One of the characteristic features of Zen humor is the way it approaches the question of death. It seems difficult to imagine people feeling light-hearted enough to laugh at the thought of their own demise, but this appears to be routine among practitioners of Zen. 
Read how Zen humor breaks through the intellectual barrier, permitting us to glimpse something at the moment of laughter.
Zen humor in everyday life can turn routine incidents into something illuminating. The quirky nature of such humor has prompted many people to compile a ton of jokes around a Zen librarian. Many of these can have you tearing your hair out because they seem to be beyond understanding. But some of them are really precious, like this one submitted by Bill McKenzie, Illinois, USA.
'A patron was reading a book in the library and heard a loud meowing of a cat.
She went to the Zen Librarian to complain.
"The cat is irritated," said the Zen Librarian. "Why?" asked the woman. "Because you are concentrating on him rather than what you are reading." '
Through such Zen offerings do we understand our own limitations, and the limitless nature of true reality.
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