Episode 98 – Lighten Up

Trungpa Rinpoche often spoke about the importance of a sense of humor on the spiritual path, but what did he really mean by it?  •  he was obviously not referring to telling jokes or being some kind of a comedian  •  instead he seemed to be pointing to a kind of a carefree quality or lightness of being — something very different from how seriously we take ourselves and everything we do  •  spirituality or religion is often thought of as a very solemn affair, something so deadly serious, so important, that we fall prey to religiosity  •  we don’t always know how to have genuine respect for something without getting puffed up about the whole thing  •  there are many examples in the Buddhist tradition of how we could combine a sense of gravitas, a sense of regal, dignified demeanor or quality of being, with a quality of innocence and youthfulness and playfulness and humor  •  I think of a good practitioner, a good teacher, as someone who is incredibly dedicated, but who has a twinkle in the eye  •  so humor plays a very important role: not only does it serve to cut through our pretensions and our self-absorption, but it transforms our practice from a solemn, grinding drudge to something more vivid and alive.