Laughter, Medicine

jettison · 03-05-2008, 07:43 PM

Osho's take:

People have their own reasons. Even laughter is businesslike; even laughter is economic, political. Even laughter is not just laughter. All purity is lost. You cannot even laugh in a pure way, in a simple way, childlike. And if you cannot laugh in a pure way, you are losing something tremendously valuable. You are losing your virginity, your purity, your innocence.

Watch a small child; watch his laughter -- so profound, comes from the very center. When a child is born, the first social activity that the child learns -- or junebe it is not right to say 'learns', because he brings it with himself -- is smiling. The first social activity. By smiling he becomes part of society. It seems very natural, spontaneous. Other things will come later on -- that is his first spark of being in the world, when he smiles. When a mother sees her child smiling, she becomes tremendously happy -- because that smile shows health, that smile shows intelligence, that smile shows that the child is not stupid, not retarded. That smile shows that the child is going to live, love, be happy. The mother is simply thrilled.

Smiling is the first social activity, and should remain the basic social activity. One should go on laughing the whole of one's life. If you can laugh in all sorts of situations, you will become so capable of encountering them -- and that encounter will bring maturity to you. I am not saying don't weep. In fact, if you cannot laugh, you cannot weep. They go together; they are part of one phenomenon: of being true and authentic.
There are millions of people whose tears have dried; their eyes have lost luster, depth; their eyes have lost water -- because they cannot weep, they cannot cry; tears cannot flow naturally. If laughter is crippled, tears are also crippled. Only a person who laughs well can weep well. And if you can weep and laugh well, you are alive. The dead man cannot laugh and cannot weep. The dead man can be serious. Watch: go and look at a corpse -- the dead man can be serious in a more skillful way than you can be. Only an alive man can laugh and weep and cry.

These are moods of your inner being, these are climates -- enriching. But, by and by, everybody forgets. That which was natural in the beginning becomes unnatural. You need somebody to poke you into laughter, tickle you into laughter -- only then do you laugh. That's why so many jokes exist in the world.

You june not have observed, but Jews have the best jokes in the world. And the reason is because they have lived in deeper misery than any other race. They had to create jokes, otherwise they would have been dead long before. They have passed through so much misery, they have been tortured down the centuries so much, they have been crushed, murdered -- they had to create a sense of the ridiculous. That has been a saving device. Hence, they have the most beautiful jokes. the funniest, the profoundest.

What I am trying to show you is this: that we laugh only when there is some reason which is forcing us to laugh. A joke is told, and you laugh -- because a joke creates a certain excitement in you. The whole mechanism of a joke is: the story goes in one direction, and suddenly it takes a turn; the turn is so sudden, so drastic, that you could not have imagined it. Excitement grows and you are waiting for the punchline. And then suddenly, whatsoever you were expecting is never there -- something absolutely different, something very absurd and ridiculous, never fulfilling your expectation.

A joke is never logical. If a joke is logical it will lose all its sense of laughter, the quality of laughter, because then you will be able to predict. Then by the time the joke is being said, you will have reached the punchline because it will be a syllogism, it will be simple arithmetic. But then it will not have any laughter. A joke takes a sudden turn, so sudden that it was almost impossible for you to imagine it, to infer it. It takes a jump, a leap, a quantum leap -- and that's why it releases so much laughter. It is a subtle psychological way to tickle you.

I have to tell jokes because I am afraid -- you are all religious people. You tend to be serious. I have to tickle you so sometimes you forget your religiousness, you forget all your philosophies, theories, systems, and you fall down to earth. I have to bring you back to the earth again and again, otherwise you will tend to become serious, more and more serious. And seriousness is a canceric growth.

Laughter brings some energy from your inner source to your surface. Energy starts flowing, follows laughter like a shadow. Have you watched it? When you really laugh, for those few moments you are in a deep meditative state. Thinking stops. It is impossible to laugh and think together. They are diametrically opposite: either you can laugh or you can think. If you really laugh, thinking stops. If you are still thinking, laughter will be just so-so, it will be just so-so, lagging behind. It will be a crippled laughter.

When you really laugh, suddenly mind disappears. And the whole Zen methodology is how to get into no-mind -- laughter is one of the beautiful doors to get to it."

**melrich** · 03-05-2008, 07:49 PM

Quote:

I have to tell jokes because I am afraid -- you are all religious people. You tend to be serious.

Who are you talking to?

jettison · 03-05-2008, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by melrich

Who are you talking to?

Who am I talking to? I'm not talking to anyone. However, I think Osho is talking to the vast majority of the world who are often so sick, depressed, and anxiety ridden, that they find it difficult to even laugh in a genuine way. And when you've lost your ability to really laugh, you've usually lost yourself. Again, though, I'm not an expert on Osho. This is just what I take from it.

**melrich** · 03-05-2008, 07:52 PM

Ah got you.

Quote:

And when you've lost your ability to really laugh, you've usually lost yourself.

I see.

I like the short version better!!

jettison · 03-05-2008, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by melrich

Ah got you.

I see.

I like the short version better!!

I don't know if you've read Osho, but I've read about a dozen of his books, many of them several times. If there's one universal criticism, it's that he's overly verbose, tends to ramble, can't stay on topic, and repeats himself endlessly. (can't stay on topic - he'd get all of his posts deleted from ENA!!!) At first, it's quite off-puting.

However, once you realize that none of this is scripted, that it's actually transcribed from lectures he's given to his students, that no two lectures are exactly alike, and that all his takes come from his heart much more then from his mind, you start to settle with his deficiencies as a speaker and as a writer.

**melrich** · 03-05-2008, 08:14 PM

Must confess I have never read anything by him. From the excerpt above he certainly seems like hard work.

jettison · 03-05-2008, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by melrich

Must confess I have never read anything by him. From the excerpt above he certainly seems like hard work.

Simple for me. Perhaps it's acquired simplicity.

tiredofvampires · 03-05-2008, 08:53 PM

I personally favor simplicity, particularly in the written word expressed.

One deadpan a day keeps the doctor away, I say.

laxhaddy · 10-13-2009, 04:42 AM

Yes. I agree with jettison.
Simple for me. Perhaps it's acquired simplicity.

greywolf · 10-13-2009, 01:31 PM

I will have to look up his stuff when I get home. I find it very interesting.

03-05-2008, 07:43 PM	#1
jettison Online Platinum Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: West Bay Posts: 4,969	Laughter, Medicine Osho's take: People have their own reasons. Even laughter is businesslike; even laughter is economic, political. Even laughter is not just laughter. All purity is lost. You cannot even laugh in a pure way, in a simple way, childlike. And if you cannot laugh in a pure way, you are losing something tremendously valuable. You are losing your virginity, your purity, your innocence. Watch a small child; watch his laughter -- so profound, comes from the very center. When a child is born, the first social activity that the child learns -- or junebe it is not right to say 'learns', because he brings it with himself -- is smiling. The first social activity. By smiling he becomes part of society. It seems very natural, spontaneous. Other things will come later on -- that is his first spark of being in the world, when he smiles. When a mother sees her child smiling, she becomes tremendously happy -- because that smile shows health, that smile shows intelligence, that smile shows that the child is not stupid, not retarded. That smile shows that the child is going to live, love, be happy. The mother is simply thrilled. Smiling is the first social activity, and should remain the basic social activity. One should go on laughing the whole of one's life. If you can laugh in all sorts of situations, you will become so capable of encountering them -- and that encounter will bring maturity to you. I am not saying don't weep. In fact, if you cannot laugh, you cannot weep. They go together; they are part of one phenomenon: of being true and authentic. There are millions of people whose tears have dried; their eyes have lost luster, depth; their eyes have lost water -- because they cannot weep, they cannot cry; tears cannot flow naturally. If laughter is crippled, tears are also crippled. Only a person who laughs well can weep well. And if you can weep and laugh well, you are alive. The dead man cannot laugh and cannot weep. The dead man can be serious. Watch: go and look at a corpse -- the dead man can be serious in a more skillful way than you can be. Only an alive man can laugh and weep and cry. These are moods of your inner being, these are climates -- enriching. But, by and by, everybody forgets. That which was natural in the beginning becomes unnatural. You need somebody to poke you into laughter, tickle you into laughter -- only then do you laugh. That's why so many jokes exist in the world. You june not have observed, but Jews have the best jokes in the world. And the reason is because they have lived in deeper misery than any other race. They had to create jokes, otherwise they would have been dead long before. They have passed through so much misery, they have been tortured down the centuries so much, they have been crushed, murdered -- they had to create a sense of the ridiculous. That has been a saving device. Hence, they have the most beautiful jokes. the funniest, the profoundest. What I am trying to show you is this: that we laugh only when there is some reason which is forcing us to laugh. A joke is told, and you laugh -- because a joke creates a certain excitement in you. The whole mechanism of a joke is: the story goes in one direction, and suddenly it takes a turn; the turn is so sudden, so drastic, that you could not have imagined it. Excitement grows and you are waiting for the punchline. And then suddenly, whatsoever you were expecting is never there -- something absolutely different, something very absurd and ridiculous, never fulfilling your expectation. A joke is never logical. If a joke is logical it will lose all its sense of laughter, the quality of laughter, because then you will be able to predict. Then by the time the joke is being said, you will have reached the punchline because it will be a syllogism, it will be simple arithmetic. But then it will not have any laughter. A joke takes a sudden turn, so sudden that it was almost impossible for you to imagine it, to infer it. It takes a jump, a leap, a quantum leap -- and that's why it releases so much laughter. It is a subtle psychological way to tickle you. I have to tell jokes because I am afraid -- you are all religious people. You tend to be serious. I have to tickle you so sometimes you forget your religiousness, you forget all your philosophies, theories, systems, and you fall down to earth. I have to bring you back to the earth again and again, otherwise you will tend to become serious, more and more serious. And seriousness is a canceric growth. Laughter brings some energy from your inner source to your surface. Energy starts flowing, follows laughter like a shadow. Have you watched it? When you really laugh, for those few moments you are in a deep meditative state. Thinking stops. It is impossible to laugh and think together. They are diametrically opposite: either you can laugh or you can think. If you really laugh, thinking stops. If you are still thinking, laughter will be just so-so, it will be just so-so, lagging behind. It will be a crippled laughter. When you really laugh, suddenly mind disappears. And the whole Zen methodology is how to get into no-mind -- laughter is one of the beautiful doors to get to it." __________________ A unique opportunity... If you were at the deathbed of a woman you secretly loved all your life but whom you never had the courage to tell and then she tells you that she secretly loved you all these years, what a great opportunity that would be to practice your "poker face." "I wish someone knew me. I’d pick them apart and find out who I am." - Equestrian Dynamo

03-05-2008, 08:53 PM	#8
tiredofvampires Offline Platinum Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: In this world but not of it Gender: Female Age: 41 Posts: 3,814	I personally favor simplicity, particularly in the written word expressed. One deadpan a day keeps the doctor away, I say. __________________ "Story is mightier than gun." ~bumper sticker What's supposed to happen, IS happening. Love is its own reward. "What is to give light must endure burning." ***** AMOR VINCIT OMNIA

10-13-2009, 01:31 PM	#10
greywolf Offline Platinum Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Good question... Gender: Female Posts: 5,185	I will have to look up his stuff when I get home. I find it very interesting. __________________ "I'll never understand this until I get my penis." ~hersmudders "Give me life. Give me pain. Give me myself again." ~Tori Amos Pacquiao is gonna beat Cotto's ass!! w00t!

03-05-2008, 08:14 PM	#6
melrich Offline Super Moderator Join Date: Jul 2003 Gender: Male Posts: 8,503	Must confess I have never read anything by him. From the excerpt above he certainly seems like hard work.

10-13-2009, 04:42 AM	#9
laxhaddy Offline Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 1	Yes. I agree with jettison. Simple for me. Perhaps it's acquired simplicity.