Everyone's laughing, you also laugh!

I’m a bit too intense at times, I could benefit from turning down my intensity but that rarely happens. But when it does, I laugh a lot, a whole lot and I’m a better human being.

Not willing to half-ass anything that I choose to participate in, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and drove out to a monastery to participate in a meditation, yoga and teaching retreat.

Sitting down cross-legged on a yoga mat laid out on the open deck we prepared for meditation.  The morning was rather quiet with the exception of the occasional breeze, the sky was streaked with blue and orange and my intention to be present to my experience was rock solid.

Half way through my meditation I heard a zipper being pulled, not a short pull like one would with their pants on anything but a long pull like with a body bag or something. Curiously I opened my eyes and glanced at the tents that had been pitched in the yard. Not making much about it I returned to my meditation peacefully.

Soon enough the senior monk sounded that bell and we all broke out from the practice for a short break before yoga breathing. “You guys woke me up!” complained Jamtso (I am not using his real name here), the young monk who was to lead the yoga practice. “I was sleeping in the tent, when you guys were meditating”, he continued much to my surprise. Wasn’t he supposed to be up and ready I wondered part curiously and part judgmentally? 

As he demonstrated the breathing practice, a young lady in the group could not contain her laughter at Jamtso’s gestures. I was naturally irritated. Jamtso remained calm and said, “It is funny isn’t it?” and laughed along with her. I tried not to be judgmental but I had already judged, so I made an observation and moved along.

Over our second break I got to know Jamtso better. I got to know of his past, his history, his practice of meditation and his worry about his homeland and his people. We both admitted to the isolation that we sometimes feel as a result of being uprooted from our family and country of origin. I enjoyed conversing with him.

It turned out that Jamtso was going to be the translator for the teaching imparted by the senior monk and I eagerly prepared to focus in on every bit of the teachings.

When the senior monk spoke about the three different kinds of meditators, Jamtso translated it as meditators who intellectualize, the devoted meditators and the idiot meditators. He guffawed as he mentioned the third kind and I instantaneously knew that the word ‘idiot’, which in this context referred to the untransformed meditators (those who meditate for years without undergoing any internal transformation), was Jamtso’s interpretation alone and not what the pious senior monk had spoken about. Yet I could not help but smile widely!

Thanks to the smile that had grown upon my face, I softened and felt airy. I was less intense more diluted and felt spaciousness within myself.

Jamtso continued with his translations and I continued to learn a whole lot in spite of being amused at his choice of words and his chosen explanations. The whole group continued with meditating and learning.

In the end the senior monk opened the session to questions. One particular lady barraged him with a bunch of them all of which seemed to elicit the same or similar responses from the monk. Jamtso translated it as patiently as he could.

Suddenly the larger part of the crowd that did not need translating burst out into laughter, peels and peels of laughter at a particular response from the senior monk. Instantly I increased the volume on my translation aid (through which we heard Jamtso’s translations) to hear Jamtso translate what the monk had said, my curiosity was at its peak. “Sorry, I couldn’t hear the monk, everyone’s laughing, you also laugh! ”, translated Jamtso and surely enough I laughed and laughed and couldn’t stop.

At least for a while Jamtso had cured me of my judging mind and my habit of approaching life with unnecessary intensity. Maybe its because I was laughing when I learnt it but I find the teaching of kindness towards all sentient beings abiding in me for much longer than I expected.