Claire Heisler on lighthearted Buddhism: “humor is beneficial for mindfulness training, as it illuminates the joy of being present.”
Many enlightened individuals develop a deceptively simple sense of humor, a seemingly childlike enjoyment of all that is beautiful and wondrous. I once saw Karma Senge Rinpoche, on his visit to Nova Scotia, be absolutely riveted watching a clown play with a child’s bubble-wand. Of course, clowns are a popular element of traditional Buddhist public celebrations in Tibet.
It seems to me that converts to Buddhism, like converts to any religion, tend to want to take it very seriously at first. Taking our spiritual path seriously is of course important, but humor is beneficial for mindfulness training, as it illuminates the joy of being present. Buddhist comics are one element of this. Comics, from newspaper funnies to comic books, poke fun at the hilarities of our existence, on a personal, moral, and political level. Life is so serious sometimes. Many of us work long hours, and when we get home we often just don’t have the energy for serious dialectical texts, despite our good intentions. Comics are an easy ways for people of all ages to learn about a topic such as Buddhism. I, for instance, was first introduced to the tale of Milarepa (the famous Tibetan black magician turned enlightened one) through The Magic Life of Milarepa: Tibet’s Great Yogi, a graphic novel first published in 1991.
One company, iRemedi Corp, has taken the Buddhist comic one step further with their new application available from iTunes. This app, which is an electronic version of the popular Buddha graphic novel Buddha (The Enlightened One) by Amar Chitra Katha Comics, is just $1.99. But, unfortunately, it’s only available for viewing on iPhone or iPod Touch (2nd Generation). For those of you who do enjoy the use of such gadgets, the illustrations are bright and detailed, and the text fairly large.
If you are going to be surfing the net, reading something visually engaging, or playing with your iSomethingorother, you might as well be amused by a comic that wakes you up to the joy of being human, teaches you useful knowledge about your world, or engagingly imparts ancient teachings.
This is so true! We "Buddhists" often tend to be overly somber. All that thought about impermanence, karma, suffering, and we forget about the joyfulness of human life! The lamas never do. I can't wait to check out these comics you mentioned. I'll play them on my iPhone, why not?
Wow, my sentiments exactly about the somberness of "buddhists." I started a blog (www.joyofbean.com) documenting my own experience with meditation and immediately knew that humor, joy, and lightheartedness was an essential part of the compassion I felt each time I posted. Since I like to draw cartoons as a meditation, I've added my own black and white silly cartoons. It seems we "buddhists" sometimes take things so seriously, and that certainly is not my experience at all. In some ways, I feel there is a childlike mischievousness in the joy I experience. Buddhist Cartoons..that's awesome!