Question 1

Osho,

From the schoolroom, where laughter is thought to undermine authority, to the local five star hotel, where it is considered an embarrassment, a sense of humor is no joke.

If, from birth, we were allowed to laugh without restraint, would we not successfully subvert our conditioning, and save our natural intelligence?

 

 

Laughter is therapy. And if you are allowed from the very beginning to enjoy a belly laughter without restraint, without inhibition, to find out your buddha will be the easiest job, because you will be free of all seriousness. You will be free of all tensions, inhibitions, suppressions, and in this freedom only one finds the buddha.

 

Hence, before your meditation I have kept a special time for Sardar Gurudayal Singh. I want you to laugh as deeply as possible, so you are unburdened. Then meditation is very easy, nothing inhibits you. My contribution to the world is: making sense of humor a part of spiritual growth. A man who cannot laugh is sick, sick unto death.

 

Bernie Baloney comes racing into the emergency room of the Hamchop Hospital. “Excuse me, miss,” he pants, as he reaches the receptionist, “but can you tell me which ward Miss Fitz is in?”

 

“Miss Fitz? You mean Miss Fannie Fitz?” asks the receptionist. “The woman who got run over by a steamroller this morning?”

 

“Right!” says Bernie. “Which ward is she in?”

 

“Well,” explains the receptionist, “you will find her in wards eight, nine, and ten!”

 

This is what Iyengar is trying to do with God -- chop him into pieces. These butcher-type people!

 

Cherrie Chubbs is concerned about her husband Buster’s impotence, but she also realizes that he will never admit it as a problem. So one day she goes to see her family physician, Doctor Hardong, who prescribes some medicine to raise Buster’s spirits.

 

Cherrie takes the prescription to the drugstore but unfortunately the pharmacist misreads Doctor Hardong’s handwriting. Instead of typing “FOUR TEASPOONS” on the label, he types “FORTY TEASPOONS.”

 

Early the next morning, Cherrie Chubbs races into Doctor Hardong’s office.

 

“What is the matter?” asks the doctor, looking up at the frantic Cherrie. “Did not the medicine work?”

 

“It certainly did,” smiles Cherrie, “but now I need the antidote so that they can close his coffin!”

 

Fritz Frankfurter, the German tourist, runs into his old friend, Helmut Hamburger – both of them vacationing on Miami Beach. They go to the outdoor beach-bar for a gossip and a few beers.

 

Suddenly, Fritz chokes on his beer. “My God!” he splutters. “Look at that fat, frumpy woman in the green bikini – the one jumping up and down in the sand and waving. That must be the most disgusting sight on the whole beach. Do you think that with all that jumping up and down and waving and leering towards me, she is trying to proposition me?”

 

“I don’t know,” says Helmut, drinking his beer. “But if you like, I will go down there and ask her – she is my wife!”

 

Nivedano…

 

(drumbeat)

 

(gibberish)

 

Nivedano…

 

(drumbeat)

 

Be silent. Close your eyes and feel your body to be completely frozen.

 

This is the right moment to look inwards with your total life force, with your whole consciousness and with an urgency as if this is the last moment of your life.

 

Go directly like a spear, piercing into the very center of your being – deeper and deeper. The deeper you go, the closer you are to yourself. The deeper you go, the more you are a buddha.

 

This moment remember only one thing, because that is the very spirit of the awakened one. Be a witness. Just watch and don’t get identified with anything. You are not the body, you are not the mind, you are not any spiritual experiences either. You are just a witness. Witnessing is the greatest science for inward revolution.

 

To make it more clear, Nivedano…

 

(drumbeat)

 

Relax, let go, but remain a witness, watching whatever happens.

 

A great silence descends over you, a deep peace arises in your being. Your separation from the universe disappears; you start melting and merging. Gautam the Buddha Auditorium starts looking like a lake of consciousness without any ripples.

 

The evening was beautiful on its own, but the presence of ten thousand buddhas has made it a splendor. Everything around you, the bamboos, the stars, all are rejoicing and dancing. Even a single buddha and the whole universe goes on a festival – and when ten thousand people are centered the whole universe becomes a celebration.

 

Collect as much joy, peace, silence, blissfulness, ecstasy, to bring with you, and persuade the buddha to come along. It is your very nature.

 

He has to express into your actions, into your gestures, into your words, into your silences.

 

He has to become your whole being, your poetry, your song, your dance.

 

Nivedano…

 

Come back, but remember, you are coming back as buddhas – with the same grace, with the same beauty, with the same splendor. Sit down for a few moments just to recollect, to remember the golden path that you have traveled, the tremendous peace in the innermost shrine of your being – the grace that is your nature, the awareness that is your birthright.

 

Now, sitting like a buddha, you are the most fortunate, the most blessed beings on the earth at this moment.

 

You have to spread this ecstasy around the world.

 

This benediction you have to share with all and sundry, with friends and strangers.

 

We have to make this whole earth aflame with a new passion – the passion of your innermost being – with a new fire which only burns the false and brings out the pure gold.

 

Mankind has forgotten the language of being a buddha. We have to spread the message to the furthest corners of the earth.

 

Okay, Maneesha?

 

Yes, Beloved Master.

 

-Osho, "Zen: The Mystery and The Poetry of the Beyond, #2, Q1"