Laughing Meditation

Laughing Meditation is a simple, playful morning practice Osho gave to open the day with lightness and a fresh current of life. Upon waking, before the world enters through your eyes, you first stretch like a cat and then let five minutes of laughter rise and ripple through the whole body. At first the laughter may be deliberate, even a little theatrical; soon the sound of your own attempt unlocks genuine laughter. Practised daily, this easy rhythm of stretch-and-laugh becomes spontaneous over a few days and changes the flavour of the entire day.

For those who feel blocked—unable to laugh totally or sensing the laughter is false—Osho points to a traditional yogic purification to clear the passage of expression. This lukewarm salted-water cleanse (a classic shatkarmic method) is done early in the morning before food: you drink quickly, then bend and gargle so the water flows back out, a gentle "vomiting of the water" that dissolves obstructions. After about ten days, you feel a striking inner cleanliness; laughter, tears, and even speech arise more naturally from the deep center.