According to Osho, when you’re too serious, the ego takes over: you posture as ‘special,’ hoard knowledge, refuse “I don’t know,” and close yourself to surprise. Joy and ego can’t coexist, so you stop laughing, mixing, and enjoying people; life turns stiff and joyless. Drop the holier‑than‑thou stance, meet and laugh with others, and childlike openness turns small moments into splendor.
Being too serious lets your ego block fun and curiosity, so you can’t relax, connect, or be pleasantly surprised.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHY DO I TAKE MYSELF AND EVERYTHING SO SERIOUSLY? Prembodhi, the ego can exist only if you take yourself and everything seriously. Nothing kills the ego like playfulness, like laughter. When you start taking life as fun, the ego has to die, it cannot exist anymore. Ego is illness; it needs an atmosphere of sadness to exist. Seriousness creates the sadness in you. Sadness is a necessary soil for the ego. Hence your saints are so serious, for the simple reason that they are the most egoistic people on the earth. They may be trying to be humble, but they are very proud of their humbleness. They take their humbleness very seriously. The real saint cannot be serious. The really religious person has to be a celebrant. Just look around... look at the trees -- are they serious?
As a comparatively new sannyasin I am a little worried about the number of very serious, worried looking sannyasins around you. Could you reassure me about this please?
So of course there are many people around me who are serious; they have not understood me at all. They may be projecting their minds on me, they may be interpreting whatsoever I am saying according to their own minds, but they have not understood me. They are wrong people. Either they will have to change or they will have to leave. Finally, only those people will be with me who can celebrate life so totally, with no complaint, with no grudge. Others will go; sooner they go, the better. But this happens: thinking that I am religious, old religious-type people also sometimes come to me, and once they come they bring their own minds with them and they try to be serious here also. One man came to me, old man. He was a very famous Indian leader. Once he attended a camp, and he saw a few sannyasins…
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…
In yesterday's lecture you said people are too serious, and the too-serious people are ill. I feel myself to be too serious. Around a group of people laughing and joking, a lot of the time I just sit there, not finding the situation very funny at all. It makes me feel out of it and uncomfortable. I am sick of my seriousness and would like to be able to let go more. Am I very ill?
SERIOUSNESS IS PART OF THE EGOISTIC MIND. The ego has to remain very serious; it has to pretend that "I am not ordinary, I am special. These ordinary people are laughing and joking; these ordinary people live an ordinary life, mundane. I am a holy person. I am not interested in mundane things -- my interest is in truth, in God, in enlightenment." These are ALL ego trips. Ego is serious, and ego always accumulates much knowledge to pretend solidity. Ego is always accumulating more and more knowledge. The ego is incapable of enjoying life -- because whenever you enjoy, ego disappears. Joy and ego cannot exist together. The ego can exist only when you are keeping a very long face, not enjoying, and saying, "It is not worth it. It is below me." That's what is happening to you, Anutosha. You ARE seriously ill. Drop this knowledgeability and drop…
Beloved master, why do I continue to take myself and life in general so seriously?
Sufis function that way. Somebody is a weaver, somebody may be a potter, somebody may be making carpets. Do you know what Gurdjieff used to do in the West? His business was carpet selling He was a carpet salesman, that was his business. If you had seen him you would have never recognized that a great master was there. That's how the Sufis have existed, down the ages. They don't stand out, there is no need. It is always the ego that hankers for the peak, and it is the ego that does not allow you to live in constant joy. And constant joy is not a peak, remember. In fact it is more like peace than like bliss, more like peace. Bliss is there, but like a fragrance; you cannot catch hold of it. It is there, but very indirect, very subtle, very delicate. It is not a peak,…