We have become so technically advanced that we have forgotten laughter. We have also forgotten to laugh at ourselves and this crazy world we live in.
Osho, the enlightened master, gifted us with a Laughter Meditation in his famous book, Meditation: The Art of Ecstasy. He says: “We are so attached to our suffering that laughter usually occurs only as a release of tension. Only rarely, very rarely, does laughter occur without a cause. We cannot laugh; we cannot be happy; even in our laughter there is pain. But laughing is so beautiful, such a deep cleansing, such a deep purification.”
Osho put Laughter Meditation as his motto. Practiced every morning when you wake up, it will be your day. Osho says: “If you wake up laughing, soon you will begin to feel how absurd life is. Nothing is serious: even your disappointments are laughable, even your pain is laughable, even you are laughable.”
Here’s the technique: When you wake up in the morning, before you open your eyes, stretch like a cat. Stretch every part of your body. Enjoy the stretch; enjoy the feeling of your body waking up, alive. After three or four minutes of stretching, with your eyes still closed, laugh. For five minutes, just laugh. At first you’ll just be doing it, but soon, the sound of your trying to laugh will elicit a genuine laugh. Lose yourself in laughter. It may take several days before you can actually achieve this technique. We are not used to laughing; we have forgotten the easiest thing we could do. But keep trying; soon it will be spontaneous. And then every morning, you wake up happy!
Another technique is to laugh only when you are alone. This book, Laughter: The Best Meditation can help you start your Laughter Meditation. When you read it and enjoy the jokes, laugh out loud. At first, it will be difficult, but soon you will enter the joy of laughter, so start with a soft “hee-hee-hee.” Then make it louder with a laugh, a giggle, a giggle, and finally with a full-throated cackle as you roar with a full-throated cackle. Continue for at least fifteen minutes. Then STOP suddenly and go into complete silence. Now you will absorb all that energy deep inside you that was generated while you laughed. Your mind will become completely silent, without any thought. This is when you are in meditation.
Osho says: “Let your laughter be your only prayer. Let your joy be your only offering. Love life! Love the little things! Don’t miss a single moment. Keep getting more and more joyful and you will find that God comes”. increasingly. My emphasis is to increase your joy, your laughter, because this world is not for the miserable. This world is not for people who have become too accustomed to anxiety, anguish. This world belongs to those who live moment by moment in total ecstasy. Joy, non-seriousness, a sense of humor to me, are very fundamental qualities of a religious being.” When asked, “What is your message?” Osho replied, “Be a joke to yourself. Laugh at yourself. But learn to laugh. Seriousness is a sin and it is a disease. Laughter has a tremendous beauty, a lightness. It will bring you lightness and give you wings to fly.”
