Laughter is such a transformative force that often nothing else is needed! If you exchange your despair for celebration, then you can turn your death into rebirth.
I heard about three Chinese mystics. Their names are unknown. They are known as the "Three Laughing Saints" because they never did anything - they just laughed. They walked from one place to another, stopped at the market square and laughed with a pleasant belly laugh. These three people were beautiful, they were laughing and their bellies were swaying. It was so infectious that the whole market began to laugh. The fun spread like lightning, and in a few seconds a new world was discovered! Before their arrival, there were only sad, irritated people in the market, envious, greedy, tired, arguing and bargaining. And suddenly everything changed! People started laughing with them.
And many began to understand that they could change, and they could do it themselves.
The Laughing Saints traveled all over China, from one village to another, simply helping people laugh. But suddenly, in one village, one of the three died. The villagers said:
“Now they won’t be able to laugh.” Their friend has died, they must mourn him.
But the two danced and laughed and celebrated death. Residents said:
- Well, this is too much! It's like nothing else. When a person dies, it’s just a mockery to laugh and dance.
But the two laughing said:
- Don’t you understand what happened? We always wondered which of us would die first. This man won, we lost. All our lives we laughed with him. We cannot see him off on his final journey any other way! How else can we say goodbye to him? We laugh, we rejoice, we celebrate. This is the only possible way to say goodbye to a person who has laughed all his life. And if we don’t laugh, he himself will laugh at us and think: “What fools! They've fallen into a trap again!" We don't see that he died. How can laughter die, how can life die?
But the body had to be burned, and the residents said:
“You must wash him as prescribed by the ritual.”
But the two said that their friend asked not to adhere to the ritual, not to wash him or change his clothes, but simply to lay him as is on the funeral platform. So they must comply with his wishes.
And then something unexpected happened. When the body was put on the fire and people began to feel sad, this old man played his last joke. He hid many different firecrackers and fireworks under his clothes. They began to explode, burst and sparkle! It was very bright and colorful! And his two crazy friends began to dance, and the whole village danced with them, laughing through their tears.
It was not death, it was rebirth, new life. Because death is an illusion. Every death opens a new door. If you can turn your sadness into celebration, then soon you will be able to turn your death into rebirth. So learn this art while you still have time.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru