 22
@innertalks I am careful telling jokes since some people do not like certain words of phrases.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23748)
• Australia
25 Dec 22
@Deepizzaguy I have found some people do not like clever joke like comments made about their names either.
I get, of my own name, "You should learn how to marshall your forces better."
I said something to one guy, whose surname was "Power", in a situation, where power (of decision) was called for, that his name was power, how come he wasn't showing any?"
and he got rather upset at that.
@Shiva49 (28409)
• Singapore
25 Dec 22
I like to laugh at myself, and my foibles, and share them with even strangers that help to cut the ice. Some self-deprecating ones are thrown in too when the terrain is welcoming!
Yeah, I tend to take life easy in a way like this Zen master.
I know of a few who bottle up their feelings and become inscrutable thereby.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (23748)
• Australia
25 Dec 22
Of course, some cultures have different takes on humour too, and a joke in one culture might be sacrilegious in another.
We do have to test the waters first, before, blurting out with just any type of a joke.
It is better to live a free and easy life where possible, and humour does tend to oil the wheels of life for us too.
@innertalks (23748)
• Australia
26 Dec 22
@Shiva49 Yes, the slightly ethnic jokes have all gone out of the window now.
I learnt a swag of Irish jokes when I was a school, but I would not tell them these days.
@Shiva49 (28409)
• Singapore
27 Dec 22
@innertalks And gender-based jokes have gone out the window.
Some were innocent though.
And body shaming is truly past.
1 person likes this
