WHEN BUDDHA LAUGHS









Pic.: Chetna Shetty

Shri Uday Acharya, my good friend, has initiated a FB page and baptized it as ‘Buddha Laughed’. The very first time my eyes fell on this name, my heart just laughed! Strangely, I hadn't even read any content of it... Just the thought that the Buddha – the otherwise a serious holy-man – laughed made my lungs loosen-up a little, and I found my heart just laughing...

I think, the idea of the laughing Buddha – with his laid-back hands and pot-belly – has come from the same fact: When you come to understand the simple truth behind the harshest realities of life, you do not have to prompt your heart to laugh... It just laughs. And, that laughter is the laughter of true joy and lightness, true freedom and acceptance. There is no pretense or ridicule. The carelessness has dissolved into carefreeness... The heart ‘knows’; hence laughs...

Simply laughs...

So, Udayji keeps sharing with us, his friends, these simple snippets on serious issues in life... Some of them, he himself creates, and some of them, he shares... But, all of them come packed in loads of carefreeness... And, invariably, all of them make your heart simply laugh... and say, “Hey, it is not that serious as I thought it to be!”...  And, yes, you conclude in our hearts, “Hey, that’s how it IS”!

A couple of days ago, I saw this Post on ‘Buddha Laughed’:


“Airports see more sincere kisses
than wedding halls;

The walls of hospitals
have heard more (sincere)
prayers than the walls of churches.”


Incidentally, my wife and I had just reached home from the airport... We had been there to bid good-bye to our only son, who was leaving us to start his working-life, far away from us... We had just come home after kissing him good-bye...

And, here I was... saying to myself, “Hey, that’s how it IS”....

And I found the Buddha laughing, again...

Just laughing!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Comments

Suma Jacob said…
Simple yet touching post. God bless.
- Suma Jacob
August 8, 2014 at 3:14 PM
Navin rajpal said…
It is with the 'understanding' that heart is able to laugh. true... Navin Rajpal
August 8, 2014 at 4:22 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MUTHU KODI KAWARI HADA

Image
Pic.; Ashwin Mohta M y Hindi was always bad. It still is. One reason for this was, that they introduced Hindi for us only in 6 th standard. Or, was it in 8 th ? I don’t remember… I only remember struggling to write and read… leave alone speak! But, I loved Hindi movies, and, strangely, I could understand the dialogues and the lyrics of the songs… I used to sing those songs (of course when no one was around me!) as if I was the lyricist… One of the songs was a very funny one. ‘Muthu Kodi Kawari Hada’. It was from Mehmood’s super-hit comedy – ‘Do Phool’. I was a 15-year-old high-school boy when I had heard that song (not watched the movie). I could grasp the meaning of two words – ‘Muthu Kodi’… which meant ‘Give kiss’… But, what ‘Kawari Hada’ meant, I have no clue till date! It was just like ‘Why this kolaveri di’... Yes, why ask? Simply enjoy the beats… And, the beats are great… The rest... Who cares? Really! So, whatever bit of Hi
Read more

"HAPPILY EVER AFTER IS NOT A FAIRY-TALE... IT IS A CHOICE"

Image
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone… It has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” – Ursula K. Le Guin,  The Lathe of Heaven T welve years ago, when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married, the world began to hail the couple as ‘Brangelina’. It became a fashion for couples around us to call themselves so… Norbert and Teresa renamed them as ‘Noresa’…  Amol and Vishaka baptized their relationship as ‘Amoshka’… and, Salman and Nargis became ‘Salgis’! I and my wife, too, got tempted to re-christian our matrimonial relationship as ‘Germa’... That is, Gerald and Anima, to be precise! B efore I proceed any further, let me make it very clear, here… that, I have no business to judge on the break-up of Brad Pitt and Angelina’ Jolie’s marriage. I have no inclination to go into why, how, what when etc behind it… The couple ‘chose’ to split. And, it’s their choice… Only they know how good or bad… how joyful or painful that
Read more

SELLING MIRRORS IN THE CITY OF THE BLIND

Image
“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God.” - Kabir T here is a universal human weakness – and it dates back to the days of fallen civilizations – and it is: to place people on pedestal and trying to be smothered by them, feel loved and protected in their company… worship them as mentors, heroes,  gurus, Mahagurus and Satgurus… Make these mortals larger-than-life cut-outs, worship them as flawless, pure and give one’s all… And, then, ‘take’ everything from them blindly as divine… Give everything to them blindly… Eventually, what happens is:  one more dangerous bondage… What was supposed to free you now becomes a new prison… It’s sad to see this happen! T his room, where I am writing this Post, has no image of any deity. I have no image of any Guru or Master around me… My question is: “Am I not able to feel close to Almighty God?  How does it matter
Read more
THE WILD, WAYSIDE FLOWERS
There is, always, something extra-ordinary in the wild, wayside flowers...