How does meditation/mindfulness relate to humor?

[MiM]

In all the material on mindfulness (or Buddhist meditation) I have encountered this summer (and that is not a huge amount, I admit, but still not very small either), I cannot recall that I would even once have come upon a discussion about humor, as a feeling or thought process. I think almost every other feeling or thought, that might come up during meditating or elsewhere has been at least mentioned, but not "regarding something as funny"?

At the same time many of the distinguished persons who's presentations I have seen (including the Dalai Lama) seem to use a lot of (even bad) jokes when presenting, to ease the atmosphere, and make people laugh. So obviously this cannot be a completely humorless business either.

Personally, I quite often laugh inwards (in a friendly way), when I catch my mind making some extra quirky loops during meditation. I guess that would be regarded as yet another kind of judgement? but I became curious if anyone here has any views on how humor is thought about from a mindfulness perspective?

[Gareth]

Interesting one.

Is the urge to laugh a feeling like say, anger or sadness? I'm not too sure - gonna have to think about this.

[Brad]

Humor is about connecting disparate things to make unexpected results, and a calm mind is naturally more adept at this. It's not surprising that a more mindful person will make connections in conversation or daily life that another person will miss. I think when you're laughing at a thought you have, it's because it's illogical in an unexpected way. It's less about judging the thought (and certainly not a judgment of you for having it) than about following its logic to an nonsensical, unexpected conclusion.

Here's a useful snippet about humor I found from Access to Insight:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... peech.html

For many of us, the most difficult part of practicing right speech lies in how we express our sense of humor. Especially here in America, we're used to getting laughs with exaggeration, sarcasm, group stereotypes, and pure silliness — all classic examples of wrong speech. If people get used to these sorts of careless humor, they stop listening carefully to what we say. In this way, we cheapen our own discourse. Actually, there's enough irony in the state of the world that we don't need to exaggerate or be sarcastic. The greatest humorists are the ones who simply make us look directly at the way things are.

Expressing our humor in ways that are truthful, useful, and wise may require thought and effort, but when we master this sort of wit we find that the effort is well spent. We've sharpened our own minds and have improved our verbal environment. In this way, even our jokes become part of our practice: an opportunity to develop positive qualities of mind and to offer something of intelligent value to the people around us.

So pay close attention to what you say — and to why you say it. When you do, you'll discover that an open mouth doesn't have to be a mistake.

[MiM]

Thank you Brad, that text was worth reading. It happens that I am in a situation where I encounter strong outer pressure to keep my humor (and general language) very much "Right speech", so it was helpful to me.

I definitely agree with you about the reason I laugh at my thoughts and especially about there not being any judgment of myself. But then... I still do judge the thoughts to be nonsensical, don't I

[JonW]

"How does meditation/mindfulness relate to humour?"

Great question.
I think humour is particularly important when it comes to teaching mindfulness. I was lucky to have an 8-week course teacher (Nick Diggins) who brought a lovely light touch to proceedings.
On the teaching course I'm currently attending, both the main teachers have a great sense of humour.
Jon

[mostlymindfulmommy]

Oh, I love this question, it really made me think! I suppose "amusement" could be looked at as an emotion, or a reaction that leads to an emotion (happiness, joy, etc). I tend to go toward the latter but there may be a gray area there.

When I'm speaking and teaching on mindfulness, I employ lots of humor. Not only because it's part of my personality, but because there's so much humor to be found in our unmindfulness! Everyone can relate to putting their keys in the freezer or some other silly action they took due to lack of presence.

I've also found, at least in my own practice, that softening into humor always allows me more acceptance of myself. When I first tacked meditation with the determination of a student aiming for a 1600 on the SAT, I'd get so down on myself. "Great, another thought. I'm terrible at this. Look, see! I'm thinking again! I'll never get this!".

One day, I was able to notice myself having this thought "I wonder if all of those thoughts should be counted as separate thoughts, or is this just one train of thought?" and I had to laugh. As soon as I was able to appreciate the absurdity of thinking mind, I was able to let go of the thoughts of self-judgement and simply notice the craziness of my own monkey mind.

I've also noticed that as my meditation and mindfulness practices deepened and my compassion for others increased, I no longer found certain things funny that I once did. On the flip side, I've always enjoyed being silly and making others laugh, and that part of me comes out more now than it used to

[Gareth]

"Great, another thought. I'm terrible at this. Look, see! I'm thinking again! I'll never get this!".

I remember this well.

[JonW]

I remember it well. Round about eleven o'clock this morning.
Jon, Hove