forum • bernie glassman • carolyn rose gimian • zoketsu norman fischer •

Make Me One With Everything* The Role of Humor in

Introduction by Elaine Smookler

ecently I went to a funeral home with my parents because Some people view humor as a sign of disrespect. But they wanted to plan their funerals. I was not picturing this is the narrow view of a tight ego, trying to control and Ra day of hilarity, but after we got there we couldn’t fabricate sacredness. The idea isn’t to use humor as another stop laughing. And it wasn’t merely from nervousness; it was way of hiding, or to be glib about a difficult situation; we partly because we felt like we were producing a show. We were are using humor from a place of bravery, to bring attention offered a choice between a video or slide “retrospective” of to the possibility that there’s another way of seeing things. my parents’ life; we sized up coffins with an eye to what the Sometimes the darkness of ignorance and too much time spent “audience” might think; we even planned the catering, noting watching Fox News can cause paranoid imaginings of lurking that the mall across the street offered an excellent price on danger. Employing a little lightness can bring some relief to cold cuts. Finally, when my father said, in all seriousness, that that claustrophobic feeling. Then, once we’re not feeling so he’d like “Dancing Queen” by Abba played at his funeral, tight, we might even be able to relax and try to work with even the funeral director laughed. It was such a wonderfully what’s present without experiencing it in such a heavy way. uplifting, unselfconscious moment. There’s a story about Milarepa that talks of inviting our I’ve spent much of my adult life working as a comic fears, phobias, and confusions “in for tea.” Increasingly, I see actress, playwright, occasional stand-up comedienne, and as that the very things I’d prefer not to invite in are the sources “Vendetta,” a clown provocateur. One of the things I enjoy of true comedy. In the world of clown, when things go awry about working in comedy is that there are no sacred cows. on stage, it’s considered a gift from the gods. Nothing could In other words, nothing is exempt from examination. So, be better than things falling apart, because in that groundless question your teachers? Hell, yes. But even better might be place something fresh and surprising can occur—if you’re to slip on a banana peel just as you’re about to pigeonhole open to it. someone with what you think is a really good question. Why? We all know that painful things happen, and that ultimately Because nothing is more ridiculous than our sense of self- we’re going to die. But we don’t have to take it so personally. importance, so why not welcome opportunities to see the Being able to laugh about incontinence, heartbreak, and the buffoon in us all? many painful attachments we humans fall prey to is a great Early in my work and my Buddhist practice I saw how relief. It goes a long way to reduce suffering, particularly when humor helped me take a gentle look at things I might not we are reminded that things aren’t happening to us, they’re want to know about myself. The humorous view encourages a just happening. Bringing a sense of humor and curiosity to softening, which can help free us from our masks and puffery. our fear and anxiety is liberation. And here’s something you can try at home: invite your friends to tease you and be curious about that moment when you Elaine Smookler is a comedic actress and playwright living in Toronto. Her want to rip their heads off. By laying ourselves open to ridicule most recent theater production was Brigitte’s Bardo, a musical comedy based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead. we can see exactly where we’re trying to hide, or protect our precious egos. If we can allow it, humor helps remind us that when it comes down to it, there really isn’t anyone “there” * What did the Buddhist say to the hot-dog vendor? to be embarrassed, hurt, or humiliated—so let them laugh! “Make me one with everything.”

buddhadharma: the practitioner’s quarterly summer 2011 56 If You Meet the Buddha in the Road, 2000 by Amir Rosenblatt

uddhadharma: The central tenet of Buddhism is our Our whole world—including our Buddhist world—and how need to accept that pain is always present. Where’s we conduct ourselves always contains an element of humor. the humor in that? When I go to a big ceremony that’s solemn and religious, I Norman Fischer: We are all in a mess. We’re all always feel I can take a small step back and laugh. It’s so miserable and upset and everything is terrible and severe and yet so funny at the same time. Don’t you think so? there’sB all this suffering and we’re trying to end suffering— Carolyn Rose Gimian: I would agree. It also seems that the and yet the teachings say in the end everything is fine. That is more one practices meditation, the more you lighten up and a big joke. It’s comical. Our human life is comical. Everything the more you can discover some kind of natural funniness that Buddhism asks us to pay attention to—impermanence, in life. It’s not just about formal practice, though. The more suffering, egolessness—which may sound awful and frighten- you live, the more you find to laugh about. There’s a lot to ing at first, turns out to be good news. Impermanence is per- cry about and a lot to laugh about. manence, suffering is joy, egolessness is freedom, and the only Norman Fischer: And those are often the same things. trouble is that we don’t notice that. Somehow we knew that Carolyn Rose Gimian: Exactly. and we forgot. That’s kind of absurd, laughable, slapstick. Bernie Glassman: Growing up as a Jew, humor was The whole proposition of human trouble is serious and not an essential part of my life. So even as I became a very serious serious at the same time, and that paradox is essentially funny. monk, beating people with a stick and doing all kinds of

57 summer 2011 buddhadharma: the practitioner’s quarterly severe things, I was still this Jewish guy with lots of humor. whatever is needed to make sure that the leaders are walking Some people ask me what Judaism brought to Zen in America their talk. With that goal in mind, I went to my friend Wavy and I always say a sense of humor. I don’t think the Japanese Gravy for instruction. He appointed a trainer for me and I’ve Zen we inherited had much humor, although certainly Chinese been learning the trade ever since. I just did a workshop with Zen had more. my clown mentor at San Francisco Zen Center. Norman Fischer: But Zen literature is full of humor, exactly the Norman Fischer: What did you do there? kind I was talking about. Everything is serious and funny at Bernie Glassman: The training lasted a weekend, and at one the same time and everything is difficult and easy at the same point an attendant brought my mentor Mr. Yoohoo and I time. The Zen stories are full of that consciousness, which into a dharma hall in a formal procession. The room was creates opportunities for the rug to be pulled out from under packed with people sitting very quietly for the regular Sat- us—and you laugh when that happens. The trickster is built urday . I had on a red nose, my staff was a toy into those stories. hammer that goes boing when you hit someone with it, and Bernie Glassman: I was visiting with Chögyam Trungpa once we were dressed outrageously. Every once in a while I would and the conversation turned to monastic models. We were talk- turn around and hit the attendant carrying the incense with ing about the role of the attendants for the head of the mon- the little hammer. When the big gong was struck, rather than astery. In Zen there are five major roles: a private secretary; respond with reverence, I jumped out of my skin with shock. a person in charge of ceremonial clothing; a cook, who also Lots of things like that. We turned the whole serious profound pays attention to the master’s personal health; a person to look ceremony on its head. Seeing the humor and the theater helps after guests; and a person in charge of rituals. He mentioned us get unstuck and loosens the grip of preconceptions that can that in the Tibetan monasteries they had six, five of which come along with the spiritual path. corresponded to the five I mentioned. The sixth was the head Buddhadharma: How would that sort of thing go over in a of the group of attendants and served as a jester, a trickster. Japanese monastery? One of the main things I’ve been doing in my semiretire- Bernie Glassman: I haven’t met that many Zen teachers in ment from being a Zen teacher is being a clown, a kind of Japan that are in this mode, but I have met one who was a jester or trickster. I like the idea of being a disturber, mak- total clown. There were some schools of Zen that had humor- ing sure dharma successors aren’t becoming too pompous or ous elements built in, and one in particular had shakuhachi arrogant. That’s the role that tricksters and jesters have tradi- players and Zen fools and poets, but that has mostly died out, tionally played. The trickster is still a very important role for although there are remnants. Native Americans in the form of the “coyotes.” They can do Buddhadharma: Why does Buddhism need tricksters?

Bernie Glassman is a Zen mas- Carolyn Rose Gimian is a Zoketsu Norman Fischer is a ter in the White Plum lineage of meditation teacher trained by poet and Zen Buddhist priest. Maezumi Roshi and cofounder of Chögyam Trungpa. She is He is the founder and spiritual , which is active the editor of Smile at Fear: director of the Everyday Zen in socially . He Awakening the True Heart of Foundation, an organization ded- leads an annual bearing witness Bravery, and other teachings icated to adapting Zen Buddhist retreat at Auschwitz-Birkenau in by Chögyam Trungpa, including teachings to Western culture. He Poland, as well as programs that his Collected Works. is also a senior dharma teacher explore the relationship between at the San Francisco Zen Center, Zen and clowning. where he served as co-abbot

from 1995 to 2000. ©christine alicino P h o t os (lef — r ig ht ): Peter C unningham; liza matthews; © G ahan W ilson/ T he N ew Y orker C ollection/www.cartoonbank.com

buddhadharma: the practitioner’s quarterly summer 2011 58 Norman Fischer: If you’re going to do religious practice you Carolyn Rose Gimian: In Buddhism, one of the roles of the better have a sense of humor, because being overly pious and teacher is to provide an insult to ego and to undercut the serious is a built-in pitfall. While we may not have a person kind of solidity of our projections, our solid world. One of everywhere explicitly functioning as a trickster, you need to the ways that often happens is through humor, through words cultivate humor. Piety is something that is always going to and actions, and even through practical jokes. rear its ugly head. Bernie Glassman: And yet at the same time, the teacher’s role Carolyn Rose Gimian: Humor is really about a flexibility of is to teach, and the person who is the trickster or the coyote or mind. When that’s lacking, things become very solid and the jester, that sixth attendant, their main target is the teacher, heavy. You don’t see the joy in things. to upset any tendency toward arrogance or self-importance. Buddhadharma: Having a good sense of humor often simply Norman Fischer: The trickster is not the teacher and yet the refers to being able to tell a good joke at a party, to break the teacher can also be like a trickster for the students. ice. Clearly we are talking about something larger than that. Bernie Glassman: Yes. The teacher can bring humor and levity Carolyn Rose Gimian: I was listening to a Leonard Cohen song and pull out the rug, but it is extremely poignant when the the other day, and one of my favorite lines came around again: trickster does something that affects the teacher. “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” Norman Fischer: Religious life can become so serious, and That’s a pretty good description of sense of humor in a larger that can send the wrong kind of message to people: that if sense. Humor sees the cracks in everything, rather than hoping you practice, you ought to be dour and glum, and that it’s a for everything to hold together perfectly. hard life working with your mind. But actually religious life is Bernie Glassman: There is a book called Trickster Makes This fun. Like Jewish humor, which comes out of a lot of suffering, World by Lewis Hyde. It’s about trickster figures throughout it acknowledges suffering completely, but it sees the cosmic the world, and he says that the trickster’s role is to work in the humor of our condition. We need to rehabilitate the world of cracks of society. Societies also need times when you break all religion and make it clear that religious life is actually fun. the rules, when you release the pressure. If you didn’t have the Carolyn Rose Gimian: I was once interviewed about the Bud- coyotes and tricksters and jesters, the societies would break dhist community here in Halifax, and at a certain point, the down from the buildup of pressure, from everything being so interviewer said, “You’re making it sound like it’s a party!”

unningham; liza matthews; ©christine alicino P h o t os (lef — r ig ht ): Peter C unningham; liza matthews; © G ahan W ilson/ T he N ew Y orker C ollection/www.cartoonbank.com serious and regulated by norms. And I agreed that, yes, you could call it that.

59 summer 2011 buddhadharma: the practitioner’s quarterly Mic-key, Nya-key and Mickey Mandala, 2008 by Tenzing Rigdol

When the humor has gone out of a community, I think about his vegetarianism. He made a pretty big deal about it. you’re right Norman, it’s time for rehabilitation. You need to They stopped at a restaurant and the student ordered a salad bring back the trickster. and Suzuki Roshi ordered a big bloody hamburger. When Buddhadharma: Can you give examples of how this quality of the food was served, the hamburger was set down in front of trickery has manifested? Suzuki Roshi and the salad in front of the student. Without Norman Fischer: I didn’t practice with Suzuki Roshi, but I saying a word, Suzuki Roshi switched the plates. know him by reputation and lore. He had a different kind of Buddhadharma: In a similar vein, David Chadwick recounts a humor from the rather spectacular and outrageous humor of story of a student earnestly telling Suzuki Roshi that the Bud- Trungpa Rinpoche. His was more a quiet, gentle playfulness. dha was a vegetarian, and his response was, “Yes, Buddha One time he was driving back to the city from the remote was a very pious man.”

retreat center at Tassajara with a student who was very serious Norman Fischer: He had that kind of humor all the time, and R ossi & ossi, L ondon of the artist C ourtesy

buddhadharma: the practitioner’s quarterly summer 2011 60 unsettling whatever place you had settled into as your com- fort zone. It’s not a statement about eating meat or not eating meat. It’s about fixations. The title of one of his books, Not “I’ll Never Always So, is a saying he used all the time. And it was the Laugh Again!” source of his humor. Everything that you believe and think may in the next moment have to be dropped. There’s humor Ajahn Amaro remembers the irresistible humor in that because you get stuck to what you believed a minute of . ago, and then when the rug is pulled out from under you it’s jahn Chah was an amazingly quick-witted man and a funny—even though it may not be funny to you in that very natural performer. Although he could be cool and forbid- moment. A ding, or sensitive and gentle in his way of expression, he Humor is really about a flexibility used a high degree of humor in his teaching. He had a way of employing wit to work his way into the hearts of his listeners, of mind. When that’s lacking, things not just to amuse, but to convey truths that would otherwise become very solid and heavy. You don’t not be received as easily. His sense of humor and skillful eye for the tragicomic absur- —Carolyn Rose Gimian see the joy in things. dities of life enabled people to see situations in such a way that they could laugh at themselves and be guided to a wiser Carolyn Rose Gimian: In our community, Trungpa Rinpoche outlook. This might be in matters of conduct, such as a famous made April Fool’s Day a kind of national holiday. He would display he once gave of the many wrong ways to carry a monk’s often make outrageous requests or astounding proclamations bag: slung over the back, looped round the neck, grabbed in the on April 1st. People would just completely freak out trying to fist, scraped along the ground. Or it might be in terms of some fulfill the request or figure out what the proclamation meant, painful personal struggle. One time a downcast young bhikkhu and then the April Fool’s joke would be revealed. He was on came to him, saying he’d seen the sorrows of the world, the a yearlong retreat in the mid-1980s, and at the end of that horror of beings’ entrapment in birth and death, and realized, year people eagerly awaited his return. Hundreds of people “I’ll never be able to laugh again—it’s all so sad and painful.” were gathered to greet him in Boulder, Colorado, but he dis- Within forty-five minutes, via a graphic tale about a youthful appeared. People called the retreat and were told he was still squirrel repeatedly attempting and falling short in its efforts to packing, and then told in subsequent calls that he was on his learn tree climbing, the monk was rolling on the floor clutch- way. But actually he had left a day early and was already in ing his sides, tears pouring down his face, convulsed with the Boulder laughter that had never been going to return. Since he was late and people were uncertain whether and when he would show up, they frantically tried to decide From Food for the Heart: The Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, whether to cancel the ceremony, and just as they were about published by Wisdom Publications. to pull the plug, he showed up. In retrospect, it felt as though that joke and the anger and empty-heartedness and all the other emotions it provoked in people was almost a dry run know what to expect, similar to what happens during a Zen for his own death two years later. It was the biggest joke, the teisho. cosmic joke. Don’t take things for granted. It’s not always so. I have a student, the actor , who played the Bernie Glassman: I haven’t given a dharma talk for the past Dude in “The Big Lebowski.” He carries his red nose with ten years without wearing my red nose during some part of him. If an interviewer asks a particularly weird question, he’ll it. I’ve made that an integral part of my life. put his nose on, and say, Can you repeat that question? Norman Fischer: Does your character change when you have If there’s somebody I’m having trouble listening to, perhaps the nose on? because their politics is angering me, I imagine that person Bernie Glassman: Yes and no. When the red nose goes on it with a red nose on, and my whole attitude changes. When changes the character of what’s happening in the room. you add something as simple as a red nose, it becomes a dif- Buddhadharma: How is that not just silly? ferent world. Bernie Glassman: It certainly is silly. That’s the point. It Buddhadharma: A teisho can simultaneously confound and changes the whole ambience. I can be much freer because intrigue one’s logical mind. Is that a form of humor? people drop their guard much more. When people come to Bernie Glassman: A teisho is about the unexpected, just like a hear teachings, they’re in a particular frame of mind, trying punch line. They take away your opinions and concepts rather to receive something. If all of a sudden there’s a red nose, than give you more of them. The key is pulling the rug out, your frame of reference is somewhat destroyed, and you don’t saying things that cause people to drop their preconceptions.

61 summer 2011 buddhadharma: the practitioner’s quarterly A teisho is about the unexpected. A red nose can do that too. It’s about not knowing, being totally open to what’s going to happen. —Bernie Glassman

Hotei, popularly known as the Laughing Buddha

A red nose can do that too. It’s about not knowing, being Norman Fischer: It’s freedom. totally open to what’s going to happen. At that point, your Buddhadharma: It seems easier to generate a sense of humor in mental constructs fall apart. pleasant and neutral circumstances. Is humor also applicable Norman Fischer: Whatever you say or do in dharma, some- in times of great grief or sorrow, or intense pain or turmoil? body takes that to be something. Then, they make something Carolyn Rose Gimian: When you’re in the situation, you can see out of it and they’re off and running. To counteract that, you the humor. If you’re just laughing at something from the out- have to put on the red nose, either literally as Bernie does, side, it can be pretty hideous when it’s a very serious situation. or in some other way. The other day someone told me that When Trungpa Rinpoche was escaping from Tibet, his party I had just given such a profound and poignant talk. I had to was crossing the Brahmaputra River with the Chinese chasing laugh, because once the dharma talk becomes something pro- them. Of nearly three hundred people, only thirteen were able found and poignant, it becomes a thing and the actual dharma to get across. Some made it later, but most of them never did. becomes lost within that. You have to walk around with a They were shot at for days, and Rinpoche wrote about making brush that covers your tracks as you walk, because otherwise jokes about how they needed to do yogic breathing because people are following the tracks and that’s not the point. The it was so cold, but if they did that, it would make too much point is that they have to be where they are, in their lives, not noise and they would get shot at. It seems amazing that these following your tracks. monks could find humor in the midst of that situation, but I Buddhadharma: That’s a teaching on egolessness. Imperma- think it’s actually what made it possible for them to spend ten nence and suffering are kind of easy to demonstrate through months walking out of Tibet. language and logic, but egolessness is very tricky. It can Norman Fischer: The absurdity of the human situation, even become quite serious and philosophical, but if you don’t show at its most grim, is always funny, but the humor has to come up when you’re expected, or put on a red nose, or laugh about from the inside. You can’t comfort someone in loss by telling profundity, egolessness is demonstrated on the spot. Egoless- them jokes. The humor has to emerge for them from within ness is not serious, bad news, like a death in the family. It’s the situation. Laughter can relieve the grimness that can fun and it’s funny. grip us at these times, but it can’t be artificial. It has to arise

buddhadharma: the practitioner’s quarterly summer 2011 62 photo ray villarosa spontaneously. Laughter and tears are very close together. It is not unusual to see people sitting Shiva, a weeklong Jewish mourning ritual, crying one minute and laughing like mad in the next about something in the life of the person who just A Humorous Space died, and the next minute they’re crying again. Humor, says Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Bernie Glassman: The same goes for an Irish wake. brings about much more than laughter. It creates The first Auschwitz retreat I did was designed to bring peo- a feeling of openness and space. ple from many cultures and religions and countries together, along with children of survivors and children of SS officers. umor can also mean panoramic awareness, a feeling of We brought together as many as we could, including Gypsies space, of openness. A lot of stories from the Buddhist and gays, who were also victims at Auschwitz. It got kind of Hscriptures tell us that the work of failed wild with such a mix of cultures. Some people were angered because they were lacking in a sense of humor. They have been when others laughed, saying how can you laugh in this hor- too honest, too deadly serious in their application of the teach- rible place. At one point, a rabbi wound up leading everybody ings. Even if they had a good understanding of how to apply the in joyous singing and dancing and about half the people at the teachings, they didn’t provide the necessary accompaniment to retreat were ready to leave. An Orthodox woman spoke up, that, which is a sense of humor. They became blunt bodhisattvas. saying, “We Jews dance and are joyful at times of sorrow.” In a situation where you want to open completely to some- Carolyn Rose Gimian: Taking the humor out of people’s lives one but the person resists you, it is similar to the bodhisattvas. is one of the greatest forms of oppression. When you are You may have wisdom, compassion, and everything you think not willing to let others take away your sense of humor, you you need to communicate with others, but you lack a sense of become stronger. To laugh on the grounds at Auschwitz says humor, which is an expression of dhyana, meditative awareness. that there is still joy in the world. It could not be taken away. If you are insensitive and try to push things too far with another Norman Fischer: It’s paradoxical. Schadenfreude—to find person, that means that you don’t feel the area properly. You only someone else’s misfortune laughable—is a very unpleasant feel the space as far as your relationship to it takes you—you see emotion. To laugh in the midst of your own suffering is to what’s wrong there, but you don’t see what’s on the other side. respond to the divine comedy of the human condition; to You don’t see the other person’s point of view, and you don’t make a joke of others’ pain to make yourself feel better is see the silhouette of the whole situation. Such an overall vision not humor. should accompany your relationship to any situation. That is Buddhadharma: Paradox seems to be at the heart of genuine what provides a sense of humor, which is very much needed. humor. We are so sad about loss and death, for example, but that’s also laughable because it’s such an inevitable part of From Work, Sex, Money by Chogyam Trungpa, edited by Carolyn Rose Gimian and life and yet we find ourselves treating it as if it’s unexpected. Sherab Chödzin Kohn. Published by Shambhala Publications, 2011. Norman Fischer: You don’t need to trivialize sorrow, and yet the joke is that we’re all in the same mess together and the sorrow and the joy are virtually the same thing. Carolyn Rose Gimian: Yes. We see both poles at once and that’s and does those funny things, everybody also knows that he’s humorous. We can laugh while we’re crying at the same time. spent fifty years practicing Zen. If somebody were coming in Norman Fischer: It’s not about making fun of someone. It’s who actually thought Zen was stupid and tried to satirize it about stumbling upon the fun, and the funniness, that is at in order to shatter people’s faith in it, that would be different. the heart of any human situation. That said, I do think that Zen is stupid. [Laughter] Carolyn Rose Gimian: There is a big difference between humor Carolyn Rose Gimian: Yes, but you’re in a position to say that. that celebrates and humor that denigrates. It’s one thing for Norman Fischer: I’m not bothered by the Buddha Bar or what- Suzuki Roshi to mock the piety of the Buddha or for Bernie ever. I wouldn’t want to be overly sensitive about mockery of to turn a profound ceremony into farce, but a certain kind of religious symbols. That can lead to an unhealthy fundamen- attempt at humor—like a candle where you watch the Bud- talism. We would all do better if we could stand having our dha’s head melt or drinking out of a Buddha-shaped glass at religions satirized, even by outsiders. the Buddha Bar—can imply that nothing is sacred, spirituality Buddhadharma: As we Buddhists in the West progress from a is just another big joke, why bother. collection of ragtag groups into a collection of institutions, Buddhadharma: Humor often relies on irony and a Buddha are we becoming too earnest or pious? glass is an attempt at irony, but perhaps it depends on who Carolyn Rose Gimian: Certainly, at times that is the case. Now is being ironic. that Buddhism has more recognition, we seem at times to have Norman Fischer: When Bernie comes into the Buddha hall become deadly serious and earnest and “spiritual” to the point

63 summer 2011 buddhadharma: the practitioner’s quarterly of self-parody. When I feel that happening, I’m inspired to say Bernie Glassman: I’m a huge fan of irreverence. Out of too something provocative or profane in a religious context. Just much reverence, we’ve enabled lots of stuff to happen within to change things up. If someone is just a little too preciously the Buddhist tradition that we shouldn’t have enabled, and extolling the spiritual virtues of cleaning their toilet, I might I’m included in that. We’ve got too much reverence floating be inclined to say they should flush more often, or something around. like that. Norman Fischer: We need irreverent humor to undercut Norman Fischer: I agree. We ought to be able to laugh at our- self-importance. selves as much as we laugh at the characters on sitcoms or in Bernie Glassman: Even to the point of saying fuck you. And I the movies or the theater. We all need a red nose, desperately. hope people would do that for me. Carolyn Rose Gimian: There are other forms of humor that are Carolyn Rose Gimian: Ideally, humor is a sword that cuts both not joking or clowning per se, but authentic expressions that ways. It cuts the humorer and the humoree. And if you find let us see the amusement in life, like poetry. a situation where humor seems called for and you hold back, Norman Fischer: Poetry can be overly serious too, but I think what are you protecting? You are probably afraid you might be poetry is essentially funny. When you speak, whatever word seen as a fool. If you leap out there and do it, if it’s really inap- you say, it’s already wrong. Poetry points to the traps we fall propriate you will get cut and learn from that. If the humor is into when we try to put things into words. I like writing poetry on the mark, then ego is cut all the way round, for you and for to see those places where we get stuck. the target of your irreverence. Everyone is exposed. Bernie Glassman: The beat poets, who were important for the Buddhadharma: There is a willingness to be naked, embarrassed. growth of dharma in the West, had a great sense of humor Carolyn Rose Gimian: And to have the rug pulled out from and were in many ways poking fun at the society they found under you while you are pulling the rug out from under some- themselves in. one else. It’s the same rug. Norman Fischer: I wouldn’t say they were a bunch of fun- Norman Fischer: Pomposity and self-inflation actually is loving guys necessarily. They had very serious concerns, but funny. It’s very funny. It’s hilarious to see the emperor walking the whole atmosphere then was so buttoned down and earnest around without any clothes while thinking he has clothes on. that their whole effort was to blast it all open and just let it Bernie Glassman: Yes, but it’s got to be pointed out, or you all hang out. have a very big problem. Buddhadharma: Humor and trickery can be very irreverent. Is Norman Fischer: It takes some courage when everybody is that appropriate? being reverent to change the mood. It’s not so easy to do.

buddhadharma: the practitioner’s quarterly summer 2011 64 brush painting keith abbott Bernie Glassman: Not at all Carolyn Rose Gimian: You have to make a leap. Norman Fischer: A whole group of us can fall under a pow- erful spell, and if you’re able to break that spell of the all- Jelly Beans powerful and pious great teacher who transmits the truth, and Napkins you’re doing us all a great favor. Carolyn Rose Gimian: At times, though, it may not be as dra- Students of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi recall humorous matic. It may be as simple as lightening the environment a and heartening moments with their teacher. little bit. If you help to make the tone more ordinary and less exalted, someone can make their own discovery. A heavy- handed joke can be just as heavy-handed as the pompousness A student at Tassajara sat facing Suzuki Roshi on a tatami it’s trying to deflate. That’s one way for a joke to cross the mat in his room. The student said he couldn’t stop snacking line into aggressiveness. in the kitchen, and asked what he should do. Suzuki Bernie Glassman: There’s an important term in Zen that reached under his table. “Here, have some jelly beans,” Dogen devotes a whole chapter to. And my favorite transla- he said. tion of this term is “joyful samadhi.” Norman Fischer: Jijuyu zammai. It’s pure joy. As I was telling Suzuki Roshi what a disaster my life had Bernie Glassman: It’s what we’re talking about, playful become, he began to chuckle. I found myself laughing samadhi. along with him. There was a pause. I asked him what I should do. “Sit ,” he replied. “Life without zazen is Norman Fischer: Dogen talks about leaping and turning cartwheels. like winding your clock without setting it. It runs perfectly well, but it doesn’t tell time.” Bernie Glassman: Which is very striking, because Dogen can seem so serious. During a break in one of the early at Sokoji, a student returning to his seat early straightened a picture To laugh in the midst of your own on the wall before he sat down on his cushion. Only he and Suzuki Roshi were in the zendo at the time. After a suffering is to respond to the divine moment, Suzuki got up to leave the room. He walked down comedy of the human condition; the aisle, stopped at the picture, returned it to its crooked to make a joke of other’s pain to make position, and continued out the door. yourself feel better is not humor. A group of us had lunch with Suzuki Roshi in New York —Norman Fischer City. People were wondering how we should treat this religious man and how we should act. Very early on in the lunch, he put a napkin on his head and sat there with it. Then we all put our napkins on our heads. He made Norman Fischer: We need some Buddhist jokes. You know, everybody feel comfortable. a Theravadan monk, a Zen priest, and a Tibetan lama walk into a bar… On the fourth day of as we sat with our painful Buddhadharma: Maybe we should have a contest on the web legs, aching backs, hopes and doubts about whether it was for the best Buddhist joke. worth it, Suzuki Roshi began his talk by saying slowly, “The Norman Fischer: In China, Maitreya Buddha is a big fat laugh- problems you are now experiencing”—we were sure he ing guy with a satchel on his back and a big potbelly. was going to say will go away—“will continue for the rest Bernie Glassman: Hotei, the Japanese laughing Buddha with of your life.’’ The way he said it, we all laughed. the big belly, is our idol. He’s the ultimate of what you can become. Buddhadharma: So, is the Buddha laughing or crying? Carolyn Rose Gimian: Both or neither. From Zen Is Right Here: Teaching Stories and Anecdotes of Shunryu Suzuki, edited by David Chadwick. Published by Shambhala Publications. Bernie Glassman: The Buddha laughs when he hears a good Jewish joke. And he cries when he realizes he didn’t think of it first.

65 summer 2011 buddhadharma: the practitioner’s quarterly