“When anyone has realized his buddhahood, his enlightenment, his immortality, the first thing that has happened is laughter. Laughter at himself because he was seeking and searching for millions of years for something that he himself was.

“You can seek the other, but you cannot seek yourself. You can separate from the other, but you cannot separate from yourself. There is a possibility of distance between you and the other, but there is no possibility of distance between you and you. This is one part: one realizes the hilarious situation that buddhas are trying to be buddhas. Naturally a great laughter arises.

“It is also true from the other side: if a great laughter arises for any reason or no reason, suddenly your mind stops, your time stops. Those are the basic preconditions needed to experience your buddha nature – of course, only for a moment because it is not through awareness that you have attained buddhahood, but through laughter. Laughter gives you both keys, as if for a single moment in the middle of the night the sun rises and all is light.

“Laughter has a tremendous spiritual value. No religion has accepted it. In fact, all religions have condemned it. I can understand their condemnation: they don’t want you all to be buddhas. They don’t want you even to have a glimpse of who you are because once the glimpse has happened you cannot remain in the old, miserable agony, anguish. You know that if time and the mind stop, you are more than you can ask for. Utter serenity, peacefulness, blissfulness, love, sensitivity and a sense of belonging to the universe; not just as an accident, but as an essential part.”