ROHAN GUNATILLAKE: Today we have a solo meditation for you, based on one of my favorite days of the year, which explores the value of learning through playfulness.

My father’s birthday was April the 1st, so that day always had a double meaning for me when I was growing up.

I celebrated the man and father, of course, but given that the 1st of April is known as April Fool’s Day around the world, I also loved commemorating the art of the prank.

Having over the years dug into the history of April Fool’s Day, there are many varied accounts claiming to be its origin, which I guess is rather fitting.

One of my favorites is that back in the 1500s, the calendar would change not on January the 1st, but April the 1st, and people who hadn’t realized it would be called April Fools.

And in France, they’d be called April’s Fish, and little fish paper all otherwise would be tagged on to their backs without their knowing.

So that to this day, a prank is called a poisson or fish d’avril.

And apparently in Scotland, where I am, used to be a two-day affair, such is our love of a festival.

And I find it endlessly interesting that this tradition of trickery has lasted so long.

So with that on our mind, I thought April Fool’s Day would make a fun theme to explore in our meditation together.

The heart of April Fool’s Day is the prank.

And the heart of the prank is creating a situation for someone, an illusion, a reality that is so compelling, they believe it to be true.

And then in the height of it all, the illusion gets exposed for what it is.

There’s a lot of fun being the creator of the prank, but sometimes it’s not much fun being the dupe.

So what are the qualities we can grow in ourselves, so it’s less likely we’re the pranky, if that’s a word?

Alertness and built upon that foundation, discernment.

So as we start our meditation, let’s start with that.

Alertness.

The mind right now might feel sluggish.

It might feel bright.

It might feel somewhere in the middle.

Whichever way it is, let’s do some things to raise our inner energy and sensitivity.

Something that always helps me is mirroring a state of alertness in my body.

Slightly raising the chin.

Lifting the spine.

Becoming aware of the soundscape around us 360 degrees.

Becoming aware of the feeling of the air on our skin.

The temperature.

Any subtle movements.

Training in alertness, in aliveness, in sensitivity.

Meerkat mind.

And with that as our foundation, let’s add on discernment.

Maybe not a word, we use that regularly.

So if helpful, the way I like to think about it in meditation is that discernment is being aware of another dimension to what is happening.

So if we alert to the sounds around us, discernment is also knowing how they change, the dimension of change.

If we are alert to a pang of tension in our neck, discernment is also noticing how unpleasant we find it, and so how we nudge it away ever so slightly.

See how you get on.

Alert to what is happening and adding the dimension of discernment.

Thank you Alertness twinned with discernment, super weapons against being taken in by trickery, even the trickery of your own mind.

April Fool’s Day also has me thinking of the fool, the fool with a capital F.

Found in the royal courts of medieval Europe, the purpose of the fool, the royal fool, was yes to entertain, but also to advise, with permission to say the things that no one else had the courage to.

Different from the jester or joker, the fool would use humor, creative freedom, and yes, often outrageous provocative language and behavior, to point to the truth of things that others cannot see for all the veils of convention.

I like this idea a lot, this archetype, the archetype of the fool.

The fool doesn’t care what others think of them.

They take life as it presents itself, seeing it as a game, orienting the mind to the lighter side rather than the heavy.

The fool pokes fun at the things we hold perhaps too tightly.

They play by their own rules.

It’s an archetype we see throughout all our stories, from Shakespeare to The Simpsons to Schitt’s Creek.

And there’s an important lesson here.

One of my meditation teachers absolutely was a wise fool.

He was a total master, but the way he taught was by poking fun, showing me where I was taking things too seriously, demanding that I be more playful, insisting that it was through fun and humor that we find the best way to learn.

So I’ll go through those qualities of a fool again, a wise fool.

And as I do, notice which one speaks most to you.

A wise fool doesn’t care what others think of them.

They take life as it presents itself.

A wise fool sees life as a game.

They orient toward the lighter side of things, not the heavy stuff.

A wise fool pokes fun at the things we take seriously.

They play by their own rules.

Keeping the quality in mind that most speaks to you, and inspired by the tradition of April the 1st, let’s make the intention to be more foolish in the best way, and express this quality when you can in the next few days.

The third and final aspect of April Fool’s Day that I’m really interested in, is the moment the prank is revealed.

The moment the illusion is burst.

Something which we thought to be one way, is actually another.

It’s empty.

In a prank type situation, this is typically a moment of embarrassment for the prankie.

Yeah, I’m sticking with prankie.

But in mindfulness, we call this insight.

The illusion is seen through.

The thing we thought was once solid, so substantial, is seen for the artifice that it is.

With alertness, with discernment, with the willingness to look at things differently, to poke holes, the natural result is insight.

In many ways, it’s the real purpose of mindfulness.

Yes, the calm and awareness and the kindness are wonderful, but it’s the insight that is transformative.

That’s freeing.

When I speak to friends who have gone on their own mindfulness journeys, especially those who took it up to help with sleep issues or anxiety, the insight that I hear as being the most transformative is that thoughts are not facts.

And it’s not just taking that as a mantra and convincing oneself that it’s the case, it’s seeing it, seeing it over and over again, that thoughts and other mental patterns are constructions.

Yes, they’re built up due to certain conditions, but they are not solid.

The good news is that the pranks of our mind, while they can take a long time to organize, only take a moment to puncture.

There is great delight, great freedom in seeing through, in having those a-ha moments.

So as we close off our April Fool’s Day Meditation, let’s celebrate not the grand pranks, but instead recognize the currency of the aha, the value of the seeing through, the value of the insight.

So, here’s the funny thing.

Back in about 2010, a few years before my father died, he told us that he actually wasn’t born on April the 1st, despite that being what it said on his passport and his official date of birth.

He’d been born on March the 31st, and because in Sri Lankan culture it’s considered better luck to be born on the 1st of the month, his mother, my grandmother, had just registered his birth as having taken place on a different day.

Wild, really.

After thinking one thing was true for all our family’s life, it turned out not to be.

So to all the prankers and prankies out there, be safe wherever you are.

And Happy Birthday, Dad.

Wherever you are.

We’d love to hear your personal reflections from today’s meditation. You can find us on all your social media platforms through our handle at Meditative Story. Or you can email us at [email protected].