According to Osho, light-heartedness and laughter flower when you drop goals and burn all maps—stop turning play into a game. Be herenow, doing things for their sheer joy, without counting, winning, or results. Let outcomes be by-products, not pursuits, and release possessiveness in relationships. In this non-serious, purposeless presence, energy flows freely, love breathes, and natural playfulness—and with it, laughter—arises on its own.
Forget goals and results; just be here and play for fun, not to win, and laughter will come by itself.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, it is for the first time I have been so close to you. When I am sitting here with you I feel my heart in tune with your heart, I feel a deep love for you. But I also feel my outer seriousness. Why is laughter so difficult for me?
The sardar said, "Don't force me, because the secret is very embarrassing." They said, "Embarrassing? But we thought you are doing great. We always hear laughter -- either you laugh or your wife laughs... no fight." The sardar said, "What happens is, she throws things at me. If she misses, then I laugh; if she hits me then she laughs. The same things are going on, but it is just that we have made a different arrangement -- what is the point? So I have learned how to dodge her, and she is learning how to...." After twenty years the same sardar wanted to divorce his wife. The magistrate had heard about them, that this was the only couple in the whole city who had never been known to fight. They simply laugh -- the whole city knows them as the laughing couple. The magistrate said, "What has gone wrong?…
But certain things have been achieved only because some people have been -- maybe the word 'serious' it is not good, but, rather, 'intense'.
Someone has written me a letter. He writes that he believed in someone as if he was bhagwan, a God. For fifteen years continuously he believed in him. Then one day he saw that the man he had believed in was angry He writes that on that day not only did that man become just human -- not a God -- but from that day on "I cannot believe that any human being can ever be bhagwan, can ever be a God." I have written to him that there are two possibilities. "If one whom you believed to be divine became angry, there are two possibilities. Either this man is not divine -- or your definition of divine was wrong!" But no, your definition can never be wrong. This man who you thought was divine must be wrong. Your definition is more meaningful to you than fifteen years of faith…
I live in the land of seriousness, imprisoned in its borders. Can you draw me a road-map to your land of leela? Have I a defective gene? I cannot find my laughter or light-heartedness. I see it around me, but do not feel it in me.
And when the child is small, he is naturally dependent on the mother -- and mothers and fathers have exploited that dependence immensely. He is helpless, he cannot survive on his or her own; he HAS to look up to the mother and the father. His helplessness is exploited. He knows if the mother is gone, he will be dead. If the mother is no more available, he will be dead, he will not be able to survive. This idea goes on and on getting deeper and deeper.... And the mother helps it, because the mother enjoys the ego trip that "You cannot survive without me." She threatens many times, "Listen to me, otherwise I will leave and go forever, or I will die -- and THEN YOU will know!" And the child is shaken to the very roots -- he cannot survive without the mother. This becomes, by and…
Beloved Osho, would you please tell us more about what the sufis call "adab"? Is it a "tariqa"... A method that extends beyond the physical presence of the master, becoming part of the innermost being of the disciple and reflecting, in every action of his daily?
Radha Mohammed, yes, adab is a tariqa, a method. It is the beginning of something very immense, of something utterly incomprehensible to the intellect. It is the first step of a great eternal pilgrimage. To be with the Master is simply a lesson in how to be with God. That's why down the ages the Master has been called "God". It is very symbolic, it is a metaphor. The word "metaphor" is beautiful. Meta means beyond, phor means going: that which takes you beyond. The Master is a metaphor -- he takes you beyond himself. He is just a beginning, a jumping-board. To be with the Master is nothing but a discipline in how to be with God. God is not visible, the Master is visible; it is easier to learn from the visible and then move to the invisible. Have you looked into children's books? We have to make…
So make it a point to laugh more. Always keep laughter alive so that for any tiny reason, or for no reason, you are always ready to burst into laughter. And don't wait for excuses to laugh. If they are available, good. If they are not available there is no need for them. One can laugh without them. It looks mad if you laugh without any reason but don't be bothered about what others say. It is your life and the more you fill it with laughter, the more sacred it will become. Laugh your way to God ! [An elderly sannyasin says:... I was never really a child when I was one, but these last few days, I often feel like a little child... and I want to tease everybody. I want to do crazy things.] [chuckling] That's really a miracle, really a miracle!