LAUGHTER
WAS HIS MANTRA
In
Japan, a great mystic, Hotei, is called the Laughing Buddha. He is one of the
most loved mystics in Japan, and he never uttered a single word. As he became
enlightened, he started laughing, and whenever somebody would ask, “Why are you
laughing?” he would laugh more. And he would move from village to village,
laughing. A crowd would gather and he would laugh. His laughter was very
infectious. Somebody in the crowd would start laughing, then somebody else, and
then, gradually, the whole crowd would be laughing. Laughing without any
apparent reason.
Everybody
would wonder, “It is ridiculous; this man is strange, but why are we laughing?”
But everybody would laugh and, at the same time, wonder what people would think
as there was no reason to laugh. Despite this, people would wait for Hotei
because they had never laughed in their whole life with such totality, with
such intensity. After laughing, they found that their senses had become
clearer: their eyes could see better and their whole being had become light, as
if a great burden had disappeared. People would ask Hotei to come back again,
and he would move, laughing, to another village.
For the
rest of his life (about forty-five years after his enlightenment), he did only
one thing, and that was laughing. That was his message, his gospel, his
scripture. And it is to be noted that in Japan, nobody has been remembered with
such respect as Hotei. You will find in every house, statues of Hotei.
And he had
done nothing except laugh. But the laughter was coming from such depth that it
stayed with anyone who heard it and triggered his being, creating
synchronicity. Hotei is unique. In the whole world, there is no other human
being who has made so many people laugh—for no reason at all. And yet,
everybody was nourished and cleansed by the laughter and felt well-being that
they had never felt before. Something from the unknowable depth started ringing
bells in peoples’ hearts.
