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
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