Above: The Fool from the Osho Zen Tarot is archetypally the wise, fearless fool.

By Brian Newman

Even today, the fool remains one of our most treasured personalities. We love our comedies and comedians. Is this because laughter is important to life and living, or does the fool go beyond this important goal? Or do we, intuitively, see it as a path to enlightenment?
We are all born fools. We treasure our own childhoods, and we remember the simplicity of a time when we wonderingly looked at the world, imagined friends, played in the mud and chased a ball around and around. We smile and find joy in seeing that simple perfection in every small child. It's easy to love your children, or any children. Children are what we value and treasure.
Koans and Jokes and Fools
In Zen or Chan Buddhism, mindfulness is sought. Overloading the mind with unsolvable puzzles was one well-known method of achieving enlightenment. The zen monk often has a wonderful sense of humour. Tibetan monks, of the Vajra way, also value laughter, jokes and humour. The fool contains the same wisdom.
History, as teacher, tells us the fool was important in every culture throughout history. Court fools and entertainers to kings and emperors were largely immune to criticism, and there are historical cases of fools influencing kingly decisions.
The Fool in the Tarot
Why is the fool such an important symbol in every culture. He is the central character in the Tarot deck where his spiritual journey through life was illustrated by the trumps of the major arcana. In Tarot, the fool was man, or self, or even ultimate wisdom.
There's a saying that "only a foolish man can understand what the wise cannot."
Mindfulness Brings us to Simplicity
A fool is simple. The fool is fearless. Think of the court jester, mocking the king to his face. History does not record too many of these court entertainers going to prison for their offences. Is this because the king always found his own answers as he laughed at the mocking gestures of the fool?
In the fool's activities can be found a path to enlightenment, perhaps, through humour, simplicity or absolute courage. The archetype of the fool includes total fearlessness. The path to enlightenment certainly should embrace bravery, happiness and simplicity—at least to me.
The Perfection of the Simpleton
In the Christian story of Adam and Eve, they are both "innocent" until they partake of temptation and the tree of knowledge. This is a parable, in part, for our own childhood, when we were innocent—the fool—until we partook of knowledge. With knowledge came clinging, desire, jealousy and the entire cycle of suffering. But as children, as fools, we didn't understand or know about suffering. Even in the face of tragedy, children could cope better than most adults.
In some ways, the pursuit of mindfulness is also the pursuit of the inner child, the innocence, the here and now, the stripping away of clinging and desire. Do we, in fact, seek to return to the wisdom of the child?
Training in Unhappiness
Sadly, unhappiness requires no training. There is no suffering without knowledge. How can there be karma without a lack of innocence? Is there a hell for young children? How can there be, when they live in innocence, without clinging?
The very young child trusts life and has no fear. Only a parent's fear keeps the young child safe. Everything seems wondrous to this child, from the frog in the pond to the muddy puddle he just splashed through. There isn't real unhappiness until the child learns desire.
The Lesson of Fools
I'm probably over stating this, and being overly simplistic—am I a fool?—but I tend to believe that the fool Trump, numbered zero or nothing, stands for enlightenment and the path to enlightenment. When I meditate, at any rate, I try to recapture the fool. I try to foster fearlessness, innocence and wonder first. When I draw the fool trump, I know, immediately, it's an important read. When I think of any of the other trumps, I think of them in relationship with the fool. Why? Because, at heart we all began as fools, and will end up as wise fools.