Top Ten Reasons to be a Fool!

(Card image credit Osho Zen tarot)

Being a Fool might sound like something embarrassing to some of us, but spiritually speaking the Fool is the most powerful archetype to associate with. Here are some reasons why we all should consider being more like the Fool:-

1. Being Humble: A Fool does not pretend to be self-important or great. To be free of ego is one of the highest achievements any person can attain in any lifetime. Egos are products of ignorance, while humility comes with wisdom. The Fool would then be wiser than most others who consider themselves wise and knowledgeable. So lets take off our masks and be down to earth.
2. No Worries: How often do we waste our time feeling worried about things instead of enjoying our present moment fully? A Fool shows us that there is in reality nothing to worry about. All things are self created and worry will only create more things to worry about. Being free of worry and care, and just being there in the moment is the lesson.
3. Happy Go Lucky: Taking life as it comes is the art of living. Have you seen that people who are easygoing and joyful are normally far luckier in every way than people who think too much and feel unhappy? An inner state of happiness brings forth many pleasant experiences to relish everyday.
4. Don’t Mind It: Spending our precious moments, thinking about what others think about us is something we all have been guilty of. The Fool on the other hand has been laughing it all off…no matter what people say or think. Something to learn here?
5. No Attachment: All things are temporal and illusory, say the saints. The Fool perhaps knows this deep within because the Fool owns nothing and controls nothing. Being a Fool we learn that nothing really matters as much as having a pure mind free of all attachments.
6. Nothing to Fear: Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. The Fool is unafraid because neither death nor life has anything worth being afraid of. In life everything that happens to us in pure experience that our soul takes as a lesson. Being the Fool helps us open our arms and embrace life as well as death as and when they happen.
7. Perfect Trust: A Fool is trusting and that is why he can be fooled. We might think that its best to be ‘careful’, but spiritually speaking being trusting is a stronger thing to be. Feeling vulnerable and being hurt are things that happen when we forget that the universe is our inner creation. Everything has manifested from the self. Have faith and trust yourself.
8. Innocence: In growing up we sometimes lose the child within. The Fool perhaps never grew up. He did not learn to be mean, selfish or hateful…or if he did, he has ‘unlearnt’ it. He has no malice or negativity in his heart towards anyone or anything just like the innocent child within us all.
9. Be Simple: The world might seem like a complex puzzle to many of us trying to scientifically analyse life and the universe. Yet to close our eyes and meditate helps us much more in understanding existence. To be simple and natural can perhaps bring us closer to the truth than anything else.
10. Keep on Learning: The most important thing about being the Fool is to know that there is nothing to know except the ‘knower’. Academics, philosophers and researchers can write, read and teach tons of literature but that is knowledge of things. The moment we think we know a lot, its time to be the Fool once again because until we know ourselves we know nothing in reality and if we are here on earth it is because we are still learning….who we are!

Swati Prakash