According to Osho, your inner giggling is not insight but a defense: a rationalization by the unconscious to avoid change and dilute the urgency of transformation. It trivializes his warning, keeps you fixed in old patterns, and erases the shock needed to wake up. Be alert, drop the giggle, and strengthen consciousness over the nine-times-stronger unconscious.
That laugh inside is your sneaky unconscious trying to dodge change by pretending everything’s just a harmless game.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, I really love that image of you being like the sun rising in the morning, and us, your disciples, being like the birds and trees and flowers starting to sing and dance in the warmth and light. It looks to me like there is one difference in the analogy: the actual sun doesn't have a mischievous sense of humour, and the actual birds and trees and flowers aren't giggling -- or are they?
India has been very serious for centuries, and that is one of the causes of its degradation. Silence is beautiful -- but silence does not mean seriousness. Silence can be full of smiles; in fact, authentic silence is bound to be full of smiles, joy. People who have been experiencing ecstasy -- even they have not burst into laughter. This is contrary to my own experience, and it is contrary to the existential law. The first thing that happens to the enlightened person is a deep belly laughter -- for the sheer stupidity that he has been searching for something which is within himself. He has been carrying it for centuries within himself, and he never looked there; and he looked all over the world -- carrying within himself the treasure which was available within a minute. Just close your eyes... be silent... and it is there. I cannot conceive…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, THESE LAST FEW DAYS I OFTEN FIND MYSELF BEING IN VERY DRAMATIC AND MISERABLE MOODS. I SEE MYSELF WALKING AROUND WITH A LONG, LONG FACE AND WITH THOUGHTS LIKE, "I AM A FAILURE." THEN SUDDENLY SOMETHING -- ANYTHING -- HAPPENS, AND I JUST STAND THERE, WATCHING AND FEELING AN OVERWHELMING GIGGLING INSIDE ME, WHICH INCREASES TO A BIG SMILE AND SOMETIMES EVEN TO AN EXPLOSION OF LAUGHTER AND THE FEELING OF BEING ABSOLUTELY HAPPY. IT IS ALWAYS SO STRONG THAT I CAN'T EVEN HOLD ON TO MY DRAMATIC MOOD ANYMORE! YESTERDAY, IN ONE OF THESE SITUATIONS, WITH THE GIGGLING FROM SOMEWHERE DEEP INSIDE ME CAME THE WORDS: "LAUGH YOUR WAY TO GOD." IT FELT LIKE A RECIPE FOR GROWTH. OSHO, DOES THIS GIGGLING HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE WATCHER INSIDE ME? WOULD YOU PLEASE SPEAK ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EASY-GOING LAUGHTER AND THE WATCHER?
[NOTE: This is an unedited tape transcript of an unpublished darshan diary, which has been scanned and cleaned up. It is for reference purposes only.] [Man is miserable because of his mother, your psychoanalyst will explain. It's because he hasn't found god, your priest will insist. No, the crux of it, as Osho sees it, is this: that man is simply stupid.] Man has got the potential to be intelligent, bright, but he never uses it. Rather than digging into his own sources of intelligence, he borrows from other people, from the society, from the parents, from the teachers, from everywhere. And they have done the same in their own turn, so we inherit stupidity. Our nature is bright, our nature is intelligence, but our inheritance is stupid and that's why we are miserable, otherwise there is no need to be miserable.
Maneesha has asked a question: BELOVED OSHO, HAS ONE ONLY RECEIVED A HIT IF IT HURTS?
Maneesha, a master hits not to hurt but to heal. And a disciple receives the hit with tremendous gratitude, not with anger. Unless a hit is received with gratitude it cannot do its work of healing. You are all full of wounds, and they all need to be exposed to the sun, to the open sky. Unless you allow yourself to be exposed completely, you cannot get rid of those wounds. The normal way in the world is to hide the wounds so nobody knows about them -- go on hiding them deeper and deeper in the unconscious, so even you forget them. But to work on the consciousness, cleaning it from all the wounds is absolutely necessary. Those wounds have to be brought into the open. You are asking, "Has one only received a hit if it hurts?" No, Maneesha. If it hurts you have missed. If it does…
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!