Yes—Bodhidharma is here now, and you can feel him when you truly listen and share the sacred laughter.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved master, after two years here, I had heard bodhidharma's laughter. I never heard him again. Is he still around?
He has always been around. Who do you think is sitting in this chair? But if you do not hear the laughter, that simply means you are not hearing, you are not listening; otherwise, the laughter is happening every moment. In fact, in the whole history of humanity there has never been such a commune, with so much laughter. And a commune that is in search of truth, a commune that is in search of religiousness, a commune that wants to attain to the ultimate heights of ecstasy -- no, this type of people have never before been laughing. They thought laughter was something below them. My understanding is totally different. Laughter is one of the greatest religious qualities. The sense of humor has not been indicated by any religion as an essential quality for their followers. But here there are no followers, only individuals. They are together here because…
Beloved Osho, is there a sense of humor beyond the mind? To me meditation has a sense of seriousness in it, and in my experience a sense of humor arises from misunderstandings -- real or imagined -- which have their root in the mind. Is it possible for laughter to arise with no-mind?
I have heard about an American seeker. He was a super-rich man, and having everything, he got fed up. The more you have, the more you become aware that it is not going to satisfy you. The poor man is in a better mental condition, because he can hope that tomorrow he will have a better house, a better job, more salary, a better car. There are millions of hopes around him which will never be fulfilled, and it is good that they will not be fulfilled. The super-rich finds himself in a very strange position: all hopes are fulfilled and his hands are empty, his being is empty; nothing has been found. Life has befooled him. Those hopes have proved to be all mirages. So the man started looking for some wise man who can show him the path to find the real, the ultimate, the absolute truth. And…
Osho, if Mahakashyap had not burst into laughter that morning, would Buddha still have given him the flower, the symbol of silence?
The head disciple laughed. “He’s not angry. When you go in with thought, your face has a different look. When you go in thoughtless, your face has a different look. Consider: when you are full of thought, your whole face is tense. There are lines in the eyes and furrows on the brow. When you are without thought, all furrows are gone, all tension drops. When you are thoughtless, such peace drizzles around you that even the ignorant would notice—will the master not? That he even lets you reach the doorway is his compassion. As for me, you don’t know—I used to be stopped outside the door. He would say, ‘Go back. Don’t bring idle babble here.’ He hadn’t even seen me yet! But my shadow arrived before me, my atmosphere reached the threshold before I did—as if a fragrance gave him the news.” The new disciple asked, “Then how…
Buddha was to give a special talk one day,and thousands of followers had come from miles around. When buddha appeared he was holding a flower. Time passed, but buddha said nothing. He just looked at the flower. The crowd grew restless, but mahakashyap, who could restrain himself no longer, laughed. Buddha beckoned him over, handed him the flower, and said to the crowd, "I have the eye of the true teaching. All that can be given with words I have given to you; but with this flower, I give to mahakashyap the key to this teaching."
One man, a scientist, was working on plants -- how they feel, whether they feel anything or not, whether they have emotions or not. He was sitting with a plant with electrodes fixed to it to detect any movement in its inner being, any sensation, any emotions. He thought, "If I cut this plant, if I tear down a branch or cut it from the earth, what will happen?" Suddenly, the needle making the graph jumped. He had not done anything, he had just had a thought: "If I cut this plant...." The plant became afraid of death and the needle jumped, recording that the plant was trembling. Even the scientist became scared because he had not done anything -- just a thought and the plant received it. Plants are telepathic. Then he worked much -- he worked on long distances. The plant was removed one thousand miles. His plant,…
Beloved Osho, according to gurdjieff, a normal man needs laughter as a means to discharge an excess of energy. Whereas, for a man like gautam buddha, laughter is simply no longer possible. Please comment.
The boy said, "You know I'm not a wrestler. I have not even had a fight with anybody. In fact, I am a Christian. If somebody slaps one of my cheeks, I will give him the other and go home -- I believe Christ is right. And I don't even know the ABC of Indian wrestling, and it is an art, an ancient art." I said, "Nobody else is willing -- but the difference between you and the others is, they are all serious so they cannot be persuaded. You are the only man who is not serious. You can even accept defeat with laughter." He said, "That's true, because what is the harm? If I am defeated I don't see that there has been any harm to the world. So okay, I am ready." I said, "Okay. Remember, you will be in the finals and you will get the…