Heartfulness Course - Day 9 - Lightness

[Jacquelyn_LSRF]

Access the Course: The Yoga of Heartfulness 4-Week Course • Ram Dass

One of the things we love about Ram Dass is his sense of humor and lightness. His good friend Wavy Gravy used to say, “If you don’t have a sense of humor, it’s just not funny.” As if to say, humor can free our hearts in potent ways.

Today, share one of your favorite jokes. Ensure it is appropriate for this space - nothing dirty, and no making fun of other people’s sex, gender, race, religion, class, etc. Let’s all laugh together. So tell us some clean, uplifting, even groan-worthy jokes.

If something feels deeply offensive, please take this opportunity to tell us why (without attacking) so we can open our hearts, learn from each other and be more informed in the future. If a joke is too harsh, note it will be removed.

[Robert_McDonald]

I won’t share any of my jokes because I do tend to make light of the heavy stuff in life. I like parody and the kind of comedy that’s been all but lost today with such heightened sensitivity and so many do’s and don’ts.

I will share this though: one of the main cathartic activities for me post-lockdown was Bo Burnham’s Inside. I feel this is really where my inner journey started because of his documentation of his attempt to cope through his art and how he constantly fell on his face and felt like giving up because what’s the point. I struggled with massive anxiety, especially social, and depression that was severely exasperated by the covid measures and the family we ended up being shut in with. I watched that special dozens of times feeling like it was made specifically for me and somehow by me? I cried and cried and came out the other side completely reborn anew.

So, through the darkest night one will see the brilliance of the dawn.

Also, being a huge Office fan, I still use, ‘that’s what she said’ several times a day.

[Jacquelyn_LSRF]

A man walks into a library and asks the librarian for books about paranoia. She whispers, “They’re right behind you!”

[Jacquelyn_LSRF]

Once Satan and his demon sidekick were walking down the street, closely watching a man 20 yards ahead who was on the verge of realizing the Supreme Truth. The demon grew worried, and began to nudge Satan, but Satan looked quite calm. Sure enough, the man did, in fact, soon realize the deepest spiritual Truth. Yet Satan still did nothing about it. With this, the demon nudged Satan harder and, getting no response, finally blurted out, “Satan! Don’t you see? That man has realized the Truth! And yet you are doing nothing to stop him!” With that, Satan cunningly smiled and announced, “Yes, he has realized the Truth. And now I am going to help him organize the Truth!” (–story heard years ago from Indian sage Jiddu Krishnamurti)

[Jacquelyn_LSRF]

HOW ENLIGHTENED ARE YOU?

IF…

If you can live without caffeine,

If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

If you can resist complaining,

If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,

If you can ignore a friend’s limited education and never correct him or her,

If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,

If you can face the world without lies and deceit,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor,

If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

If you can honestly say that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, color, religion, gender preference, or politics,

–Then you have almost reached the same level of spiritual development as your dog!

[Jacquelyn_LSRF]

Two spiritual leaders are standing in the largely {spiritual building} one day, talking mystically about how, given the awesome glory of God’s Infinite Divine Presence, they are each really “nothing.” “Yes,” says the one spiritual leader, “I am nothing!” The other spiritual leader also affirms, looking up to the heavens, “O God, I am completely nothing!” And they go on like this for several rounds—”I am nothing… I am utterly nothing.”

Meanwhile, the {spiritual building’s} janitor is off in the corner on his hands and knees, scrubbing the floor. Filled with humble devotion, he has all the while been repeating in a gentle voice, “O Lord, You are everything and I am nothing… I am nothing.” The two spiritual leaders at one point bend their ears to listen and, after a few moments, come to realize what the lowly janitor is saying. At this, the one spiritual leaders nudges the other and smugly says, “Look who thinks he’s nothing!”

[Zach_V]

Norm Macdonald’s pumpkin head joke -

A man with a giant pumpkin for a head walks up to his friend…

The friend says, “My God! What happened to your head!?”

“Well,” says the man, “I found a genie in a lamp who granted me three wishes.”

“What did you wish for?” says the friend.

“For the first one I wished for a hundred million dollars, and I got it!”

“And the second?”

“For the second wish I asked for the most beautiful woman in the world,” says the man, “and I got her too.”

“The third wish?”

“The third wish is where I really messed up…” says the man.

“What went wrong?!” says the friend.

“Well,” says the man, “I wished for a giant pumpkin head…”

[Robert_McDonald]

That’s fantastic. I had to stop with Krishnamurti. Though I find him absolutely fascinating, he’s so arduously against spirit that it’s difficult to work with what he teaches. He’s like an atheist or evangelist with his opposition to everything that isn’t immediate experience. It’s so dry. I’d rather be weaving in and out of the spirit than live such a dry and hard existence.

[Dana_G]

Here’s a bit of third grade humor…

What do elephants have that other animals don’t have?

*Baby elephants!

What do you call a camel with no humps?

Humphrey!*

Sorry…I teach third grade, lol…sometimes it’s refreshing to be in such silliness
Have a great day everyone!

[Annie_Watson]

Good one!

[TaylerBailey]

What’s an astronauts favorite time of the day?

….

….

LAAAAUUUUNNNCCHHHH!

That’s THE ONLY joke I know!

I also enjoyed the story about the Trungpa devotees, when they we’re all sharing stories of him and Ram Dass said ‘you are all just a bunch of sloshy devotees and I can’t stand you’ in such loving kindness though of course, but it just made me laugh out loud.

[TaylerBailey]

I used to work in a library, I love it!!

[eleitch]

I’ve been redoing my home and trying to make a lot of the decor and in our kitchen I wanted to put a dinner prayers and as I was creating I heard my grandfather who passed 12 years ago “Whoever eats the fastest gets the mostest. Amen” and it just made me chuckle, the man who would have a huge community garden and teach and share so much about life with that dinner prayer. It was the best laugh I had in a while.

[Travis_Barker]

I love that about RD. His sense of humour. Serious. Then does a check in. Laughs about it. Uses jokes and lighteness to help open our hearts to the insights and experiences he is sharing. An approachable, relatable, relevant dharma.

[Annie]

[Conireeder]

A horse walks into a bar. The bartender asks, “Why the long face, fella?” (Drum hit)

[Irene]

[Irene]

Lightness.

[Jacquelyn_LSRF]

These are great!!! Thank you so much