A Good

Belly
Laughter

R
eligion has always had a long face, sad, serious, sombre.
Because of that seriousness, millions of people have remained
aloof from religion.
Those who were alive could not become religious because religion
meant a kind of suicide to them -- and it was so. Those who were
already dead or dying, those who were ill, pathological, suicidal, only
they were
interested in the old religions.
The old religions were not dancing, singing, celebrating; they were
anti-life, anti-earth, anti-body. They were purely negative; they had
nothing to affirm. Their God was based on negativity. Go on negating:
the more you negate life, the more religious you were thought to be.
I am bringing a totally new vision of religion to the earth: I am
introducing you to a religion that can laugh, a religion that can love, a
religion that can live the ordinary life with extraordinary awareness.
Religion is not a question of changing life patterns, of changing
things and situations. Religion changes you, not your situation. It does
not change things: it changes the way you look at things. It changes
your eyes, your vision; it gives you an insight. Then God is not
something against life: then God is the intrinsic core of life. Then spirit
 is not anti-matter but the highest form of matter, the "godliness" rather than using the word 'God' -- that
purest fragrance of matter. word gives you the idea of a person, and God is not a
If you avoid sannyas that will be being serious. You person but a presence.
have not understood that this is not the same kind of Sannyas is not like becoming a Hindu or a Christian
initiation. You have been into many schools, and you or a Muslim. In fact, it is dropping out of all these trips --
have gathered much knowledge about initiation and Hindu, Christian, Muslim, all these trips. Sannyas is
the mysteries -- but this is not that kind of initiation. It simply dropping out of all ideologies. Ideologies are
is just the opposite: it is getting initiated into life, into bound to be serious; no ideology can have laughter as its
the ordinary life. Once your ordinary life becomes spirit, because ideologies have to fight with each other,
suffused with your meditativeness, you are a sannyasin. argue with each other, and argument cannot be done with
It is not only a question of changing your clothes -- that laughter. Argument has to be serious. Argument is
is only symbolic -- the real sannyasin is bringing basically egoistic, how can it laugh? The ego knows no
meditation to the ordinary affairs of life, bringing laughter at all.
meditation to the marketplace. Eating, walking, Once it happened: A great philosopher and thinker,
sleeping, one can remain continuously in a state of Keshav Chandra Sen, went to see Ramakrishna. He
meditation. It is nothing special that you are doing, but wanted to defeat Ramakrishna, and, certainly, he was
doing the same things in a new way, with a new capable of great argument. He argued against God,
method, with new art. against religion, against
Sannyas changes your outlook. Ramakrishna was doing. He was
You listened to my advice and trying to prove that Ramakrishna
for nine months, you say, you He simply kissed was a fool, that there is no God, that
stopped almost everything and got nobody has ever proved the
good results from following the
me, hugged me, existence of God. He talked and
advice. But somewhere deep down laughed, danced. talked, and slowly he started feeling
you are still serious; otherwise you a little weird because Ramakrishna
He appreciated
would have taken a jump into would only laugh. He would listen
sannyas -- non-seriously. Even to ask me as nobody to the argument and laugh -- and not
about it is to show your seriousness. has ever done -- only laugh, he would jump, hug
You could not accept it playfully, Keshav Chandra Sen, kiss him and
with laughter.
and I was say, "Beautiful! This argument I have
Sannyas is just a play -- Leela. talking against never heard! It is really intelligent,
That concept is not known in the clever."
him!
West; the West has missed much Keshav Chandra Sen began
because of not knowing that feeling very embarrassed. A crowd
concept. In the West, religion has no had gathered seeing that Keshav
idea that God is not a creator but a Chandra, a great philosopher, is
player, that existence is not his creation but his play of going to Ramakrishna; many people had come to listen,
energies. Just like the ocean waves roaring, shattering hearing that something is going to transpire there. Even
on the banks and the rocks, eternally, just a play of they started feeling that the whole journey had been
energy, so is God. These millions of forms are not futile.
created by God, those are just because of his "This is a strange thing that is happening!"
overflowing energy. And Ramakrishna danced and laughed and he said,
God is not a person at all. You cannot worship God. "Even if there had been any doubt in my mind about
You can live in a godly way but you cannot worship God, you have destroyed it. How can there be such
God -- there is nobody to worship. All your worship is intelligence without God? You are proof, Keshav
sheer stupidity, all your images of God are your own Chandra -- I believe in you."
creation. There is no God as such, but there is godliness, And Keshav Chandra has written in his memoirs,
certainly -- in the flowers, in the birds, in the stars, in "Ramakrishna's laughter defeated me -- defeated me
the eyes of the people, when a song arises in the heart forever. I forgot all arguments. It looked so foolish! And
and poetry surrounds you... all this is God. Let us say he had not argued against me, he had not even said a
single word against me. He simply kissed me, hugged
 single word against me. He simply kissed me, is. To Unlovers love is blind; to lovers love is the only
hugged me, laughed, danced. He appreciated me as possible eye which can see to the very core of existence.
nobody has ever done -- and I was talking against him! To those who don't know the taste of religion, sannyas is
He said, 'Keshav Chandra, your presence, such madness; but to those who know, everything else is
intelligence, such genius, is enough proof that God is!' madness except sannyas. This is entering into sanity. I
He said this to me," Keshav Chandra writes, "but really don't see anything saner than laughter, saner than love,
his presence, his laughter, his dance, his hugging and saner than celebration.
kissing, proved to me that God is; otherwise, how is But you are still thinking in serious terms: 'initiation'
such a phenomenon as Ramakrishna possible?" is a great word. You are still obsessed with your old
The uneducated Ramakrishna, the villager ideas, still afraid that you may start trying too hard. In
Ramakrishna, proved far more profound than the very fact, you are still trying.
sophisticated, educated Keshav Chandra. What First I had suggested to you not to try too hard. Now
happened? Something tremendously beautiful you are trying too hard on the opposite end, on the polar
happened. Ramakrishna is really religious; he knows opposite: trying too hard not to try hard! It is the same
what religion is, he knows what godliness is: to take life thing. Become a sannyasin and forget all this nonsense.
in a dancing way, to take life singing, to accept life in all Then one transcends both trying and non-trying. A great
its manifoldness, without any judgement -- to love it for laughter is waiting for you. And the moment the beyond
what it is. starts laughing inside you, giggling inside you, then you
A sannyasin means one who is not trying to solve the know for the first time what it means to be a Christ,
mystery of life but is diving deep what it means to be a Buddha.
into the mystery itself. Living the But Christians say Christ never
mystery is sannyas, not solving laughed -- this is their idea about
the mystery. If you start solving Christ. This is not true about the
it, you become serious. If you
their idea about real Christ -- I know the man! It is
start living it, you become more Christ. This is not impossible to conceive that he
and more playful. true about the real never laughed. He enjoyed good
See the difference between food, you know, both dining and
sannyas and other initiations. Christ -- I know the wining; he enjoyed beautiful
There is a qualitative difference. man! It is company. And if you want
It is not initiation in the old beautiful company, you have to
sense, just as it is not a learning
impossible to find it not in the scholars but in the
in the old sense -- it is an conceive that he gamblers; if you really want good
unlearning, and so I can say it is never laughed. He company, you will have to move to
Uninitiation. It will bring you out those who live on the fringes of
of all your initiations, because if enjoyed good food, your so-called society -- the fringe
you have been to so many you know, both people, the outsiders, the gamblers,
schools, sects and ideologies, the drunkards, the prostitutes --
many things must still be
dining and wining; because your society has
hanging around inside you. You he enjoyed beautiful become so dull and dead. The
need a good cleaning, you need a company established society is almost a
thorough cleaning, you need a cemetery; you don't meet people
good bath -- and sannyas will there, you meet only dead bodies,
give you a shower, it will cleanse corpses -- walking, talking,
your soul. It will give you back the innocence of a child, moving, doing things... it is a miracle!
the laughter of a child, the eyes full of wonder and awe. One day a small boy asked me, "Do you believe in
Don't hesitate... take the jump. It is a jump, because ghosts?"
you cannot come to it through thinking. It is a jump I said, "Believe? -- I am surrounded by ghosts!"
because it is not a conclusion of your mind. To others it He understood the point immediately. He said, "So...
will look like madness -- in fact all love is mad and all so you mean... the people in the streets and the market
love is blind, at least to those who don't know what love are all ghosts?"
of religion, sannyas is madness; but to those who know,
 I said, "Yes, they are all ghosts. They are
all living a post-mortem existence. They
have died long ago. In fact, they died
before they were ever born."
The society kills and kills slowly, skill
fully. You never become aware because it
is done so slowly, that's why. A child is
slowly poisoned.
In the East, in the past, there
used to be a certain kind of woman
detective. Those woman detectives
were called Vishkanyas --
poisoned girls.
Certain beautiful girls were
poisoned very slowly from the
very beginning with the
mother's milk -- it is an
historical fact -- but the poison
was given in such small doses
that it would not kill them
immediately; but slowly their
whole system would become
poisoned. Poison would flow
in their blood, their breath
would become poison. By
the time they became adolescents, they were ready to be
used by the kings, and they were so beautiful that it was
very easy to allure anybody with them. They were sent
to the enemy king who was bound to fall into the trap
of the beautiful woman, and once the woman kissed the
man that was the end of him. Just the kiss was enough
to kill; a kiss of death it was.
To make love to such a woman will be the end -- you
will die like a few spiders die. There are a few spiders
who die while making love -- because the girlfriend
starts eating them while they are getting higher and
higher, and they are in such ecstasy -- you know spiders
-- trembling, and they have completely forgotten the
world. They are no longer material, they are spiritual.
But women are women; they are very materialistic. The
moment the spider gets into his orgasmic spasms, the
girlfriend starts eating him. By the time he comes back,
he is no more. He was thinking he was coming -- he was
really going!
Those poisoned girls were trained... but the miracle
was that so much poison didn't kill them. It was given
in such mild doses, very slowly.
A scientist was experimenting with frogs: he threw a
frog into boiling water -- of course, the frog jumped
immediately out of it. Then he gave the frog just
ordinary water, normal temperature; the frog enjoyed
ordinary water, normal temperature; the frog
enjoyed the bucket, sat at the bottom, relaxed, and
the scientist started heating it up slowly, very
slowly. Within hours it was boiling, but the frog
didn't jump out of it... he died. He never became
aware, the thing happened so slowly.
And that's what is happening in society. It
takes almost twenty-five years to kill a
child totally, to poison a child totally. By
the time he comes from the university
he is dead, he is finished; now he
will live a post-mortem existence.
I can see a grain of truth in the
hippie idea that don't trust a
man beyond thirty. There is
some truth in it. By the
time a man is
thirty he is no
longer alive --
if he is still
alive he will
become a
Buddha, he will
be a Christ, he will
be a Krishna. But
by that time people die -- and they die so unconsciously
that they go on living as if they are alive.
Sannyas means giving you your life back. It is a
process of deprogramming you, unconditioning you,
unpoisoning you. You cannot decide logically to be a
sannyasin, because that very mind is a problem, and you
are trying to decide with that very mind. Sannyas has to
be a jump. It happens from the heart, not from the head.
You are still thinking from the head. Please, get down
from the head. At least let one thing happen from the
heart -- not logically but illogically, not in a prosaic way
but in a poetic way. Sannyas has to be a love affair!
Nonserious, full of laughter, enter into it... and you will
be surprised that this is not some other initiation. This
will bring out all your initiations and all your philosophy
and all your systems of thought.
Sannyas is relaxing in life, trusting in life, resting in
life. Nowhere to go, nothing to achieve, then the whole
energy is available to dance and sing and celebrate.
- Osho:
The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha,
Vol 3, Chapter #8
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