:: LAUGHTER ::

LET LAUGHTER BE YOUR MEDITATION

“A laughter which is not total will be phony, a pretension, just a performance. So when you laugh, you also laugh totally. That is the only act you do totally -- so you know that laughter is total. If you see me laughing, it is a natural conclusion that it is a total act, because it corresponds with your experience.

You cannot laugh partially. Try, and you will fail. You can laugh only totally. That is a unique quality about laughter. That's why I had made a meditation of it -- because of its unique quality: in laughter you are total without anyone saying to you, "Be total."
You can cry without being total. Tears can come to your eyes without being total, but a full laugh... for a moment you forget to be partial. The laughter takes you completely, all over. It is not only that you are laughing, you become the laughter.

Because of your own small experience, if I laugh you naturally can conclude that this act is total. Every act is total -- but that is not your experience, so you can only assume that it may be total; you cannot be absolutely certain of its totality.
Laughter certainly is very special. Your whole body laughs. Each atom, each cell of your body laughs, participates in it.

I have always been against seriousness. I have never compared them, but you can see why I am against seriousness. Seriousness can never be total. It is always partial, the very other extreme of laughter. It goes on becoming narrower and narrower and narrower. The more serious you are, the more narrow you become. The more you go towards laughter, the more wide and the more open, the more vulnerable, the more total, you become.

Laughter has something religious.
Seriousness is sick and irreligious.
So remember that whenever you feel something in me, try to find out... There must be some parallel in your experience; that's why you are coming to a certain conclusion.
If people could laugh totally every day for at least one hour, without any reason, they would not need any other meditation. That would be enough, because while you are laughing you cannot think. While you are laughing you cannot be in the past, you cannot be in the future: you have to be here now. Laughter can open a door to the ultimate.”

The Path of the Mystic
# 32, My vision is of the whole


LAUGHTER TIME WITH OSHO

1. The village idiot was very famous. His name was Elmer. One day a village resident wanted to show a visiting friend just what an idiot Elmer was.
"Watch this," he said. "Hey, Elmer! I have got something for you." He then held out his hand, and on the outstretched palm were a nickel and a dime. "Go ahead, Elmer," he said, "take one."
So Elmer said, "Thank you, I will take the big one," and picked up the nickel.
The man winked at his friend and then said, "See what an idiot he is?"
But as Elmer shuffled off, the visitor felt sorry for him and ran after him.
"Listen, Elmer," he said earnestly, "don't you know that the small coin is worth twice as much as the big one?"
"Of course I do," said Elmer, "but the first time I pick up the dime, they will stop playing the game."

2. "Whisky and whisky alone is responsible for your deplorable condition!" the judge admonished the drunken prisoner, who was a professor -- maybe a professor of psychology. "Glad to hear you say that, judge," beamed the drunk. "My wife says it's all my fault!"

3. Mulla Nasruddin is sitting in the village square one evening plucking the strings of a sitar. Little by little, an expectant circle of villagers gathers around him. He keeps on playing  just one note. Finally, one villager enquires, "That's a very nice note you are playing,    Mulla, but most musicians use all the notes. Why don't you?"
"Those donkeys," retorts the Mulla, "they are searching for the note, but I have found it!"

4. Once Mulla Nasrudin had been away for a while and arrived back in town wearing a long beard. His friends naturally kidded him about the beard and asked him how he happened to acquire the fur-piece. The Mulla with the beard began to complain and curse the thing    in no uncertain terms. His friends were amazed at the way he talked and asked him why    he continued to wear the beard if he did not like it. 'I hate the blasted thing!' the Mulla told them. 'If you hate it then why don't you shave it off and get rid of it?' one of his friends    asked. A devilish gleam shone in the eyes of the Mulla as he answered, 'Because my    wife hates it too!'

5. Mary was sitting alone on the couch when her mother came in and turned on the light.
"Why, what is the matter, dear?" asked her mother. "Why are you sitting here in the dark? Did you and John have a fight?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that," replied Mary. "As a matter of fact, John asked me to marry him."
"Well, then why do you look so sad?"
"Oh, mother, it is just that I don't know if I could marry an advertising executive."
"But what is wrong with marrying a man who is in advertising?"
"Well, how would you feel if a man who was proposing to you told you that it was a once-  in-a-lifetime, never-to-be-repeated, special offer?"

6. A man and a little boy entered a barbershop together. After the man received the full treatment -- shave, shampoo, manicure, haircut, etc. -- he placed the boy in the chair.
"I am going to buy a green tie to wear for the parade," he said. "I will be back in a few minutes."
When the boy's haircut was completed and the man still had not returned, the barber said, "Looks like your daddy has forgotten all about you."
"That was not my daddy," said the boy. "He just walked up, took me by the hand, and said, 'Come on, son, we are gonna get a free haircut!'"