This thread is about a wonderful teaching I’d like to share with you all… For those of you unfamiliar with Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, she is an english nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, who meditated in a cave in the Himalayan mountains for twelve years. She is a very insightful and intelligent practitioner, and my stubborn, skeptic mind, would never have even considered implementing ‘spiritual path’, if it wasn’t for a teaching I was randomly draw too, that she gave in Sydney a little while back.
She gave a teaching on the six perfection in Buddhism, and at the end she added what she thought should be a seventh perfection. It was sense of humor. She went on to say how many practitioners on a spiritual path take themselves too seriously, and tell themselves "I’m going to become such a wonderful, learned, enlightened being, and I’m going to radiate light, and everyone will go ‘wow, that person is so spiritual!’ ‘we are so impressed’’, She then rolled her eyes at the irony and everyone laughed loudly.
She mentioned that how, when many Tibetan Lamas do teachings in the Australia, they end up constantly making jokes and using humor. Apparently to lighten us westerners up, who are take ourselves far too seriously.
This really got me thinking. We come to a spiritual path in the search of happiness, which we discover partly involves destroying our inflated egos, and developing compassion towards others. It is ironic how the practice can become a platform for our ego. Some of us end up more judgmental, self righteous, less tolerant, and self absorbed, then we were before we became ‘spiritual’. Our egos end up like balloons. The more we inflate them, the easier they are to burst.
This really brings home the true importance of sense of humor. Just as much as we need to develop patience and compassion, we also need to develop our sense of humor. Nothing can bring lightness and joy into our lives, as quickly, and as effectively as humor. Nothing can make us more enjoyable to be around, and loved by others than sense of humor.