Question 4
Osho,
I have never been near so much authentic laughter as i have here in your presence. as i make myself available to the laughter happening around me, i notice myself withdraw and become serious. inside i long to let go and to become a part of the laughter around me, but my mind and body resist.
Why do i feel incapable of authentic laughter? and, is there a way for me to regain my natural capacity to let go in a belly laugh?
Anurag Saleen, you are a victim, but you are not alone. Almost the whole of humanity is a victim: victims of pretensions, victims of having masks, victims of not being natural, because being unnatural pays -- society gives respect to the false. Society is not respectful to the authentic and to the real, because the false can be controlled, and society is deeply interested in controlling everybody.
But the authentic cannot be controlled, and society is very much afraid of those people who are authentic and real and themselves, because they cannot be enforced into any slavery, into any obedience, into being oppressed or exploited.
The desire for reward keeps society respecting the false. And because the false is respected, each small child slowly starts following the false. Parents teaching, teachers teaching ... the whole effort is to give you a certain mold that is acceptable to everybody. The end result is a phony world, where nobody is real, where smiles are false, where love is only a word.
[....]
-Osho, "Sat Chit Anand, #4, Q4"