Mary Baker Eddy
“I like to have my students laugh. A good laugh often breaks mesmerism.” [Emma C. Shipman, “Mrs. Eddy and the Class of 1898,” We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, p. 142]
Christ Returns - Speaks His Truth
"Laughter is a consciousness impulse which ripples across your skies, from one planet to another, through your Milky Way and out into the furthest reaches of infinity. As infinite as Divine Consciousness, it came into existence at the moment of the Big Bang.
What is Laughter? It is a spontaneous consciousness response to a situation where two events or two incidents or two people, do not - in the natural order of things - belong together, they are strangely at odds or in opposition to each other.
It is a ripple effect experienced in all living things of higher species capable of certain judgments or perceptions. It eliminates stress. The 'ripple effect' is felt over the diaphragm which guards the heart and nervous system.
As you have seen on examining the nature of creation, everything possible has been done in the evolution of design and growth of living bodies to make a perfectly adapted body to suit the environment to enable the occupier of the body to be comfortable and happy and live without stress. Stress is inimical to health.
It is contrary to the WILL of DIVINE CONSCIOUSNESS.
A spontaneous and hearty burst of laughter is first experienced as a rush of rippling consciousness through the head, bringing a lightening of the entire consciousness. This is immediately followed by the physical 'ripple effect' of laughter, experienced as a light beating of breath on the diaphragm to break up any tension and to smooth away any residue of bitterness.
Sometimes laughter in an extremely amusing situation is prolonged to such an extent that the person eventually feels exhausted - but also happy and rather sad that the laughter is finished.
Most people will testify that laughter promotes a feeling of well-being, even if there was discord just a minute earlier. If a person can genuinely laugh, seeing the absurdity of a situation, where there has previously been annoyance or hurt, the tension is released and friendly relationships are restored spontaneously.
laughter is a gift of love for a creation possessed by, and needing relief from their egos.
As the ego drive gradually relinquishes its hold over your mind and emotions, you will find that laughter bubbles up spontaneously and brings a wonderful feeling of release. The 'ripple effect' of laughter raises your consciousness frequencies of vibration not only because it is energy released where you most need it - over your heart - over your diaphragm, the seat of your emotions but because LAUGHTER is directly of Divine Consciousness.
Therefore, laughter is Divine.
LAUGHTER and your inner child. As you read these Letters and meditate and your levels of frequencies of consciousness vibrations are raised, you will discover that old mental patterns are no longer comfortable in your mind. You will seek ways and means of ejecting them from your consciousness. As you move upwards spiritually and are ever more desirous of unloading unwanted human ego drives, the conflict in your sensibilities will become increasingly burdensome, and you now long and pray for relief. You will find that when you turn to Divine Consciousness and passionately ask for Divine Assistance, the help will surely come. You will successfully get rid of unwanted thoughts and re-actions, and you will then discover that laughter becomes more and more spontaneous.
You will also discover tensions are smoothed away and that you are becoming much lighter in thought, easier in relationships, more caring, much more appreciative, more aware of life itself and all that it has to offer in sight and experience. You will enjoy simple pleasures more, you will be less jaded in appetites, you will need less food, less entertainment, will be more content with your own company, and will eventually begin to rejoice in your own company because DIVINE CONSCIOUSNESS will be infusing your human consciousness with Its own exalted State of WELL-BEING.
Little by little you will be returning to your 'child' condition which views the world with happy, enquiring gaze.
This is not senility. It is a state of greater awareness and vibrance no matter what your age may be.
This is the 'state of being' I meant when I said that 'Unless you become as a little child you shall in no wise enter the Kingdom of Heaven'. I actually said that when you enter the Kingdom of Heaven, you become a little child - a child in wonder and joy.
I have given the world these Letters that those who read and absorb them may eventually enter the 'Kingdom of Heaven' and reach that state of joy which comes of purity of mind and innocence." [Christ Returns - Speaks His Truth, Christ Letters - Letter 9, pages 14-15]
Cayce
"...don't forget the recipe of making three people laugh every day!" [Cayce 798-1]
"First, analyze self. Know that there must be the ability to laugh under the most straining circumstance. There must be the ability to see the sublime as well as the ridiculous." [Cayce 1823-1]
"(See) the ridiculous side of every question - the humor in same. Remember that a good laugh... is good for the body, physically, mentally." [Cayce (2647-1)]
"If ye lose the ability to laugh, ye lose that ability to be joyous. And the religion, the principle of the Christ-life is joyous! For remember - He laughed even on the way to Calvary; not as pictured so oft, but laughed even at those that tormented Him. This is what angered them most." [Cayce (3003-1)]
"Cultivate the ability to see the ridiculous, and to retain the ability to laugh. For, know - only in those that God hath favored is there the ability to laugh, even when clouds of doubt arise, or when every form of disturbance arises. For, remember, the Master smiled - and laughed, oft - even on the way to Gethsemane." [Cayce (2984-1)]
"Remember that a good laugh, an arousing even to what might in some be called hilariousness, is good for the body, physically, mentally, and gives the opportunity for greater mental and spiritual awakening." [Cayce 2647-1]
Charles Shultz
"If I were given the opportunity to present a gift to the next generation, it would be the ability for each individual to learn to laugh at himself." - [Charles Shultz]
Osho
"Everybody takes himself and others seriously. That's the way of the ego to exist. Start being a little more playful and you will see ego evaporating. Take life non seriously, as a joke - yes, as a cosmic joke. Laugh a little more. Laughter is far more significant than Prayer. Prayer may not destroy your ego; on the contrary, it may make it holy, pious, but laughter certainly destroys your ego. When you are really in a state of laughter, have you observed? - the ego disappears for a moment. You are again a child, giggling. Again you have forgotten that you are special. You are no longer serious; for a moment you have removed your fixation.
"That's why I love jokes - they are poison to your ego! You would like me to talk about serious things: astral planes and how many bodies men have, seven or nine, and how many chakras. And every day there are questions - esoteric, occult. These are the serious people. They have fallen in a wrong company! I am not serious at all. I don't laugh with you because that is part of telling a joke: the person who tells it has to be very serious, he cannot laugh with you. All my laughter I have to do alone.
"But my approach towards life is utterly nonserious, playful, because in my experience this is how the ego disappears. Watch when you laugh: where is the ego? Suddenly you have melted, suddenly you are liquid, no more solid, but flowing. You are not old, experienced, knowledgeable. Listen to this joke and try to find out whether the ego remains or not." [Osho]
"In laughter you suddenly forget all the conditioning, all the training, all seriousness. Suddenly you are out of it - just for a moment." [Osho]
Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects.
Arnold Glasow
Laughter is part of the human survival kit.
David Nathan
The best blush to use is laughter: It put roses in your cheeks and in your soul.
Linda Knight
At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.
Jean Houston
Laughter is the most healthful exertion.
Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland
One can never speak enough of the virtues, the dangers, the power of shared laughter.
Francoise Sagan
Seven days without laughter make one weak.
Joel Goodman
The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
E.E. cummings
Laughter is an instant vacation.
Milton Berle
Laughter isn't always appropriate... I got sacked from my last job for laughing: mind you, I was driving the hearse at the time!
Neil Baxter (trying to be funny)
"The whole science of the joke is that it takes you toward a certain height of expectation, step by step, and suddenly there is such a turn that you had never expected. Your whole tension that was gathering explodes into laughter. It will be better to tell you a joke;
Danny discovers that his wife was cheating with another guy, so he went to the guy's wife and told her about it.
"I know what we will do!" she said. "Let us take revenge on them." So they went to a motel and had revenge on them.
She said, "Let us have more revenge."
So they kept having revenge and more revenge. Finally Danny said, "That's enough revenge. I don't have any more hard feelings."
If the end comes in such a way that you were not expecting - you could not have figured out that it will end in such a way - it brings a sudden laughter. It is a release of tension.
- OSHO, YES, OSHO, YES. THERE IS NO MORE BOTTLE, NO MORE YOU, NO MORE I, ONLY THIS DRUNKEN JOY THAT MAKES MY TOES CURL IN ECSTASY. BUT, OSHO... WHAT WAS THE JOKE?
- Yoga Lalita, the ultimate joke, the only joke....
The official, Riko, once asked Nansen to explain to him the old problem of the goose in the bottle.
"If a man puts a gosling into a bottle," said Riko, "and feeds him until he is full-grown, how can the man get the goose out without killing it or breaking the bottle?"
Nansen gave a great clap with his hands and shouted, "Riko!"
"Yes, Master," said the official with a start.
"See," said Nansen, "the goose is out."
This is the only ultimate joke in existence. You are enlightened. You are Buddhas - pretending not to be, pretending to be somebody else. And my whole work here is to expose you.
The cuckoos have become silent, waiting for a few laughs from you. Remember, laughter is one of the ways in which you can disappear. Only laughter remains. ... The cuckoo has started again, calling forth.
Laughter is a mystery. It is better to experience it than to hear someone talk about it. But one becomes curious, "What is laughter?" Laughter is the most intelligent factor in you.
Buffaloes don't laugh, and if you meet a buffalo laughing you will go mad! Then it will be impossible to bring you to sanity. No animal laughs. Laughter needs a very sensitive intelligence. It means that you can understand the ridiculousness of a certain situation.
What are jokes? They are a very clever arrangement. They take you in a direction logically, rationally, you start expecting that now this is going to happen, this is going to happen... and it goes on happening according to your expectations. Then comes a sudden turn and something happens which you could never have imagined. That brings laughter to you.
It is a very internal process of your rational expectation. If what you were expecting happens, there will be no laugh. But if you see something that you could not have conceived and everything went well up to the end - and then suddenly something happens that makes you immediately forget all your reason, logic, mind...
Laughter is the only ordinary experience when you are no longer a mind, and I use it to give you glimpses of no-mind, of meditation, of a transcendence of mind. Perhaps I am the first man in the whole history of mankind who has been using jokes as a preparation for meditation. Jesus would not laugh; Buddha will not laugh; Lao Tzu is not heard to have ever laughed... They were serious people, and they were doing serious work!
Audrey and Marilyn, two retired schoolteachers from Chicago, save up all their money to go on safari in Africa.
They are having a wonderful time going through the jungle, when suddenly a huge gorilla swings down out of the trees, sweeps Marilyn into his arms, and disappears.
He takes her back to his cave, and for a week makes love to her all day and night.
Finally, Audrey organizes a rescue party, and Marilyn is saved and rushed to the hospital.
She is treated there for a couple of days and then her friend comes for a visit.
"Oh, Marilyn!" the friend sobs, "what a ghastly experience! How do you feel?"
"How should I feel?" sobs Marilyn, "he never writes, he never calls...!"
One tranquil afternoon in the deep forest, Doobeedoo, the very handsome frog, is preparing to go for a little hop around the pond. He is feeling pretty good about things today, and a little `out there,' so he puts on his flashy new white Yves Saint-Laurent swimsuit.
He goes out and takes in the beautiful morning. The sun is streaming softly through the tall pine trees. Doobeedoo takes a big breath of fresh air and smiles. Then full of life, he says to a passing deer, "I am God!"
He hops on for a while, and when he comes across a family of dragonflies, he puffs out his chest and says, "I am God!"
A little further on, he comes to Doreen the duck. He makes big eyes at her and in a spiritual tone says, "I am God!"
Doreen looks at the frog and says, "What?"
Doobee says again, "I am God!"
"I have been watching you," says Doreen, "and you have been telling that to everyone around the pond. Are you serious, or is it just that flashy white Yves Saint-Laurent swimsuit?"
"I am God!" says Doobee again.
"Enough of your silliness," says the duck. "Away with you, you smart-faced jerk!"
At this, Doobee pulls down his white swimsuit and exposes his machinery.
Doreen looks in amazement and says slowly, "Oh my God!" OSHO
See Also
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