Foolosophy and the Art of Smiling
I yesterday read an inspiring article in a magazine called Natürlich (Natural) about the “laughter-revolution” and the foolosopher Roland Schutzbach. His website: Hahahahaha.org, of the European Laughter Society. The goals are to bring back joy of life, love and optimism into daily life. He says, the energy of laughter is the direct way to englightenment, the joy-energy gives the experience of the present moment. After having been a teacher and philosopher for many a year (with a PhD), he decided to leave the “mainstream mill” and inspire people together with his wife. “HappyTopia” is their a project to realise the insights and ideas of the happy and foolish philosophy in a concrete community.
Some sentences from their site, to give you a taste: “To laugh about yourself – that’s something to laugh about!” – “Most people are born as originals and die as copies.” – “He who lives without foolishness is not as wise as he thinks!” – Andy Warhol: “Everybody has problems. So don’t make a problem with your problem.”
Another humanitarian clown mentioned in the article is Patch Adams, who is taking clowns to hospitals, prisons, even refugee camps and war zones to bring food, medicine and hope. By the way, the Swiss Red Cross is doing an Aids sensibilisation project with clowns in Swaziland.
Humour is a necessary ingredient on the spiritual path. In healthy spirituality there is an undercurrent of humour springing from the inner. It expresses in the more subtle form of smiling. In an e-mail I received yesterday a friend mentioned a quote of my spiritual teacher, Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar, saying: “Learn to smile. Smile lifts you up to Light. Work in that Light .”
And there is a site calling people for an International Day of Smiles, to be celebrated on December 9th, 2006 🙂 .
