Laugh at Life - What Is Humour?

When life can be taken very lightly, we can laugh at it. But what allows us to be able to laugh at some things, and get very serious and bent out of shape with other things? In other words, what is humour? And what gives us our sense of humour?

"Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement." The definition alone points to the fact that humour is nothing more than a very high sense of acceptance. You know this from your own experience. If perceiving something alone can give us pleasure and amusement, we must really accept and enjoy the fact that it exists or occurs.

The fact that everyone does not laugh at life in the same way shows us that some people have higher acceptance of some things in life than others. They see things differently. This is why what you think is funny is called a 'sense.' Your perspective is a sense. A sense of humour is purely your perspective. This can be proven in your very own past experience.

There have been times in life when you may have had to go through a 'tough' situation. Later on, the very same situation may be looked back on fondly as humourous. We've all heard the saying, "We'll look back on this and laugh." But if the situation did not change, what changed? Our perspective. Life is all about perspective.

The more space we are able to put around any life situation, the funnier or easy to accept it becomes. By putting space around it, I mean adding perspective or taking a step back. Having an ere of detachment from it relieves any resistance to it. Often we allow ourselves to add this space through the passage of time. It is easier for the ego to become detached over longer periods of time. Since time is an illusion though, we can realize that we will be able to accept and find humour in things immediately if we are detached enough. We can add the space right now if we are not caught in ego perspective.

A sense of humour is a precious thing. The more you enhance this sense, the more enjoyable your perspective (or vice-versa). Life isn't that serious unless the ego is overly involved.

Live, laugh, love. The more we do of one, the more we do of them all. Live it up. Laugh it up. Love it up.

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4 comments:

bometernally said...

Great post. You have such a great way of showing us a new slant on looking at ourselves. Very refreshing and well appreciated. Definitely a great tool to keep our energy and spirits up! This post definitely brings a smile as well as a blessing of the delightful picture of the Laughing Buddha.

Blessings to you C.Om

Gareth said...

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." - E E cummings

Too True!

Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments by the way ;-)

Lust With Wings said...

Laughter is the human nervous system's involuntary reaction to the perception of truth.

C. Om said...

@ bometernally
Thanks you! Your appreciation is appreciated. And keep laughing. :-)

@ Dharma Bum
Absolutely! I'll be back. ;-)

@ Lust With Wings
Indeed! Profound and true. I came to the same conclusion. The concept of laughter makes me want to laugh. I love it. :-)