Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our public talk. Tonight’s topic is Chan and laughter, and I’ll begin with a smile 🙂

Reconsidering humour in Western philosophy

In Western philosophy, the value of humour and laughter often remains underestimated. We observe two prevalent approaches: one of superiority, relishing in the misfortunes of others, and the other of discord, finding amusement in experiences that defy our sense of reality. Those unexpected moments that we find funny. Or perhaps, we find them funny later, you know. If you fall on the street in a funny way, that’s something unexpected. It’s not funny while it’s happening, but if you’re not hurt, it can make you laugh later. It can make others laugh as well, whatever the reason of the fall might be.

And what about religion? 

Here, it stops being funny. Joking about religious beliefs can be contentious. Those who cannot control their own feelings need to control the words and thoughts of others. Dogmatic views often leave little room for levity, emphasising solemnity over lightness.

Exploring Chan Buddhism

Buddhism is considered a religion, as well. The First Noble Truth talks about the suffering and the way to stop  it. This is quite serious. It’s the great question of birth and death.

On the other hand, the Heart Sutra, a renowned Buddhist text that talks about emptiness, says that there is no suffering, no coming into being, no emptiness. It hints at the cosmic joke inherent in existence.

Here we are, living our lives facing all sorts of problems and difficulties. Even if we live in this privileged part of Europe with no war turmoil, our lives are still difficult.  How can we investigate our experience and understand it as a cosmic joke? It is neither simple nor easy. Even if it is said that all this suffering and problems are not real, they are real for us. But it’s very healing to see that our suffering and our problems are a product of our wrong understanding.

The secret of Buddha’s smile

On all the statues, Buddha is smiling. The secret of his smile is in a different perception of a reality that is liberating. 

We can say the Buddhism starts with Buddha’s smile that appeared when he reached enlightenment and stated that all beings are free. “What I have discovered now for myself is true for all beings.”

Liberation is a happy moment, but seeing that all other beings are also free generates optimism – there is potential of liberation for everyone.

The Chan tradition starts with a smile, as well. It originated when Buddha raised a flower in front of a gathering of disciples and Mahākāśyapa understood and smiled.

Bodhidharma’s definition of Chan says that it is transmitted beyond words and letters, directly from mind to mind. That integrates humor as a tool to point beyond the logic, into our own misunderstandings, as well as other people’s misunderstandings.

The humour in Chan happens when we encounter something unexpected, something that surprises us. It is often used to pull the carpet under someone’s feet. This kind of humour enables us to go beyond good and bad, secular and saint. It opens us to the present moment.

Stories of insight and laughter

To have a philosophical talk about humour is not funny at all. Therefore, I will tell you some stories that I hope will inspire you and present you humour in Chan in a better way. 

The first story is about a master that is laying on his deathbed, surrounded with his students. Those are the last moments with their teacher, and his oldest student asks him what are his last words, if he has some kind of teaching for them? And the teacher with the trembling voice leans toward all the students and says “The truth is like a river.”

And the oldest student turns to others and says, the truth is like a river. But there was one new student who didn’t really understand what that actually meant. So the oldest student asks the master again, “What do you mean by that? That the truth is like a river.” And the master says: “Okay, then it’s not.”

This is a situation that says the truth is like a river, and is not like a river. It evades all kinds of classifications, ideas and rules. Even though it might seem illogical, it’s a great teaching, it has a very deep meaning.

And there is another story about two monks preparing to cross a river. Near them was a beautiful young women who also attempted to cross the river. So the older monk took her and carried her over. The two monks continued their journey and when they reached the place where they decided to spend the night, the younger man asked the older one: “How could you carry that woman over the river? It is not allowed for the monks to touch women. How could you do that?”

The older monk listened carefully and replied: “I carried that woman over the river and left her there at the bank, but it seems that you are still carrying her with you.” And here we can the need to loosen rigid attachment to rules, to not live by the book and by the rules. In every situation, do what needs to be done. 

There is one more story of a student that came to the master and he said he’s in a bad state, scattered, his legs hurting, and he’s drowsy. He really cannot practice properly. This was probably on a retreat. The master listened and said, it will pass. So on the next retreat, the student came back to the master and said that he’s feeling phenomenally, full of joy and his meditation is incredibly successful. And the master said, it will pass, don’t worry.

Difficulties are not permanent. And success is also not permanent.

There is another story connected to arrogance and  spiritual pride that can happen in the practice of Chan. It is considered as a big obstacle in practice. One teacher in Tibetan Buddhism called it spiritual materialism, which is also a title of his book on that topic.

This story is about a poet Su Dongpo who was a serious practitioner of Chan. He was in a friendly relation with the Chan Master Foyin who lived on the other side of the river. They were in a spiritual friendship, often talking about practice and the teachings.

One day he was inspired to write a beautiful poem about sitting on a golden lotus where eight winds cannot move him, something like that. He was very impressed by his poem and wanted to hear what the Chan Master thinks about it. So he sent it by his servant to the Master Foyin. And when the master read the poem, he wrote back just one word – fart! When the servant brought back the commentary and the poet saw that, he was very angry. He considered it disrespectful and in contrast with his own idea about his poem. He crossed the river in that state of rage to discuss the matter with the Master Foyin. But when he arrived, there was no one there. On the door there was a message for Su Dongpo that said: The eight winds didn’t move you, but this fart moved you all the way across the river.

This is the kind of humour cultivated in Chan. It might be a bit rough, but it’s very therapeutical.

The legend says that the poet Su Dongpo, after that message, understood, he recognised his arrogance and became a lot wiser after that. So that is one of the stories from a long time ago. 

Humour as a tool for liberation

I have one shortcoming – I am not good in telling jokes. So this topic is not the best for me. But I remember that master Sheng Yen used to tell different stories, funny stories on meditation retreats, and make everybody laugh.

He was so skilful in teaching and in using humour as a way to relax and stop taking ourselves so seriously. Humour always provides us with this space to perceive the serious situation differently. We take ourselves very seriously and humour in Chan is about that.

There is an anecdote from a 10-day retreat I led in Taiwan. And after 10 days spent in practice, we set in groups for sharing rounds. One man asked, “Can somebody tell me who is this Mr. Chan?”

After the whole 10-days of practice, all the lectures, all the things we cover on the retreat, the methods and everything we talk about, he thought that Chan was a person. That was obviously a cause of a huge wave of laughter. 

It happens sometimes. People come on a retreat not knowing much about it. Encountering demanding situations on a retreat, they don’t understand what the retreat is about. There is a lot of funny situations on retreats.

Humour in Chan serves as a transformative tool, breaking through rigid mental constructs and fostering self-awareness. When wielded skilfully, humour creates a space for introspection and liberation from the seriousness of existence.

Conclusion

I didn’t prepare any more funny stories. Maybe you’ve noticed that these talks are becoming shorter and shorter. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but I would like to stop here. 

I hope that the talk was useful and see you next month, if not before. And until then, don’t take things too seriously. Relax and bring laughter in your life. Have a wonderful evening. Thank you for joining us.

Public talk by Chan Master Žarko Andričević

Translated in English by Helga Juretić.