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Osho on Celebration
When You Celebrate, the Whole Existence Participates with You
“I celebrate myself, and I hope soon the day will come you will be celebrating yourself. And when thousands and thousands of people around the earth are celebrating, singing, dancing, ecstatic, drunk with the divine, there is no possibility of any global suicide. With such festivity and with such laughter, with such sanity and health, with such naturalness and spontaneity, how can there be a war?
“The third world war is not going to happen! I predict it! It is not going to happen, because of you, because of my people around the earth! They are the only hope. Only millions of buddhas are capable of creating the atmosphere for peace, for love, for compassion, for celebration.
“When you cry and weep, when you are miserable, you are alone. When you celebrate, the whole existence participates with you. In celebration do we meet the ultimate, the eternal. Only in celebration do we go beyond the circle of birth and death.”
- Osho, I Celebrate Myself: God Is No Where, Life Is Now Here, Talk #4
Your Celebration, Your Dance, Will Be Enough to Prevent the War
“Your ecstasy is a movement towards the height and your meditation is a movement towards the depth. And once you have both, your life becomes a celebration.
“That is my work, to transform your life from a sad affair into a celebration.
“Every man now is responsible to create a buddhafield around himself, an energy field that goes on becoming bigger and bigger. Create as many vibrations of laughter, joy, celebration, as possible; dance, sing, let the whole of humanity by and by catch the fire of Zen and the wind of Zen.
“Just your laughter will be enough to prevent the war. Your celebration, your dance, will be enough to prevent the war. Your ecstasy, your meditation, will create a tremendous force which will be far higher because it is life-affirmative.”
- Osho, Communism and Zen Fire, Zen Wind, Talk #5
Everybody Knows What Celebration Is
“ ‘What is celebration?’ Rather than dancing, rather than laughing, rather than loving, rather than enjoying this silence, the mind asks: ‘What is celebration?’
"Everybody knows what celebration is. I have never come across a person who does not know what celebration is. Just rejoicing in your being, just rejoicing in this moment, this tremendous universe. You had not asked for it, you have simply been given a universe which is infinite and eternal. You have not asked and you have been given a consciousness which is eternal, which can become festive. If you allow it, it can make you the sanest, the most graceful, the most loving…
“A man of many seasons and many rainbows – there are so many dimensions of celebration.”
- Osho, YAA-HOO! The Mystic Rose, Talk #26
The Whole Existence Is a Celebration
“I don’t think existence wants you to be serious. I have not seen a serious tree. I have not seen a serious bird. I have not seen a serious sunrise. I have not seen a serious starry night. It seems they are all laughing in their own ways, dancing in their own ways. We may not understand it, but there is a subtle feeling that the whole existence is a celebration.
“I teach you celebration. And laughter has certainly to be one of the major ingredients in this celebration.”
- Osho, Sat-Chit-Anand: Truth-Consciousness-Bliss, Talk #21
Your Celebration Is the Only True Religion
“Let this be the criterion always: Anything that makes you festive, anything that gives you celebration, anything that makes you dance and sing to such an extent that you disappear in your dancing, in your singing, in your celebration…is the only true religion I know of.
"No God is needed, no heaven and hell are needed. All that is needed is a simple understanding that mind is the source of negativities.”
- Osho, The Rebellious Spirit, Talk #24
True Celebration Cannot Be According to the Calendar
“Have you ever thought about why, all over the world, in every culture, in every society, there are a few days in the year for celebration? These few days for celebration are just a compensation – because these societies have taken away all celebration in your life, and if nothing is given to you in compensation, your life can become a danger to the culture. Every culture has to give some compensation to you so that you don’t feel completely lost in misery, in sadness. But these compensations are false.
“These firecrackers outside and these lights outside cannot make you rejoice. They are only for children; for you, they are just a nuisance. But in your inner world there can be a continuity of lights, songs, joys. Always remember that society compensates you when it feels that the repressed may explode into a dangerous situation if it is not compensated. Society finds some way of allowing you to let out the repressed. But this is not true celebration, and it cannot be true.
“True celebration should come from your life, in your life. And true celebration cannot be according to the calendar, that on the first of November you will celebrate. Strange, the whole year you are miserable and on the first of November suddenly you come out of misery, dancing. Either, the misery is false, or the first of November is false; both cannot be true. And once the first of November has gone, you are back in your dark hole, everybody in his misery, everybody in his anxiety.
“Life should be a continual celebration, a festival of lights the whole year round. Only then can you grow up, can you blossom. Transform small things into celebration."
- Osho, Beyond Enlightenment, Talk #28
God Appears Only in Deep Celebration
“To be able to celebrate life is religion. In that very celebration you come close to God. If one is able to celebrate, God is not far away; if one is not able to celebrate life, then God does not exist for him. God appears only in deep celebration, when you are so full of joy that all misery has left you, all darkness has left you.
“When you are so full that there is no emptiness in you, that you have started feeling the significance of the ordinary, day-to-day existence, when moment to moment you live totally, intensely, passionately, then God is available.”
- Osho, Tao: The Golden Gate, Vol. 2, Talk #9
Celebration Is a Natural State
“Celebration is not because some desire is fulfilled – because no desire is ever fulfilled. Desire as such cannot be fulfilled. Desire is only a way to avoid the present moment. Desire creates the future and takes you far away. Desire is a drug; it keeps you stoned, it does not allow you to see the reality – that which is herenow.
“When becoming disappears, all the smoke of becoming disappears, there is the flame of being, and that very flame is celebration.
“Celebration is without any cause. Celebration is simply because we are. We are made out of the stuff called celebration.That’s our natural state – to celebrate – as natural as it is for the trees to bloom, for birds to sing, for rivers to flow to the ocean. Celebration is a natural state.
“It has nothing to do with your desires and their fulfillment, with your hopes and their fulfillment; it is already the case. But to see the celebration that is already happening at the deepest core of your being you will have to drop becoming, you will have to understand the futility of becoming.”
- Osho, The Secret of Secrets, Talk #8
Whenever You Are Total in Something There Is Celebration
“With the disappearance of the future, the only thing that remains in your hands is now. Then you can go deep into this now – whatsoever you are doing. You can be eating or dancing or making love to a woman or singing or digging a hole in the ground – whatsoever you are doing. This is the only time you have, why not do it totally? Why not celebrate it? Celebration and being total mean the same thing. You celebrate only when you are total in something, and when you are total in something you celebrate it.
“Have you not watched it yourself? Whenever you are total in something there is celebration.”
- Osho, Sufis: The People of the Path, Vol.1, Talk #11
We Should Be Joyous and Happy In this Moment
“We need not worry about the future, we need not be prophetic about the future, we need not say a single thing about the future. We should be joyous and happy in this moment, and the next moment will be coming out of this moment. It will be suffused with the celebration of this moment, and naturally it will lead you into a higher celebration. The future is going to come out of this present.
“There are two kinds of people: one who goes on thinking about the future, not bothering about the present at all. That future is not going to come, that future is just a fool’s imagination. I don’t think about the future. I am a totally different kind of person. I don’t think about the future at all, it is irrelevant.
“My whole effort is how to beautify this present moment, how to make people more celebrating, how to make people more joyous, how to give them a little glimpse of blissfulness, how to bring laughter to their life. Then the future takes care of itself. You need not think of the tomorrow, it comes. It comes out of this moment. Let this moment be of great celebration.”
- Osho, Sufis: The People of the Path, Vol. 1, Talk #10
Existence Is Not a Journey, It Is a Celebration
“Whatsoever you can be you are. There is no goal. And we are not going anywhere. We are simply celebrating here. Existence is not a journey, it is a celebration. Think of it as a celebration, as a delight, as a joy! Don’t turn it into a suffering, don’t turn it into a duty, a work. Let it be play.
“This is what I mean by becoming religious: no guilt, no ego, no trip of any kind…just being herenow…being with the trees and the birds and the rivers and the mountains and the stars.”
- Osho, The Tantra Experience, Talk #4
The Serious Person Becomes Handicapped
“Religion cannot be anything other than a celebration of life. And the serious person becomes handicapped, he creates barriers. He cannot dance, he cannot sing, he cannot celebrate. The very dimension of celebration disappears from his life. He becomes desert-like. And if you are a desert, you can go on thinking and pretending that you are religious but you are not.”
- Osho, A Sudden Clash of Thunder, Talk #9
Celebration Is Unconditional
“To me, life in its totality is good. And when you understand life in its totality, only then can you celebrate; otherwise not. Celebration means: whatsoever happens is irrelevant – I celebrate. Celebration is not conditional on certain things: ‘When I am happy then I will celebrate,’ or, ‘When I am unhappy I will not celebrate.’ No. Celebration is unconditional; I celebrate life. It brings unhappiness – good, I celebrate it. It brings happiness – good, I celebrate it. Celebration is my attitude, unconditional to what life brings.
“But a problem arises because whenever I use words, those words have connotations in your mind. When I say 'Celebrate', you think one has to be happy. How can one celebrate when one is sad? I am not saying that one has to be happy to celebrate. Celebration is gratefulness for whatsoever life gives to you. Whatsoever existence gives to you, celebration is a gratitude; it is a gratefulness.”
- Osho, The Alchemy of Yoga, Talk #10
A Really Celebrating Person Has No Future
“People who are not enjoying their lives in the present have lust for life in the future. Lust for life is always in the future. It is a postponement. They are saying, ‘We cannot enjoy today so we will enjoy tomorrow.’ They are saying, ‘Right this moment we cannot celebrate, so let there be a tomorrow so that we can celebrate.’
“Future arises out of your misery, not out of your celebration. A really celebrating person has no future; he lives this moment, he lives it totally. Out of that total living arises the next moment, but it is not out of any lust. Of course, when out of celebration the next moment arises, it has more capacity to bless you. When out of celebration the future arises, it goes on becoming more and more rich. And a moment comes when the moment is so total, so whole, that time completely disappears.
“Time is a need of the miserable mind. Time is a creation of misery. If you are happy there is no time – time disappears.”
- Osho, The Alchemy of Yoga, Talk #6
A God Is One Who Celebrates
“Who is a god? A god is one who has learned the secret of being happy with the whole universe, with every flower and with every river and with every rock and every star; who has become one with this continuous eternal celebration; who celebrates, who doesn’t bother whose celebration this is. And wherever there is a celebration, he participates.
“This art of participating in happiness is one of the foundations if you want to be happy.”
- Osho, Yoga: The Science of the Soul, Talk #9
Only Silence Can Laugh
“These two are the parts. The inner silence – the silence so deep that there is no vibration in your being. You are, but there are no waves. You are just a pool without waves, not a single wave arises. The whole being silent, still. Inside, at the center, silence, and on the periphery, celebration and laughter. And only silence can laugh, because only silence can understand the cosmic joke.
“So your life becomes a vital celebration, your relationship becomes a festive thing. Whatsoever you do, every moment is a festival. You eat, and eating becomes a celebration; you take a bath, and bathing becomes a celebration; you talk, and talking becomes a celebration; relationship becomes a celebration. Your outer life becomes festive, there is no sadness in it. How can sadness exist with silence?
“Your life becomes a vital celebration, your relationship becomes a festive thing; whatsoever you do, every moment is a festival. You eat, and eating becomes a celebration; you take a bath, and bathing becomes a celebration; you talk, and talking becomes a celebration; relationship becomes a celebration. Your outer life becomes festive, there is no sadness in it. How can sadness exist with silence? But ordinarily you think otherwise: you think if you are silent you will be sad. Ordinarily you think, how can you avoid sadness if you are silent? I tell you, the silence that exists with sadness cannot be true. Something has gone wrong. You have missed the path, you are off the track. Only celebration can give proof that the real silence has happened.”
- Osho, A Bird on the Wing, Talk #10
The Whole Universe Is Celebrating
“Participation is bliss because the whole universe is celebrating. Every moment it is celebrating. It is a great celebration, a constant celebration. Only we are not part of it. We have detached ourselves and are in misery. Man is in misery because of the mind. The flowers are participating in the celebration, the moon is participating, the stars are participating, the earth is participating, the oceans are participating, the air and the clouds – everything is participating in that continuous, eternal celebration.
“Only man has become an outsider – and because of his own efforts. On his own, he has separated himself from existence.”
- Osho, The New Alchemy: To Turn You On, Talk #20
Work Is Preparatory to Celebration
“It does not mean that there will be no work if we turn life into a celebration. It is not that the wind does not work; it is always moving, blowing. It is not that the stars are idle; they are constantly moving. It is not that flowers don’t do anything when they bloom; really, they do a lot. But for them, doing it is not that important; what is important is being.
“Being is primary and doing is secondary for them. Celebration comes first and work takes a back seat in their lives. Work is preparatory to celebration.
“If you go and watch the way the primitive tribes live, you will know what work is in relation to celebration. They work the whole day so they can sing and dance with abandon at night.”
- Osho, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy, Talk #7
Entertainment Is Different from Celebration
“The workaholics have done immense harm to the world. And the greatest harm they have done is that they have deprived life of its moments of celebration and festivity. It is because of them that there is so little festivity in the world, and every day it is becoming more and more dull and dreary and miserable.
“In fact, entertainment has taken the place of celebration in the present world. But entertainment is quite different from celebration; entertainment and celebration are never the same. In celebration you are a participant; in entertainment you are only a spectator. In entertainment you watch others playing for you. So while celebration is active, entertainment is passive. In celebration you dance, while in entertainment you watch someone dancing, for which you pay him.
“But there is a world of difference between dancing and watching a dance performed by a group of professionals who are paid for it. You work hard during the day, and when you are tired in the evening you go to a concert to watch others dancing. It is all you can do, but it is not even an apology for celebration.”
- Osho, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy, Talk #7
