Buddhist Humor
The mother of all Buddhist jokes: A zen student walks up to a hot dog vendor and says, "Make me one with everything."
Enlightenment has been described as just lightening up, and there are times along every pilgrim's path when he or she suspects the whole deal is one big joke, therefore laughing, therefore getting closer to enlightened. Spending money to attend a workshop where the goal is to convince you that you and what you consider the visible universe do not exist just might be seen as funny. Maybe that's the point.
Consider these words by Gahan Wilson in his introduction to The Life and Letters of Tofu Roshi by Susan Ichi Su Moon:
Many teachers, in their pride, vainly boast that they know nothing, but it is Tofu alone who has truly succeeded in achieving total ignorance....It is not merely that the Roshi's teaching is totally devoid of content or any hint of meaning-many other teachers have achieved that; its most remarkable aspect is the impossibility of remembering a single word he's spoken, or even if he spoke at all.
So if any of the material in this article - material that has been cracking them up since at least the reign of King Trisong Deutsen of Tibet in the 8th Century AD - offends any readers, I most sincerely pray that they will lighten up.
Initially the quest for something humorous about Buddhism was discouraging. One has to comb the Dharma Ring and DharmaNet International ring (see my Dharma Bulletin Board site http://members.xoom.com/yeshe for entry to the rings) for humor. But where it was found, it was offered in profusion. The quotes below are a small sampling. Later,I hit the jackpot by just asking Yahoo for "Buddhist humor." and share some of those URLs, as well.
In no particular order, here they are. I give you one-liners, parables, and creations that fit no category but their own.The first offering is a parable which aptly illustrates my "lighten up" point.
From: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/79...
Worse than a Clown
There was a young monk in China who was a very serious practitioner of the Dharma. Once, this monk came across something he did not understand, so he went to ask the master. When the master heard the question, he kept laughing. The master then stood up and walked away, still laughing.
The young monk was very disturbed by the master's reaction. For the next 3 days, he could not eat, sleep nor think properly. At the end of 3 days, he went back to the master and told the master how disturbed he had felt.
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