Osho on Laughter and Its relation with No Mind, Laughter and No-Mind

Question - Beloved Master, loving to hear you laugh, loving your jokes, loving you -- Beloved Master, Would you speak to us about Laughter?

Osho - Anand Svabhavo, when you are hungry you don't want somebody to speak on food! When you are in a river drowning, you don't want somebody else to talk about the art of swimming. There are right moments and right situations, and there are things which can be talked about, yet misunderstood.

Laughter is a mystery. It is better to experience it than to hear someone talk about it. But one becomes curious, "What is laughter?" Laughter is the most intelligent factor in you. Buffaloes don't laugh, and if you meet a buffalo laughing you will go mad! Then it will be impossible to bring you to sanity. No animal laughs. Laughter needs a very sensitive intelligence. It means that you can understand the ridiculousness of a certain situation.

What are jokes? They are a very clever arrangement. They take you in a direction logically, rationally, you start expecting that now this is going to happen, this is going to happen... and it goes on happening according to your expectations. Then comes a sudden turn and something happens which you could never have imagined. That brings laughter to you.

It is a very internal process of your rational expectation. If what you were expecting happens, there will be no laugh. But if you see something that you could not have conceived and everything went well up to the end -- and then suddenly something happens that makes you immediately forget all your reason, logic, mind...

Laughter is the only ordinary experience when you are no longer a mind, and I use it to give you glimpses of no-mind, of meditation, of a transcendence of mind. Perhaps I am the first man in the whole history of mankind who has been using jokes as a preparation for meditation. Jesus would not laugh; Buddha will not laugh; Lao Tzu is not heard to have ever laughed... They were serious people, and they were doing serious work!
It will be good to understand a small incident which began the tradition of Zen. Those are the people who understand -- the only people on the earth, a small stream who have understood the meaning of laughter because their origin is in laughter.
It was again Mahakashyapa...

He was sitting under his tree -- he was sitting under his tree for twenty years. It had almost become his tree; nobody else used to sit under that tree. Everybody knew that that was the place for Mahakashyapa and not to disturb that man. "He never asks, he never says anything, he never talks -- why disturb him? Just leave him alone." It had become an accepted fact. But one day he laughed -- and that day was his day of enlightenment.

A great king, Prasenjita, asked his wife... His wife was a disciple of Gautam Buddha, a lay disciple, not a sannyasin, but immensely interested in Gautam Buddha and hoping that one day her husband would allow her to become a sannyasin. Prasenjita was not interested in sannyas; he was interested in increasing his kingdom, to make it bigger and bigger. He was always fighting, invading new areas.

By chance, Buddha had come into the capital of Prasenjita, and the wife was insisting, "You have to come with me to welcome him because it doesn't show culture, refinement if you don't come. A man of the caliber of Gautam Buddha happens in millions of years. Kings and queens are a rupee a dozen! You can find them anywhere; they are not worth much. You will be forgotten, but Gautam Buddha's name will remain till the last man has become enlightened. You may be remembered if you go to Gautam Buddha and touch his feet. Just this small act on your part will make you historical".

And that is true -- who would have heard about Prasanjita? There were hundreds of other kings at that time, and we don't know anything about them, but Prasanjita is known. And because the wife was insistent, he said, "Okay, but I have to present something to him."

He had a very beautiful diamond. Other kings were jealous of that diamond; perhaps that was the best diamond available in those days. So prasenjita said, "What else can I offer to him? I will offer this diamond."

The wife said, "You don't understand, a diamond or a stone is equal to him. It will be better that you take a lotus flower, because to him the lotus flower represents a revolution -- it comes out of dirty mud. And it is the most beautiful flower on the earth, most fragrant, the biggest flower. It comes from the dirt, it crosses the water and stands on top of the water. This is a great revolution: dirt turning into such a beautiful...

"So velvety are the flowers, leaves and petals that when dewdrops in the night gather on the big petals and big leaves, they are so velvety that the water cannot touch them. They remain on the lotus leaves, but the lotus leaf remains untouched by them. The lotus flower remains in the water but the water does not touch it -- that gives it another significance that a man should live in the world untouched by it. He should live in the world but not allow the world to enter him; he should live in the dirty world, but he has the possibility of becoming a lotus flower."

So the lotus became a symbol for the transcendence from the trivial matters of the world. Gautam Buddha is represented in thousands of temples sitting on a lotus flower. That lotus flower represents his philosophy -- it has become a symbol. So she said, "In our beautiful pond at the palace I will find the best and biggest lotus flower -- you take the lotus flower."

The husband did not think that a lotus flower had any value in comparison to his diamond which could purchase a whole kingdom. So he said, "Okay, I will take both, and I will see which he prefers. This is my first meeting, so let me judge the man."

He touched the feet of Buddha and wanted to give the great diamond. Ten thousand disciples were present. They could not believe the radiance of the diamond, its clarity, purity, its perfection -- and it was so great. There was complete silence, because everybody was watching what Buddha was going to do now, because it was against his disciplines to have anything more than three changes of clothes and one begging bowl -- that had to be the only possession for any sannyasin. Now what was he going to do...?

Was he going to refuse the king? -- that will be insulting. Was he going to accept it? -- but that will be against his discipline. So there was great silence and great curiosity.
Buddha saw the diamond and told prasenjita, "Drop it!"

Very reluctantly, he dropped it, because now there was no way... He has presented, and the man is saying "Drop it." Under the impact of Buddha and those ten thousand people -- in which there were nearly two dozen enlightened people -- he dropped the diamond. Then he brought from the other hand the lotus flower, thinking that perhaps his wife was right. Buddha said, "Drop it!"

Prasenjita could not believe what kind of man he was, "I have brought presents and he goes on saying, `Drop it.'"
The third time, when he had dropped the lotus flower, his hands were empty, but Buddha said loudly, "Drop it!"
He said, "I don't have anything to drop."

That was the moment when Mahakashyapa for the first time in twenty years started laughing, madly. prasenjita was very much offended, but Gautam Buddha called Mahakashyapa gave him the lotus flower, and told him, "From you will start a totally new and unique, fresh stream."

That fresh stream has developed into Zen -- but it was born in the laughter of Mahakashyapa. prasenjita said, "I don't understand what is happening... why this man laughed."

Gautam Buddha said, "He laughed because you could not understand my third request to drop it. I wanted you to drop your ego. I am not concerned with lotus flowers, not concerned with diamonds. I only am concerned with one thing, your ego. Unless you drop it, you have not dropped anything. And I cannot accept your diamond or your lotus flower, because that will enhance and nourish your ego.

"That's why Mahakashyapa laughed because the poor emperor does not understand the language of a mystic -- but he understood it. In ten thousand sannyasins he was the only one who understood what I meant -- and he laughed. I have chosen him to be the first for a new stream of seekers, so he is the founder of Zen."

Zen was founded in laughter, and for twenty-five centuries the tradition has continued to produce enlightened people. Most of the traditions have died but Zen still brings flowers. Perhaps, rooted in laughter, it is rooted in the highest consciousness.
Anand Svabhavo....

Rabinovich sits down in a cafe and orders a glass of tea and a copy of PRAVDA.
"I'll bring the tea," the waiter tells him, "but I can't bring you a copy of PRAVDA. The Soviet regime has been overthrown and PRAVDA isn't published anymore" -- PRAVDA is the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
"All right," says Rabinovich, "Just bring me the tea."

The next day Rabinovich comes to the same cafe and asks for tea and a copy of PRAVDA. The waiter gives him the same answer. On the third day, Rabinovich again orders tea and PRAVDA. This time the waiter says to him, "Look, sir, you seem to be an intelligent man. For the past three days you've ordered a copy of PRAVDA, and three times now I've had to tell you that the Soviet regime has been overthrown, and PRAVDA isn't published anymore."
"I know, I know," says Rabinovich. "But I just like to hear it."

Two Jews sat in a coffee house discussing the fate of their people.
"How miserable is our lot," said one. "Pogroms, plagues, quotas, discrimination, and Adolf Hitler... Sometimes I think we'd be better off if we'd never been born."
"Sure," said his friend. "But who has that much luck -- maybe one in fifty thousand?"

Try to get it!

It was at the office Christmas party. As they lay on the office reception couch in the darkened room, their breath came hot and fast.
"Oh, Melvin, oh Melvin," she said passionately, "You've never made love to me like this before. Is it because of the holiday spirit?"
"No," he panted. "It is probably because I am not Melvin!"

It is possible, when you have a hearty laugh, mind stops, because mind cannot laugh. It is structured seriously, its function is to be serious, miserable, sick. The moment you laugh, it does not come from your mind, it comes from the beyond, from your very inner spirit. According to me, all the religions have missed one of the dimensions of the greatest importance, a sense of humor. And they have made the whole world serious.

I want my people to fill the world with laughter, joy, songs, and dances. We are not seeking for any paradise -- we are seeking how to create the paradise, herenow, because we are not interested in things after death. If we can create a paradise herenow, certainly we will be able -- even if we meet in hell -- to create the paradise there.

All my people are condemned by all the religions, so I hope we will be reaching hell. But they are to be warned, "Don't send my people to hell, because they will turn the hell into a far better paradise than you have with your old, dirty and dry saints who cannot even smile!"

I trust absolutely that when a million sannyasins enter into hell with their guitars and songs and dances and jokes the whole quality and the whole atmosphere of hell is going to be changed -- I think even the devil will join you! He will become a sannyasin: Swami Anand Devil!

Source - Osho Book "The Invitation"

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