According to Osho, the pleasure or smile that arises in a lecture is a deliberate awakening of your innate joy—‘I push the button’—and should be welcomed, not wiped away. Social fear labels spontaneous happiness as craziness, so we repress it. Instead, allow it to stay, deepen, and become a natural, surrounding presence. Enjoy it regardless of others’ opinions; let playfulness ripen into a more permanent, essential quality.
If you feel pleasure or want to smile during the talk, that’s your natural joy waking up—don’t hide it; enjoy it.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, are you pushing my pleasure button? When I sit in lecture I am all smiles and it takes me hours to wipe it off my face.
Parmita, YOU FOOL! Why do you try to wipe it off? I make so much effort to create it and you take hours to wipe it off! Never do it again -- so that it becomes something permanent, something essential with you, something natural, something that surrounds you. But I know people are afraid of smiling, because if you are caught red-handed by others smiling for no reason at all, they think you are crazy. So people repress their smiles. That's why Parmita must have been trying to wipe it off. But when I push the button I really push the button, and now I am going to push harder! You will not be able to wipe it off even if you make effort for hours or for days! Enjoy it! And what does it matter if people think you are crazy? Why be worried about it? There is nothing…
Beloved Osho, somehow I can't believe my laughter, if it's true, but I always believe in my tears. Please comment.
And do you know why women close their eyes when you make love? -- just to avoid seeing you. You are doing such a nasty thing to them, they don't want to see; they don't want the light on. The man is finished within seconds, because only he is making movements. Neither the man attains orgasm nor the woman attains orgasm. Orgasm needs a little more articulateness, a little more skill. Orgasm needs first a long foreplay -- unless sex is accepted as natural, it is not possible -- a foreplay with incense burning, a music record going on, Irene Pappas singing! And before you start making love -- love should not be an immediate thing -- you should dance, you should sing, you should prepare your bodies to rejoice, you should prepare your bodies for the thrill. And waiting is a thrill. You should make love only when it…
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…
So mix with people here, change to orange, forget your past for the days you are here. Dance, meditate -- but everything has to be done absolutely non-seriously. Sincerely, yes! -- but seriously, no. And enjoyment, delight, has to be imbibed. Laughter has to be learned and enjoyment in small things: drinking a cup of tea, talking to a friend, holding hands with a stranger or just sitting looking at the sky. Life is marvellous! And if we miss, only we are responsible -- nobody else. And all that man needs to be happy is available. All that man needs to be happy is always available. You just have to relax and enjoy it and participate in it. So let celebration be the only rule! And I would like you to do a few groups here. A few groups will be very helpful. ... Rolfing is good, mm?
Osho, during lecture recently, I sometimes get this almost irresistable urge to jump up and down, wave my arms and sing or make noises. I am scared that one day I won't be able to contain it and I will cause a disturbance. What should I do?
YOU NEED not worry. That is the responsibility of the guards! That is for them to think what to do. What can you do? If it becomes irresistible, if you cannot contain it anymore, what can you do? What can I do? That's why we have the guards, just to divide responsibility -- that is their responsibility. But why is this happening to you? Just meditate over this story: A man lost his prick in an accident. Quite upset, he went to see a doctor to ask if anything could be done "Well, you're lucky," said the doctor, "I have an elephant's trunk in my fridge and if you don't have any objections, we could do some surgery and use it as a replacement." Happy that there was some solution, the man agreed. After a successful operation the man returned home satisfied. A few weeks later he went to see…