Expert: Bodhicitta - 10/16/2006

Question
Hello My name is Sheila
I am from New Jersey
I'm 20 years old and I have a story.

When I was about 15 years old I decided to skip school. As I was having social problems. I stayed in my room and could not make any noise as I waited for my father to leave for work. Out of pure bordeom I was looking at a picture and saw a buddah. So I got in meditation pose and said to my self "hummm" as if I were meditating. About 5 seconds later I heard an extremley loud deep roaring laugh. It scared the heck out of me! Not until recently I was at a flea market and saw a statue of a buddah and the lady that was selling it said he was a "laughing buddah" So have you ever heard of this? any idea what this could mean? Thank so much!

Answer
Hi Sheila
thanks for sharing your story. It is nice.

I am not going to tell you what you want to hear I am afraid.

Firstly it seems you have some predisposition to meditation.
In Buddhist countries they would say you had a past-life connection.

If I were you I would go receive some proper instruction from a Buddhist teacher. You can find plenty these days in North America.

Now the bit you don't want to hear. Your experience is meaningless, just ignore it. There are no browny points
for experiences. This is always the answer to these things
from meditation teachers. Otherwise you become attached and that becomes a big problem to do any further meditation.
So ignore it...and keep going

Bodhicitta