Becoming funny is more than making people laugh. It is also extricating ourselves from the web of sin that The Serious One has trapped us in all our lives. He does not want to let us go.
He has relied on invisibility. We are unaware of the many serious assumptions that keep us in captivity. When we dare to escape to funny world, The Serious One will hook us back through these hidden beliefs.
The purpose trapOur noblest goals are always serious. Are we to reject them? Don't we need a purpose in life to follow?
All our serious purposes must go. We will not find salvation in serious world. The funny mission provides a funny purpose instead. What could be greater than building a funny world?
Then making the world funny becomes our noble goal, our improvement project. Funny is good for health, wealth and happiness. . .
Nope. We are still in the purpose trap. We have invited The Serious One right into funny world.
The most potent temptation of the Serious One is Doing Good.
That's a hard one to escape from. This is where our faith is tested.
In cases of severe temptation, we invoke the divine mantra, "must be funny," and The Serious One vanishes, leaving a slight trace of brimstone to remind us of our narrow escape.
Traditional version: Not my will but Thine be done. If we serve Thee faithfully, all else will be added to us.
Updated: We put funny first, as the source of all good things.
The time trap
If you want to make God laugh -- tell him your plans.
-- Woody AllenFunny has no plans. Or they're only comic material, subject to change. The funny decision rule makes plans impossible, our visions fiction. Only the moment of presentation, the moment of laughter, is real.
Of course serious world demands plans. What are you up to? What is it for? What are you going to do? What is your goal in life? Most of this will come from within. We're our own worst enemy.
The serious attack will always involve time extension. View this as doing time and avoid. We can say our goal in life is to contribute humor to the world.
Seven days without laughter makes one weak.
-- Joel Goodman
The insanity attackThis is one of our buttons The Serious One will try to push: If you're not serious then you must be crazy. Good idea, we'll build some crazy houses in funny world.
There once were some serious people, who still occupy high office, who believed in Mutual Assured Destruction (nuclear annihilation), the MAD policy. And they actually built it for real! Ready to kill us all at a moment's notice. In contrast, funny people contribute humor to the world. Now who's insane?
Well, that is kinda funny. We'll let it through. But as a rule we shouldn't argue with crazy people. Instead we agree with them, declare we've gone funny, and act out crazy-person scripts. Great source of material.
Our ultimate defense against the insanity attack is we're actors. Our job is to make people laugh.
Laughing away demons:
Sure-fire way to get rid of them.
They can't stand being laughed at.
The identity trapEven after we've decided to become funny people, we are still thoroughly serious. Through the miracle of redemption our sins of seriousness can be forgiven and put to work for funny.
But there's one part that doesn't give up so easily: our serious identity or ego. It's been running our lives forever.
In a weak moment, when we stumble on the funny path, our old serious self will seize control, say I'm in charge, and start making serious plans.
When we put our seriousness to work in funny world it is there on sufferance, in service to funny, at the bottom of the funny hierarchy. And it thinks it's in charge? That's funny.
Must be funny is in charge, and all we have to do is chant the sacred algorithm to escape the identity trap. As for identity, we don't believe in it. We don't deal with invisible metaphysical entities. Funny is as funny does.
LAUGH:
the one-step program
The righteousness trapWe do not criticize serious world. We steer clear of the catalog of horrors that can be blamed on seriousness. That's engaging the enemy on his turf and we'll be destroyed. That's serious argument and we must be funny. The most we say is they're condemned to a rather boring time.
Trashing the opposition is one of our temptations or ego patterns to be given up. A promising remedy is to exaggerate these tendencies, write them into the play, change them from a problem to a joke.
For example, the purpose trap can be turned into megalomania, and the time trap into a detailed schedule for establishing the funny kingdom on earth. The insanity attack is embraced and acted out. Our serious identity is directed into deadpan pursuit of the absurd.
In this case our condemnation of serious world is made funny not be exaggeration but by minimizing. Is this a different kind of temptation?
Yes, the other errors try to attack or control funny world, like unruly guests, and we absorb them and make them funny. The righteousness trap attacks serious world, and we don't want to go there.
True religion can be more dangerous than false religion, and our only recourse is funny religion.
Boundary controlWhen we are new in the faith, it helps to draw firm boundaries: funny stuff in funny world, serious stuff in serious world. Separate the piles and dig a moat. We know which side we're on. Then we're less likely to get drawn into serious arguments and temptations.
This apartheid model is useful when we're learning the new rules, and whenever The Serious One tries to entrap us. And our vision of a separate funny world inspires and guides our efforts.
As we advance in the funny faith, we learn how to deal with serious world, how to make it funny. Then everything is funny, and we don't need boundaries anymore. Instead of staying separate, we carry our funny world in our head and heart, into serious world.
The InquisitionWhen we are new in the faith we will keep falling back into seriousness. The Serious One quietly takes us over, and we don't even know it. He doesn't say aha, I got you now! Later, when we cover games, we can play heretics v. Inquisition and call seriousness when we see it and win some funny money from the perpetrators. That's basic training in detecting, avoiding and escaping from seriousness, getting out of the clutches of The Serious One, and we make a game of it.
Could there be a real-world Inquisition against funny people? Like our play Inquisition, they can only attack seriousness. They might think they're against funny, but it's not until we stick an arm or a leg back into serious world that they can grab us.
Make it funnyWe are serious people in a serious world. We don't have a funny world yet, so we take what we have and make it funny.
When we're having a serious attack from within or without, we say yippee, new material! Embrace it and exaggerate it. That usually does the trick. You must be crazy! Yes, but am I crazy enough?
The attacks from within are most insidious. Serious ambitions will arise to do good works or make serious money. If we pump up every plan to comic heights we neutralize it. Ooh, here's another one! Let's see what we can do with that!
Seriousness is our main source of material. Make it funny. That brings it into funny world. Otherwise it stays outside.
Do you know what the leading cause of terrorism is? It's seriousness. I'm serious. Think about it. Those people have no sense of humor. Otherwise how could they believe they will get to heaven by putting other people through hell? Here is my vision: A suicide bomber arrives at the Gates of Heaven, and God clops him over the head and says, "SCHMUCK! What'd you do that for? 72 virgins? YOU get one 72-year-old virgin, and his name starts with Ayatollah!"
Swami Beyondananda | 2003 State of the Universe Address
Pure faith in funny
Funny religion insists that we pursue funniness as the highest for the sake of our souls, and not get caught up in the side benefits, such as games, parties, sex, money, career and so on. We have to put funny first to get them. The bigger the temptation, the stronger our faith in funny must be, to keep our priorities straight.
We can keep things straight by saying funny is production, the other goodies are consumption. We have to put in our time in the funny factory.
Serious world will pull at us with its demands, but only the saving power of funniness can heal its sickness. We can't fix serious with serious. It's been tried. We put our faith in funny, and trust the outcome.