The story of the laughing monk

Eckhart Tolle told the story of the monk with the sweaty hands that you may have heard of before. A monk was in charge of an ashram and an important guru came for a visit. During the reception ceremony he realized that he had sweaty hands; he obviously was intimidated by the spiritual authority. Appalled, he dropped his assignment and retreated to do more meditation in order to gain the state of enlightenment one day.

This is a story of the mind. It assumes a hierarchy of people and falls for the fallacy that there is a ‘there’ that we can reach if we live better, meditate some more, become more holy, etc. It’s a story that you can play with yourself until the end of times. It’s also a story that is convenient for the folks who claim enlightenment status because it guarantees that the aspiring folks will always look up to them.

The revolution is here and now; always, and for everyone. The monk with the sweaty hands could have burst out with laughter as he received the spiritual authority instead. He could have hugged her, showing his hand to everyone attending the ceremony, ‘just look how intimidating you are, my hands are sweaty!’ Had she truly been enlightened she would have joined in the laughter, as would anyone else have in the room.

The popular notion that there is a race towards enlightenment is not very helpful. True, a few masters of the past (Jesus, Buddha, Sri Ramakrishna) willed themselves into an elevated state of Consciousness, but there are also countless others who stumbled on the state of ‘no self’ from one day to the next, often without even trying. Eckhart Tolle is one example. Engage with the here and now, laugh, have fun. That’s enlightenment.