This Tantra-based method invites you to drop the mind’s seriousness and enter meditation through pure, purposeless laughter. Drawing inspiration from Osho’s revolutionary work with laughter in the Mystic Rose, it uses spontaneous, total laughter to melt inner armor, shake loose repressed energies, and reveal a natural, unforced silence. Laughter becomes the door; witnessing is the room you enter.
Practiced alone or in a group, you begin with childlike, unprovoked laughter—allowing it to start as play and grow until the whole body laughs. When the laughter exhausts itself, you fall into quiet witnessing and a gentle let-go. The contrast between overflowing joy and deep stillness awakens a spacious awareness that is both cleansing and celebrative.
Phase Instructions
First Stage: Ignite Unprovoked Laughter
Settle in a safe, open space where you can move freely. Stand or sit with the spine free, feet grounded, jaw loose, and shoulders relaxed. Close your eyes or keep them softly downcast to stay inward. For a short moment, feel your breath in the belly. Then, without any reason, invite laughter—start gently if needed, even ‘fake’ it—ha…ha…ha—letting the sound ride your exhale from the belly upward. Allow the body to join: let knees bounce, shoulders shake, arms wave, or the torso fold forward in a belly-laugh. No words, no eye contact, no stories—only laughter and breath. If giggles turn into roaring laughter, let it; if the laughter becomes silent and trembling, let that too. Should tears arise, welcome them without commentary and keep allowing the energy to move. Keep returning to the body: feel the belly pumping, the chest opening, the face softening. Let laughter spread through every cell until it becomes spontaneous and total. Continue for the whole first segment (as guided by a timer or bell).
Second Stage: Witness the Echo
At the signal, stop all intentional movement and become still—sitting comfortably or lying down. Keep eyes closed. Let the breath settle on its own and feel the afterglow of laughter: tingling in the cheeks, warmth in the chest, ripples through the belly. Do nothing; simply watch. Allow an inner smile to hover without forcing it. If thoughts appear, notice them as passing clouds and return to sensing—breath, heartbeat, spaciousness. Let silence reveal itself beneath the fading echoes of laughter. Rest in effortless witnessing for the full length of this stage.
Third Stage: Let-Go and Rest
Gently lie down if you are not already, arms slightly away from the body, palms open. With an easy exhale, whisper inside: “Let go.” Drop every effort—let the floor hold you. No technique now: if a fresh wave of laughter or a few tears arise, allow and let them pass. Feel the sweetness of quiet spread through the body. Toward the end, bring awareness to the heart; acknowledge gratitude for the release and the silence. When the final signal comes, slowly deepen the breath, make small movements, stretch, and open the eyes softly—carrying an inner smile into your next activity.
Core Benefits
- Drops the mind's seriousness
- Melts inner armor
- Shakes loose repressed energies
- Reveals a natural, unforced silence
- Awakens spacious awareness
What Osho Said About This Technique
Beloved Osho, when I heard you say laughter is a small release from our misery, my mind would not compute. It felt as though hysteria was filling the room as we all laughed, and I am still asking myself, "what happened?"
You can see what happened! It can look like hysteria. For example, when you understand something and laughter happens as a relief from misery, a great energy is released. Every understanding releases accumulated energies in you. For example, you are not laughing the whole day -- only once in a while. You are not being loving the whole day -- only once in a while. What happens to the energy in the big gaps? It accumulates, and if you come to an understanding of a certain phenomenon there is a great release, and the release is so strong that it will feel hysterical. But it is not hysterical; it is really getting relief from energy which could have become hysterical any moment. You can find people in madhouses laughing for hours, laughing so much that tears come to their eyes. They are mad because they could not manage to release…Read the full discourse →
In the tang dynasty there was a stout fellow who was called the happy chinaman, or the laughing buddha.
THIS HOTEI HAD NO DESIRE TO CALL HIMSELF A ZEN MASTER, OR TO GATHER DISCIPLES AROUND HIM. INSTEAD HE WALKED THE STREETS WITH A SACK ON HIS BACK FULL OF CANDY, FRUIT AND DOUGHNUTS -- WHICH HE GAVE OUT TO THE CHILDREN WHO GATHERED AND PLAYED AROUND HIM. WHENEVER HE MET A ZEN DEVOTEE HE WOULD EXTEND HIS HAND AND SAY: "GIVE ME ONE PENNY." AND IF ANYONE ASKED HIM TO RETURN TO THE TEMPLE TO TEACH OTHERS, AGAIN HE WOULD REPLY: "GIVE ME ONE PENNY." ONCE WHEN HE WAS AT HIS PLAY-WORK ANOTHER ZEN MASTER HAPPENED TO ALONG AND INQUIRED: "WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ZEN?" HOTEI IMMEDIATELY PLOPPED HIS SACK DOWN ON THE GROUND IN SILENT ANSWER. "THEN," ASKED THE OTHER, "WHAT IS THE ACTUALIZATION OF ZEN?" AT ONCE THE HAPPY CHINAMAN SWUNG THE SACK OVER HIS SHOULDER AND CONTINUED ON HIS WAY. You have turned life into…Read the full discourse →
If you meditate, that very experience becomes your proof. So for three months simply forget all your training, analytic acumen, skill -- forget all about it. For three months just be here, a very primitive man. The primitive man is very pure -- he lives from the heart, and from the heart the being is very close. From the head the being is very tar away. From the head the moon is closer and the being is very far away. That's why the head people have reached to the moon, but have not yet been able to reach the being. They will never reach. They will reach Mars, they will reach farther and farther away, but they will never come home. From the head everything is close except the being. The being is very close to feeling. So for these three months, feeling has to be your style.Read the full discourse →
meditation is emptiness hence the master is needed the most significant function of the master is in the twilight zone because when the disciple starts falling back which is a natural thing nothing extraordinary about it it happens to everybody because the known, the familiar was at least the known and the familiar and now one is simply melting and one knows not what is going to happen next it is almost like death the death of the old and the new is not born yet that is the moment when the master can go on holding your hand and he can say don't be worried -- the dawn is not far away just look at the east, the sun is rising sometimes the master has to devise things just to keep you occupied in the twilight zone some toys to cling to, some methods, some words so you are…Read the full discourse →
Mind lives in time, mind is time. It consists of past and future. Remember, I divide time into only two tenses, past and future. Present is not part of time, present is part of eternity. Present is that moment where eternity crosses time. Time is horizontal, eternity is vertical; where the vertical line crosses the horizontal line, that point -- it is just a point -- is the present. And the whole art of meditation is to live in the present, to be herenow, dropping the past, dropping the future. Once you are capable of dropping all the past and all the future, all that is left is the present moment, the now. And that is the time, the moment, the space in which the revolution happens. Suddenly your horizontal line becomes vertical, you enter into eternity, into timelessness. That is the world of truth, the world of the real.Read the full discourse →
Common Questions
Begin with childlike, unprovoked laughter, allowing it to start as play and grow.
Laughter is used to melt inner armor and shake loose repressed energies.
Yes, it can be practiced alone or in a group setting.
You fall into quiet witnessing and a gentle let-go.
The contrast between overflowing joy and deep stillness awakens a spacious awareness.