Emergence of a Laughing Mind
Genesis
Laughing Mind has it's origins in the North West corner of Sagarmatha National Park, in a little tea house, after a long days walking with a close friend. During the day, we'd been talking, walking, skipping (as much as you can with a large trekking pack on) and navel-contemplating, in roughly equal measure. It was whilst recovering from the days walk over a hot milky tea, laced with Himalayan Whisky, that a little sticker caught my eye: Laughing Mind Everest Tour. It evoked everything about that place, that day, that hour, that moment in time.
I can close my eyes now and vividly recall the walk on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Everest Ascent. A nice little three week walk with a close mate, reconnecting, yarning, reading and taking time out. Addressing the accumulated imbalances of our lives at that point. We met some characters along the way. A retired US diplomat, into her 70's, just completing a high pass trek through country she'd long admired, seldom explored. The ex-media advisor to President Clinton during the emergence of the Lewinsky story that we kept bumping into, walking parallel journeys. The trekking groups. The Nepali porter struggling to haul a cast iron stove, dressed in thongs, to one of the more remote tea houses. The bookstores, bazaars of Namche, the japanese executives flown in by helicopter, laden with gadgetry, watched bemusedly by us. A grizzly tasmanian forest activist grumblingly joking about enlisting us to throw them over the balcony on finding out they were senior executives from a pulpmill company. The deforested hillsides, stripped of timber to warm the food for tourists with their exotic requests. The gardens, fed by human manure as a rich, fertile, compost in altitudes where little could grow amongst the permafrost. Meditating at Thyangboche monastery. An enterprising Sherpa setting up the worlds highest internet Cafe, charging $1USD per minute access to offset the struggle of carrying Satphones, laptops, batteries to Everest Base Camp. Ascetics trudging barefoot through blizzards in the meandering trickling start of the Ganges. Finally, the Himalayan mountains. Those reminders of our utterly limited significance in the face of icy bluffs, howling winds and endavouring, perishing climbers, porters and admirers.
It all served to remind me that in our endeavours, we must never lose sight of the simple, the humble, the creative, the innovative, the perseverant, the connections that bind us all in our humanity. The need for compassion, tolerance, curiosity, courage and mindfulness. The need to maintain a laughing mind, find the humour in our struggles and our challenges.
Emergence and beyond
These values endure now, and are more important than ever. I call you to find the compassion in your work with others. I call myself. Tame your wild mind. Keep listening to your wisdom mind, seeking it out, always, and find the humour in your endeavours, your enterprises, your loves. It connects us all.
Warm regards. Om Shanti.