Since Theosophy purports to be the wisdom that underlies life itself it must be able to address all of life’s challenges and difficulties whether large or small. This section of the web site collates the collective wisdom of humanity into a group of practical themes. Passages from the founders of the Theosophical Movement and from literature and history are all combined together to provide some light on the issues at hand.
This week we highlight our section On Laughter with a selection from Wilfred Peterson’s Essay “The Art of Laughter”:
Meet the challenge of life with the art of laughter… Take a tip from Will Rogers who observed people with laughter in eyes and love in his heart and declared: “I never met a man I didn’t like.”
Learn laughter from little children by thinking their thoughts, dreaming their dreams and playing their games.
Develop a playful attitude toward problems; toss them around; handle them with a light touch.
Practice the advice of the psychiastrist who gives his normal patients this prescription: “Don’t take yourself so damned seriously.”
Use laughter as a safety valve to keep yourself sane and relaxed. Emerson said it well: “The perception of the Comic is a tie of sympathy with other men, a pledge of sanity. We must learn by laughter as well as by tears and terror.”
Remember the old proverb: ” A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.”
Consider the power of laughter to prick the balloons of pretense and to deflate stuffed shirts.
Inject laughter into tense situations to save the day; laughter calms tempers and soothes jangled nerves.
Use laughter to set healing vibrations into motion—to fill a room with the sunshine of good cheer.
Tell the funny story on yourself to that the laugh is on you; always laugh with others never at them.
Look for the funny side of your difficulties; impersonal contemplation is the secret of laughter and perspective.
Most of all, learn to laugh at yourself; meet each day with a sense of humor.
Laughter is the best medicine for a long and happy life.
He who laughs….. lasts!
See our collection of quotes on Self-Testing here:
https://www.universaltheosophy.com/art-of-living/on-laughter/
For students interested in exploring the idea of Self-Study in a group-setting, please visit our forum-discussion here:
http://theosophynexus.com/group/the-art-of-living/forum/topics/the-art-of-laughter
