In Praise of Silliness

Super Silly – Super Divine

Can we be silly in this very heavy and serious world? Should we? As we get older, we get burdened and stiff and sore and silliness becomes something for children and idiots.

As I might have mentioned, my spiritual teacher was Barry Long. He used to have meetings where he would talk, lead meditation, and answer questions. Every year he had a three week long event in Australia called the master session. It was attended by people from all around the world and usually ran to about 400 people. The meetings at the master session were held in a marquee. Everyone who attended Barry was very earnestly trying to live his teaching which had a lot to do with the relationship between man and woman. 

Here is where it gets silly. I already described what happened next in my book Maya Noise so I will take it up there. 

“A young German man asked Barry a question during a meeting.  He said, “What can I do Barry?  I am having a difficulty with loving my partner’s vagina.”  It was a standard kind of question for a Barry Long meeting.  No one was shocked, no one was embarrassed, but I was in distress immediately.

People asked Barry questions about sex all the time.  There was nothing unusual about that.  Barry was very graphic in his love-making tips, it was “penis this” and “vagina that” all over the place.  So there was nothing too unusual about the vagina reference either.

Yet a part of me was having immense difficulty with the interaction.  The more he went on about his difficulty loving his girlfriend’s vagina, the more distressed I became.  I thought I might have to leave the meeting.

It wasn’t what he was saying that was bothering me, it was they way he was saying it.  His German accent wasn’t too strong except for when he said the word vagina.  It came out sounding like va-guy-na.

“Barry, I am having a difficulty with loving my partners va-guy-na.  It is a beautiful va-guy-na but still I can’t love it.  Maybe I am afraid of it, ya, that’s it, I am afraid of her va-guy-na.”

Stop.  Please.  Dude.  You’re killing me.  His whacky pronunciation combined with the collective reverence in the meeting was too much for me.  I was in kinks on the inside.  

It’s not that I couldn’t see the young man’s distress.  I could.  He genuinely wanted help.  He really did want to love his partner better.  It was his very earnestness that made it all the funnier for me.  In moments like this I can feel the belly of God and it is shaking with laughter too.”

Silly, I know. Juvenile? Definitely. Glorious? Absolutely. 

We need silliness to help us remember that for all our nobility and majesty we are also quite silly. 
We have a very brief time here and we live like we are immortal. 
We take our cares and worries and anxieties very seriously even though they disappear every night when we go into the mystery in deep dreamless sleep. 
We want to be happy and loved and fulfilled yet we focus on everything but happiness, love, and fulfillment.
We compartmentalize our lives and try to snatch a few moments of happiness in our “free time,” ignoring that for the rest of the time, we are not free.
That is just silly.

So cultivate a bit of silliness in your life. Wear a silly hat, do a silly dance, find a way to laugh at yourself in a loving affectionate way.