The Cosmic Joke
by Michael Mamas

Every single thing in the Veda has an incredibly hilarious component:

  • The very fact that this is all maya… illusion… Get it??
  • Truth lies in the gap between perspectives… hilarious… Right??
  • The only true knowing is knowing that you know nothing… Wow, that’s a real knee slapper if ever I heard one!!
  • Ever read the Jaimini sutras? Every statement is followed by an, “On the other hand…” Really great stuff.

You see, the Cosmic Joke is not a one liner. It is woven into the very fabric of all that is. Grasping the ungraspable… Looking outward for lifetime after lifetime for what actually dwells inside you…, on and on.

The Zen Masters had a really great sense of humor… The sound of one hand clapping, for example. Now that is a fall down, laugh out loud, belly buster!! Great fun!

When the entire field of opposites comes together… good and evil… right and wrong… up and down… then it all cancels and you are left with no-thing-ness. At the deepest level of that unification, right when it all dissolves into the Transcendent… Right at that moment, what have you got? Pure, infinite happiness. It is called BLISS. At that point, you just got the cosmic joke. It is a physiological thing. You may have touched into it during a great meditation.

On course, until you get the cosmic joke… well, the joke is on you. During that time, you strive so hard for happiness and try for humor or anything to make you smile. The intent is so pure, but so desperate. Reaching so hard to grasp that ungraspable ice cream cone in the sky. Wanting the Norman Rockwell paintings to depict real life. Come on now! Where is your sense of humor??

I do so love you all. I do so wish you could see the humor in all this… get the cosmic joke… which is to say, find the resolution of all this paradox in the depth of your own being. Of course, there is no punch line here that, once stated, finalizes the joke. To love it, you need to transcend it.

There’s that cosmic joke again…

© Michael Mamas, 6/12

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