I saw Border Patrol execute Alex Pretti

ICE: she should come to us, we'll 'talk' to her

(CNN) Pretti shooting witness Stella Carlson tells everything she saw to [CIA trained] mainstream media insider Anderson Cooper about the Border Patrol/ICE execution of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

• Killing [Murder] of Alex Pretti (Wikipedia)
• Killing of Renée [Nicole Macklin] Good

Homeland Security Head Kristi Noem blatantly lies for Trump and killers

Native American Comedy Slam (standup)

Native American Comedy Slam | The original full show

(laugh out loud flix) Premiered Nov. 15, 2025: The Original Native American Comedy Slam was created in the bold spirit of The Kings of Comedy—a no-reservations-needed, “Goin’ Native” stand-up event that celebrates Indigenous humor at its finest.

Hosted by the legendary Charlie Hill, the special features powerhouse performances from

• Larry Omaha,
• Howie Miller,
• Marc Yaffee,
• Jim Ruel,
• Vaughn Eagle Bear, and
• JR Redwater.

Filmed during the Laugh Out Loud Comedy Festival in Los Angeles, this groundbreaking event made history as the first-ever filmed showcase to feature seven of the nation’s top Native American comedians together on one stage. It remains a landmark moment in Indigenous representation and comedy culture. Discover more from each of these incredible artists—explore their work and follow their journeys:

1. Charlie Hill - RIP Tribute to Charlie:    • Charlie Hill • Remembering a Native Americ... Charlie Hill (More about Charlie) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie...

2. Larry Omaha: https://www.larryomaha.net/ Larry Omaha Instagram: larryomaha Larry Omaha Facebook: larryomaha

3. Howie Miller: https://www.howiemiller.com/ Howie Miller on Facebook: howiemillercomedy

4. Vaughn Eaglebear, who also spells his last name Eagle Bear Vaughn Eagle Bear on Facebook: vaughn.eaglebear. Vaughn Eagle Bear's music: https://vaughneaglebear.hearnow.com/b... Vaughn Eagle Bear on YouTube: @veaglebear

5. Marc Yaffee: https://laughwithmarc.com/ Marc Yaffee Facebook: laughwithmarcyaffee Marc Yaffee Instagram: marcyaffee Marc Yaffee YouTube: marcyaffee

6. Jim Ruel Facebook: jimruelcomedy Jim Ruel Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimruel2/?h...

7. JR Redwater Facebook: jrredwatercomedy JR Redwater Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jrredwaterc...

The Original Native American Comedy Slam was Directed and Produced by: Scott Montoya • imdb.to/2LVcn0y

For anyone who thinks Charlie Hill’s opening comments about the Iroquois Confederacy helping shape American democracy are inaccurate, here are a few reputable historical sources that explain the real connections between the "Haudenosaunee system" and early American political thought and is spelled out in the new documentary series by Ken Burn "American Revolution.”

• The First 10 Minutes of "The American Revo... Go to 1 minute into the first ten minutes of this new series on PBS from Ken Burns "American Revolution.” here is a link:    • The First 10 Minutes of "The American Revo...

The Native American Government That Helped Inspire the US Constitution: https://www.history.com/articles/iroq... US Democracy and the Iroquois Confederacy https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2023/09/the... Follow lolflix at: Instagram: lolflix / lolflix / lolflix.com Twitter: lolflix   or @lolflix More Comedy: http://lolflix.com/ lolflix cool stuff to merch: https://teespring.com/stores/lolflix © lolflix, Inc. All Right Reserved • No portion of this video may be copied and reposted without express written permission of lolflix, Inc. and LOL Comedy Inc. ® lolflix “Laugh Out Loud Flix” is a federally registered Trademark.

29 products laugh out loud flix tagged products below. Learn more Native American T-shirt,7 Colors! Portion Donated, MMIW,Native Hope, Pow Wow, Native Pride, Lakota, Sioux, Unisex Jersey Short Sleeve Tee $21.25 Earns commission etsy.com/listing/1739914076/native-american-t-shirt7-colors-portion?gpla=1&gao=1 Native American clothing - Indigenous Owned Stores - I am my Ancestors wilds dream - Indigenous clothes - Native shirts - Indigenous AF $28.00 Earns commission etsy.com/listing/922501578/native-american-clothing-indigenous?gpla=1&gao=1 Womens Oglala Lakota People Cotton Shirt - Honoring First Nations, Inuit, Native American Indigenous Cultures $21.86 Earns commission etsy.com/listing/1455679758/womens-oglala-lakota-people-cotton-shirt?gpla=1&gao=1 Indigenous shirt - Native tshirt - Native tee - Native American shirts - Indigenous apparel - Funny Native shirts - First Nation fashion $28.00 Earns commission etsy.com/listing/866625250/indigenous-shirt-native-tshirt-native?gpla=1&gao=1 Native American Shirt, Four Direction Color Shirt, Native, Indigenous, Native Blanket, Unisex Jersey Short Sleeve Tee $21.25 Earns commission etsy.com/listing/1652731418/native-american-shirt-four-direction?gpla=1&gao=1 Native American Shirt, American Tribe Shirt, Indigenous Shirt, Indigenous Peoples Day Shirt, Gifts For Native Americans $24.99 Earns commission etsy.com/listing/1278655098/native-american-shirt-american-tribe?gpla=1&gao=1

• Indigenous Firsts: A History of Native American Achievements and Events (by Yvonne Wakim Dennis, Arlene Hirschfelder, Paulette F. Molin, 2022)
• Indigenous Firsts: A History of Native American Achievements and Events
• An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (ReVisioning History Book 3) by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

World Smile Day: A Path to Happiness

Buddhism's Seinfeld: funny Ajahn Brahm

The first Friday of October is World Smile Day (Oct. 3, 2025), a relatively new holiday with a fascinating story. Created by a commercial artist named Harvey Ball, this day came about as a response to his creation of the smiley face. Harvey worried that the commercialization of the symbol would lessen its impact. We can hardly blame him for his estimation; the symbol has been used in many different ways including clothing, comic books, coffee mugs, pins, and more. These little yellow faces are more than just a symbol, they’re a statement about the power of smiling.

History of World Smile Day

Has this symbol always existed?

In 1963, Harvey Ball, a graphic artist and ad man from Worcester, Massachusetts, created the smiley face symbol [the yellow emoji icon] we’ve all come to know.

Popularity for this symbol exploded into the world of popular culture. It’s every artists’ dream for their work to be respected and recreated and few symbols have had quite the legacy that Harvey’s creation has had. More: nationaltoday.com

Smiling animals brighten our day

If looking for something to brighten an otherwise dreary winter day, look no further than these adorable animals. Looking at their cheery grins will no doubt put a smile on the face that watches them, too. These smiling animals will brighten the day

Buddhism: There is no way to happiness. Why? Happiness is the way

I let go, surrendered, and blissed out on the mat.

This is a tricky truth no one talks about, at least not in the West. We are forever searching and seeking, scheming and striving to get happy, to FIND a way to happiness. But this message turns that sort of thinking on its head.

When at a Buddhist monastery or on a Buddhist retreat, it's not uncommon to ask, "How do I attain meditative absorption (jhana)?" Another word for it is "zen" or dhyana and dharana on a yoga retreat. But there's no answer. One is taught a technique but no way to achieve the thing one strives for. Why?

I have a theory. - What is it? - Do the GOOD.

It is reached by letting go, dropping the striving, surrendering up the muscling, giving up the go-getter attitude. It just happens. And teachers will say, "There's no way to [scheme and use force to] do it. Meditators just do it."

I went to the room of the greatest jhana teacher in the world, and I pressed him, "What's the secret?"

He didn't know what I meant, he said. He didn't even know what I was talking about, he claimed. Then I thought, he's given me an opening. Here's my chance. I better ask very carefully:

"How does one meditate...successfully? What I mean is, how does one attain absorption? How does one get to..." He looked at me like I was kidding and when he saw that I was not, as if by rote, he gave me the basic instructions:

• Sit up straight, but not too straight, relax, bring your attention under your nose to the breath, remain aware of each and every in-breath and out-breath that is happening. Don't do anything but give your undivided attention to that breath (composed of an in-portion and out-portion). Just that. [Then what? - Then nothing, just that. - No, but there has to be something more; it can't be just that. - Just do that (in addition to keeping silent, following the Eight Precepts, and always keeping the breath in mind except when asleep) and then report to me what happens during the daily interview sessions. Try it. It's very simple, but there's nothing easy about it. So keep at it.]

Bare awareness (mindfulness/sati) is a start.

"No," I said, "not how does one sit; how does one succeed? How does one get to that state of one-pointedness, samadhi, stillness, rapture, unbroken focus...?"

"Oh, that," he said. "I don't know that." I thought he was joking, a real effort to make an American-style joke, and I didn't know why he wasn't telling me. He knew I was sincere. He knew I had been striving all month long. Then I applied more pressure than probably anyone would ever dare to apply.

I wasn't leaving without an answer: "What do you mean you don't know? Who better than you? If you don't know, who could possibly know?"

Then he stunned me, as he often did with the directness of his insight and his willingness to share his knowledge with me? "I don't know because I do not read minds. People come to me. I give them the instructions. And some of them come tell me what is happening, and I guide them from there."

You asked him what?! Did he throw you out?

"But WHY do some of them have something start happening since not everyone does?"

"That I do not know. I just know they do. And when they do, I can help them, guide them to go deeper. But how they get to it in the first place, that I do not know." [These aren't exact quotes, just the gist of the conversation, which only lasted a few desperate minutes as I pushed and pushed.]

As he said this, I realized I had asked him this before, after sitting with him in Asia at his massive monastery, where it seemed everyone was succeeding and attaining. I asked him and pushed him a little on the matter with someone sitting by me to catch what I might be missing, two Americans sincerely wanting to experience what Buddhist texts write about, what the Buddha taught, what sutras say happens.

At that time he looked at us and perceiving our sincerity said one strange word, his guess as to what it was distilled down to ONE thing as if it could ever be just one thing distinguishing success from just sitting. That word was parami. She smiled next to me, but I grimaced, perplexed. "'Parami?' The Sanskrit word paramita?"

"Yes," he answered, but he was actually talking about the Pali (and therefore Theravada Buddhist) form of the word parami. In either case, it means "perfection," but the Sanskrit is a diluted Mahayana term of six factors, whereas the historical Buddha always taught TEN intentional actions (deeds, karma).

My teacher clarified. What he imagined (from what he heard from many of his successful students reporting to him) was that they remembered doing skillful deeds in the past, and he concluded that those past skillful deeds were coming to fruition as they sat. And that's why some succeeded and not others.

What kinds of questions are these? You are silly.

(What I was really getting at was, WHAT ACTIONS CAN SOMEONE DO NOW OR WHILE ONE IS SITTING IN MEDITATION, ANXIOUS FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN, TO MAKE IT HAPPEN?)

That he didn't know, so I had to undertake a lifelong journey of trying to figure it out. Of course, it will have something to do with the Factors of Absorption (jhananga, "limbs of jhana"). Leigh Brasington figured this much out, having had the insight that happiness is the way:

Right Concentration: Practical Guide to the Jhanas

Brasington teaches a technique of focusing on one of these factors, happiness (piti, joy, pleasure, rapture, bliss) as it arises in the body in serenity meditation. By focusing on it, it increases based on the principle that, "Where attention goes, energy flows." This is true enough, but how does one get the initial happiness/bliss to pay attention to and make increase?

Now it makes sense that what I had always been looking for was a carrot or apple in front of the horse (mule, donkey, jackass). I could only neigh in realizing it: THE GOAL is not this happiness because THIS HAPPINESS is the way to relaxing, letting go, unstriving, surrendering, unclutching, dropping hangups, persisting without grasping or clinging, shikantaza ("just sitting"), not setting up a goal and striving for it. Why? It's because those blissful states of meditation and their attendant stillness, mindfulness, and progress towards insight are NATURAL. They arise. We don't "do" them. We can't do them. We don't know how and do not have that power.

But if we relax and just watch with vigilance, stillness, steadiness, persistence, we are cultivating the Factors of Absorption and other factors of the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment, which are categorized into seven groupings.

• One is reminded of a very important thing the Buddha once explained to someone. When talking about the Bodhisatta, himself at the stage of still being a seeker of enlightenment, he once realized that he could neither strive too hard or be negligent. Doing either, he sank as if in a great ocean (samsara), but not striving and not being negligent, he made progress. What could this mean either than the Middle Way of avoiding extremes, of persisting but not pushing, of cultivating but not disturbing the peace or giving in to apathy, listlessness, or despair?
• Thai Forest Tradition arahant Ajahn Maha Boowa seems to be suggesting the same thing here (translated by the American intellect Ven. Thanissaro): "The tactics [techniques] given by each of the Buddhas to the world are called the Dhamma [Truth] of the doctrine. These aren't the genuine Dhamma. They're tactics [methods] — different offshoots — actions and modes displayed by the genuine Dhamma, means for letting go and striving, teaching us to let go, teaching us to strive using various methods, saying that the results will be like this or that. As for the genuine Dhamma of results in the principles of nature, that's something to be known exclusively in the heart of the person who practices. This Dhamma can't really be described correctly in line with its truth. We can only talk around it. And particularly with release [nirvana, liberation, freedom]: This can't be correctly described at all, because it's beyond all conventions and speculations. It can't be described. Even though we may know it with our full heart, we can't describe it. Like describing the flavor [of a soup using only words to someone who has yet to simply taste it]." From Things As They Are.

Smile, be happy. Don't overdo it; just let it be.

So happiness IS the way. Be happy. Right now. Choose it. It's a choice. Smile. After all, it's World Smile Day. Reflect, "Why is the Buddha ALWAYS smiling slightly?" There are no statues of him yelling or throwing things, losing his temper or his poise. Why? It's because once one uproots the defilements, there is nothing more tat can upset. One knows-and-sees directly.

Like that, Lisa, just like that. Hold it.

And to the extent that that knowing-and-seeing is the goal, one has reached it. Things have become clear, and nothing can any longer upset us. What was in the way, aside from the defilements (of which there are many subtle ones) and lack of parami-karma (ten skillful deeds performed with the ambition of nirvana being the result)? What is the direct path to bodhi (enlightenment, awakening, realization, liberating-insight)?

What is the way to bodhi? The Seven Factors of Enlightenment. What is the way to those factors? The preceding factors of the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment. How does one do any factor? It's probably a good idea to be happy. How does one even begin to dream to do that? Smile.

Cops cover up: Hot drunk cop kills motorist

Thinks fatal car crash is funny: "He didn't look okay" [because I mangled him with my vehicle]

You will cover up my crimes like I cover y'all!

(PoliceCamCentral) Washington State, summer 2025: Off-duty female cop drives drunk, kills motorcyclist, as police attempt to cover up her intoxication and avoid having her say anything incriminating on bodycam. She is finally arrested for DUI, found to be more than twice the legal limit. Through it all, she thinks the fatal crash she was involved in or caused is funny even as she is soaked in the blood of her victim, asking to be allowed to go home to get out of bloody and incriminating clothes as she gave CPR until she thought victim was dead and didn't bother to keep going, even though paramedics did continue. (She may have killed him by her drunken negligence as much as by colliding with him in the first place). It's silent behind the Blue Shield as other officers deserve to be arrested, investigated, and imprisoned for conspiracy charges of helping out their hot friend and colleague, scratching her back just as they would expect her to cover up for them.

White entitlement and privilege

(Access Hollywood) Why Rhode Island Assistant Attorney General
arrest video is going viral: ‘You’re gonna regret this!’

Pope is new but same old Trump (SNL)

This is the Black Pope, Afro-Caribbean mix of Italian, French, African, American ancestries

Weekend Update ft. Marcello Hernández, Mikey Day and Heidi Gardner - SNL

Trump Mother's Day Cold Open: SNL

Heh heh heh, blessed SNL

(Saturday Night Live) May 10, 2025: #15 on Trending. SNL delivers a Mother's Day message from Kenan Thompson, Bowen Yang, and Marcello Hernández to their mothers gets interrupted by President Do Jo Trump (played by James Austin Johnson). Catholic Colin Jost (aka Mr. Scarlett Johansson) jokes about American (Chicagoan) Pope Leo as Michael Che giggles, during the regular Weekend Update segment.

Saturday Night Live: Stream now on Peacock: https://pck.tv/3n1IyzK. Subscribe to SNL: https://goo.gl/tUsXwM. Stream current full episodes: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live. WATCH PAST SNL SEASONS Google Play: http://bit.ly/SNLGooglePlay. iTunes: http://bit.ly/SNLiTunes. SNL ON SOCIALS: SNL Instagram: nbcsnl. SNL Facebook: snl. SNL Twitter: nbcsnl. SNL TikTok: nbcsnl. GET MORE NBC: Like NBC: nbc. Follow NBC: nbc. NBC Tumblr: nbctv. YouTube: nbc. NBC Instagram: nbc. #SNL #WaltonGoggins #ArcadeFire #SNL50.

• SNL, May 10, 2025; Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Sex talk with the Dalai Lama (video)

Controversy of the Dalai Lama's innocent "young boy play" or homosexual child grooming?

Buddhist sex partner or consort tradition for nirvana with the Dalai Lama

How feel about rabbi touch boys? - Excuse me?

(Markham X དམར་ཁམས་ ཧ་) The clergy member (the Western Tibetan Buddhist nun Tenzin Palmo) here questions the current Dalai Lama. She is a British nun based in England. The patriarch acts coy.

She presses him on how Tibetan monks can abuse their disciples using "crazy wisdom" as their excuse or theory behind their misbehavior.

The Dalai Lama, while not putting his tongue in a young boy's mouth for fun, ends up ridiculing her instead of standing behind her and her concern.

• 

  This tulku's pope allow it?

  [Are we Westerners too uptight, too concerned with something as trivial as sexual exploitation, abuse, or homosexual play? There's that concerning moment in the Tibetan movie Unmistaken Child where a Tibetan monk fondles the private parts of the child on screen, laughing as if the young boy has no idea how much gay fun he is going to have growing up as a lama, learning to fear and avoid females, while growing ever closer to older men and maybe even finding a nice pederasty position, not that that is ever spoken of in public. What are we, Puritans?]

I love boys very much, girl also, tongues soft.

The Dalai Lama has no objection with self-proclaimed Tibetan "Living Buddhas" sexually abusing their white female disciples on the pretext that "tantric sex" is a good way to gain quick nirvana or sudden enlightenment...

The Dalai Lama himself recounts an incident when he was asked by a [hot] blonde, white nun to provide him [her?] an "empowerment" of the third kind, meaning tantric sex, so that she could get into nirvana fast and furiously.

And now for a Jedi mind trick. No one believe such things I do. Believe your lying eyes?

You protect me in international criminal court, right Bushy? - Right, Dolly, and here's a painting.

.

Tibetan "Living Buddhas" such as abusive sex-cult leader Chogyam Trungpa [formerly a rinpoche who disrobed to marry a child from England as well as his accused rapist son, Master Sakyong Mipham, he left his Shambhala Buddhist lineage to be pope-king of run who then went on to sexually abuse many nearly bringing the organization/cult to financial ruin] and lusty Sogyal Rinpoche have abused white Vajrayana Buddhist practitioners since as early as the freewheeling 1960s in the name of a bizarre "crazy wisdom" practice as if they were intending to be Milarepa.

The Dalai Lama [like the current pope dealing with child molester Catholic priests in either Latin America or Rome] failed to condemn the acts of such scum.

Dalai Lama backlash for telling boy to suck him

The Dalai Lama says, "Once you decide to be with a Dharma teacher for 12 years, and later you find that he is sexually abusive towards you, you should keep a distance from him/her instead of reporting him/her to the police [that might arrest him/her and embarrass us and all of Mahayana Buddhism and cost us money in a lawsuit that airs out our dirty laundry]."

But is keeping a "distance" enough? Rape, child molestation, and sexual abuse are all illegal, and whoever abuses another deserves a jail sentence instead of some "distance."

• 

  That why Chinese soldier kill my lamas?

  Buddhist monks, nuns, lamas, and rinpoches are all bound by rules of celibacy (in accordance with the Pratimoksha and Monastic Disciplinary Rules or Vinaya boundaries laid down by the historical Buddha). Celibacy, if violated, means one is instantly (before any proceedings or conviction or even before anyone else finds out about it) and irreversibly not a Buddhist monk anymore (meaning one cannot be re-ordained in this lifetime). But if one wants to say or have people believe that he is now a "Living Buddha" who sets his own rules, that sounds like an additional "defeat" (parajika) offense of lying about attainments (the fourth of the four defeat offenses) no one is enforcing.

Don't ask, don't tell, right, Dolly? They just want $$

But then what if these [white female] disciples know everything and act to seduce monks [against their will just] so that they can later bring lawsuits against them in order to get some money?

You never know... So the Dalai Lama is cautious and doesn't fall on either side of the gender debate, male or female [rapist or victim, Tibetan "Living Buddha" or disciple, defeated monk guilty of sexual contact or innocent student].

• [Sophistry:] Q. 3: Why Vajrayana practice needs female consort? [And will little boys do, you know, for practice before one is able to talk a white woman into it?] Of course, what the teacher is explaining could be true, but who is judging whether or not one is "bound by afflictions" but oneself? So self-deception allows one to have sex while saying, "I'm above desire." Oh, this erection? It's compassion. It's a selfless act. How could you even question me, Tantrika? - OK.
• MarkhamX1100, March 31, 2020; CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Netflix is a Joke Fest: Jerry Seinfeld

Hey, J, where do you stand on genocide? - I stand with Israel. - And Bibi? - I stand with Israel.

SCHEDULE: Netflix Is A Joke Festival, all over Los Angeles, 2024

.

Seinfeld spawned a lot more humor from co-stars

This happens every so often. There's just too much to do in this town: The Netflix Is A Joke Fest, The Beachlife Fest (Redondo Beach), The Los Angeles County Fair launches today, The Renaissance Pleasure Faire (Irwindale), Litfest in the Dena (free literary event with 150+ authors), a semi-super bloom for flower lovers to see, a screening of Mother's Milk about going dairy-free in India, Cinco de Mayo ("Mexican-American 4th of July for Gringos" who don't know or care that Mexican Independence Day is El Grito de Dolores on 9/16, Museums of the Arroyo Day, the PCC Flea Market, Sierra Madre Art Fair, and too much more to chronicle).

Los Angeles has been taken over by two weeks of standup comedy everywhere all over town. Jerry Seinfeld (Unfrosted) made a comeback to Hollywood, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the first time in history. He's 70 but he hardly looks any different than he did on his long running and very successful TV sitcom.

• LINE UP: Netflix Is A Joke Festival 2024

Jerry Seinfeld on turning 70, series finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm with Larry David, his Pop-Tarts film

Larry David 'n swastika (Curb Your Enthusiasm)

(Jimmy Kimmel Live) April 30, 2024: TV fixture Jerry Seinfeld talks about being on the show in person for the first time, celebrating his 70th birthday with their mutual friend Chris Bianco’s amazing pizza, Colin Quinn getting him the best birthday present, filming the series finale of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” with Larry David, his new movie Unfrosted on Netflix, not checking with Kellogg’s before making it, the possibility of getting sued and ending up in court on Pop-Tart related charges, working with Hugh Grant, wanting Daniel Day-Lewis to be in the movies, being on the Jerry Lewis Telethon, and interviewing Jerry Lewis on “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” #Kimmel

Kramer talks to his buddy, the Soup Nazi

He's giving I Love Lucy (or the Lucille Ball Show) a run for its money for non-aminated comedy TV series. They both have to take a backseat to The Simpsons and probably the funnier Family Guy and South Park, but who knows? The Simpsons opened up so much for adult swim, safe harbor cartoons for adults. Legal weed also probably had a lot to do with it. There was once a funny cartoon for adults called Wait Till Your Father Gets Home that no one remembers. And MTV (Beavis and Butt-Head, Daria, King of the Hill, Robot Chicken) opened up a world of juvenile comedy and daring animation. When did Netflix get so funny?

• List of Netflix original stand-up comedy specials
• WEBSITE: Netflix Is A Joke Festival 2024

WAR opens. LA County Fair 2024: Stars, Stripes & Fun Await Angelenos! (lacountyfair.com)

The Buddha smiled. Is it bad to laugh?

The Buddha of Kapilavastu, Gandhara (now Bamiyan, Mes Aynak, Kabul, Afghanistan)

Shiva gains samadhi and is done.

At a Buddhist temple, I was told it was wrong to laugh. But this is a meditation center, I countered. "All the more reason -- you'll distract others who are trying to concentrate. And they'll think you're crazy."

Them thinking I'm crazy does not make it wrong nor worry me in the least. But disturbing others, all right, that's true. "How about smile and quietly giggle? It can only help."

"Why would that help?"

"Because enlighten up. This [meditating] is about letting go. It's not about struggling, muscling, and over-exerting. It was exactly because of those things that Siddhartha could NOT for years become the Buddha."

• 

  The Buddha (Victoria & Albert)

  In the allegory that is the Buddha's life story, Prince Siddhartha renounces the throne and palace, leaves home, leaves the country (ancient Gandhara/Indo-Scythia/Saka and the seasonal capital of Kapilavastu), and heads East to proto-India to find a guru/yogi. He learns under him, masters what that meditator is teaching, and becomes disappointed with the summum bonum, goes to another, same thing happens, then sets off on his own to practice more severe austerities for penance and purification as so many have done down the ages, all of which fails. He only succeeds in calm-and-insight -- in real awakening -- when he stops being afraid of the blissful meditative absorptions (jhanas, samma-samādhi, right stillness), which lead to purification. But he doesn't stop there. That's only the foundation. With that calm, he practices insight (systematic mindfulness on four subjects, four foundations, four topics: body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects). That leads to the realization of Dependent Origination, remembering past lives, and then the great awakening.

Ven. Vimalaramsi (formerly Mr. Marvel Logan), an almost universally decried American monk in Missouri (except that Armstrong), was right about one thing:

In meditation, when the mind wanders and we bring it back, it is essential to smile and release (then re-smile before beginning again), simply watching without resentment or built-up tension.

If a tennis player misses and grunts before serving again, it is crucial to smile and not overdo it. Overdoing it will lead to another mistake, whereas rebalancing and approaching the game with a sense of perspective and calm leads to a flow state. Stressing, worrying, needing, clinging -- these are no way to meditate (and will not even work in a sporty game of tennis).

Tension builds up around forehead and the temples when one struggles too much and strains. Smiling releases that tension so one can regain one's composure.

At the Forest Refuge Retreat Center outside of Boston (in Barre, Massachusetts), when the great Enlightened Master was leading a long retreat, he would give a Dhamma talk most nights.

He would often cause us to laugh. And sitting on a mat in the front row to see only him, or on a chair in the back to see everyone and him in context, it became obvious to me that he was getting addicted to being funny.

It's as if there were a pleasurable spurt of dopamine in his brain when he could make everyone in the room crack up.

The only problem was, he only had one go-to joke. And it wasn't funny. But cutting through the tension, it never failed to evoke some kind of comedic reaction -- except when he used it too soon after a major spike in laughter.

The joke, the quip really, went something like: "You come to Asia and find out."

• Retreatant: "What is the meaning of life?"
• Sayadaw: "You come to Asia and find out."
• Audience: *LOUD LAUGHTER*
• Retreatant: "How can anyone possibly sit in meditation for eight hours in one day?"
• Sayadaw: "You come to Asia and find out."
• Retreatant: "When you say that people see atomic particles (kalapas) with their third eye (mind) or perceive individual mind-moments (cittas) with their own conscious perception, you don't really believe that?"
• Sayadaw: "You come to Asia and find out."

Samatha, Jhana, and Vipassana

He has an international reputation for running a tight ship of strict morality and long hours of meditation --

• Ten Precepts for everyone (with monks living by 227 and 1,000 more minor rules of etiquette),
• and a schedule of 90-minute sitting meditation sessions,
• adding up to 8 or 12 hours of sitting a day, sometimes more,
• with every waking moment spent in mindful silence
• unless speaking to ask questions during a brief personal interview to report on progress or resolve a difficulty,
• or when unconsciously sleeping;
• we had no yoga nidra, so what the mind did when it drifted off to sleep was the mind's own business,
• but up to that moment of losing consciousness, it was all mindfulness all the time.

I have stayed at that forest meditation center more than once, deep in the jungles of Middle Burma (military coup and authoritarian Myanmar), and it is that way. Only, it's not enforced by force.

Laugh? Not on your life. Grimace

If anyone speaks and disturbs others or loses mindfulness, no one gets hit with a bamboo paddle like they might at a Mahayana Zendo. They might look. They might silently condemn or report the matter to him, but no one takes on by the scruff of the neck and walks them to detention, which is odd. One would expect that to happen if the Vinaya (Monastic Discipline) rules are so important, and they are.

In the world outside the precincts of the monastic grounds (within which there is a nunnery on one side and a monastery on the other side with more than 500 living and striving there), Myanmar's military police might do anything from lockup a dissident in Insein Prison, to manhandle a disorderly person, or shoot protesters with live rounds, which is odd because Asia is so nice, so reserved, so loathe to make a scene.

• The Dept. of Psychology at UC Berkeley offered a course on humor; I was terrified to take it, thinking that if it got deconstructed and intellectualized, I would no longer be able to laugh. That was probably right, but I yearned for insights as to why we as humans laugh. It is not all about "humor" itself. It's social. People laugh in groups, to appease, to feel bonded, and because a train of thought going one place is suddenly derailed. The transition is endured or enjoyed with laughter, as if we hit reset. Go to a comedy club. It's much funnier when full, regardless of who's performing. It should matter who's up on stage, but it hardly matters as long as others are laughing, and we get caught up in that group mind. I didn't take the class. I oftentimes still wish I had.

The West taught me to laugh. It's fun!

Misbehaving Western tourists are well tolerated, whereas anyone who grew up there just wouldn't think to act like an entitled Karen or Ken or even express emotion.

Songkran (Burmese New Year, like Holi celebrations in India, are the exception, when one might get splashed with water to peals of laughter or dusted with colorful powders to the delight of the crowds).

Of course, India in general can get quite unruly with its occasional communal violence and spirited love of cricket and Bollywood movies. I have never, in all my time in India, seen a dance break out on the street as it does in every other scene of every movie ever made by Bollywood.

But I did see men stand up and dance inside the orderly movie theater when a Bollywood film was playing, and a particularly catchy song came on. That was a shock as no one complained to the management to flog him into order with bamboo reeds or even looked over. It was public dancing. They won't kiss in public, and they never used to kiss on screen, but somebody might stand up and show appreciation of a pop song. Maybe, unlikely, but maybe.

This is no place for joking, no place to be silly, no place for pranks, or too much mirth. If ones cries out, "Oh the pleasure, oh the pleasure!" that might be alright. People will look into the matter, and if it's piti (rapture, joy, bliss), then it's an understandable exclamation. But anything else is frowned upon. Smile, smile all the time; those who frown, who are dour and grave are doing monasticism wrong. Doing it that way is a natural impulse, but success comes from relaxing, releasing, letting go and letting nature take its course.

Anyone who can laugh at life, who smiles often, is catching on. Sure, there's horror. Samsara, like Mara, can be very serious, nothing to scoff at. But don't sweat the small stuff.

This is Forest Tradition Buddhism following all the rules of the historical Buddha.

The Buddha always lived in bamboo groves, gardens, woods, forests, jungles, the wilderness, or high on a hilltop (e.g., at Eagles Peak, Rajagaha). Even when he came to a prosperous city, he would stay the night just outside in a monastic encampment in a sylvan place or sala (open air hall with a roof to protect from rain used by wandering ascetics and travelers).

Smiling is one thing, very good, but laughing?

So I asked, "Is it wrong to laugh?" It's not as if it's willful. It's spontaneous when something is funny, even if one has a quirky or dark sense of humor. I was told that the Buddha didn't go around laughing like a madman. Be that as it may, he smiled a lot. Of course, if one reads carefully, he always smiled for a reason. It was a prompt for his attendant to ask about it later.

And Ananda was dutiful in always asking when provoked it. To which the Buddha would answer with an insight, recognition, or memory of something that happened there, oftentimes something others did not see or recognize. It might have been a ghost undergoing karmic consequences or rich and privileged youths squandering their opportunity to progress in this lifetime.

He once saw a man and noted that

• if he had renounced the worldly life and taken up this spiritual practice at a young age, he would by now be fully enlightened,
• if he had taken up the practice a little later, he would be a non-returner (never having to return to this world and fully awakening in another better world),
• and if he takes up the practice in old age, he will become a stream-enterer,
• but if he reached old age and did not practice, he would again be reborn like dice being thrown in the air (Who knows how they will land?) without making any progress at all.

This was a shocking thing to point out as it illustrated that people are not born with fixed destinies. It matters what we do (our karma, our intentional deeds), no matter how good our fortune is to be born in one circumstance or another.

• The advice to Rahula MN 61 (suttacentral.net)

It was further pointed out to me, as has often happened, that the Buddha told his son, Ven. Rahula, who ordained as novice monk or samanera (little recluse, probationary wandering ascetic) at the age of 7, not to lie, not even for the sake of a joke or prank. Ven. Rahula was notorious for joking around. The Buddha smiled but saw danger in too much horsing around, too much distraction and diversion, too much joking and not taking things seriously, or lying and falsifying the truth to get a laugh.

• The "Enlightenment Tree" differs with different buddhas
• Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly