Why does one who makes others laugh not laugh themselves?

Osho, you make us laugh so much, but why do you yourself never laugh?

Veena, I laugh in solitude. Here, when I look at you, I feel like crying. The human condition is so wretched, so full of inner pain. It’s a wonder one is alive at all. So I can make you laugh, but I myself cannot. In solitude I do. When you are not there, when the very memory of you fades, when your faces are no longer before me, when your pain and your sorrow are forgotten—then I laugh. But before you, laughing is impossible. Those in whose breath no fragrance of flowers ever dwelt, who at playful buds have only ever cracked crude jests; in whose eyelid-gardens no butterfly was ever caught, on whose lips a smile never came, not even by mistake— if I could make such ill-starred ones laugh their fill, then I would laugh; I do laugh—let me get into the mood and I will laugh. Those…

Osho, you constantly tell your sannyasins to keep laughing. But in the locket of the mala you give at initiation, your picture shows a serious expression. Why this seriousness?

Ashtavakra says: to know that state, one needs the same state. Christians say Jesus never laughed. That is false. Yet the Christians are also right, because on the plane on which they can understand laughter, Jesus never laughed. On the plane on which I understand laughter, I know Jesus was bubbling with laughter—he was laughing even on the cross. Have you seen a laughing statue of Buddha? Impossible. Have you heard Mahavira’s titter? Impossible. If you make a laughing statue of Mahavira, the Jains will sue you and drag you into court, saying you have disfigured our Mahavira’s face. Mahavira—and laughing? It cannot be! In one sense they are right too: a Mahavira like you would never laugh. Your laughter bears the imprint of tears. Mahavira’s laughter is very silent, serene—serene like Mahavira himself, without any disturbance. Perhaps there is no giggling in it—there cannot be. It rises from emptiness;…

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?…

Osho, as you were stepping down from the stage after today’s discourse, the moment you said, “Sohan!” it was as if a wave swept through the entire Buddha Hall. With that one word you seemed to pluck the veena of many hearts. A strange scene descended. There was a smile on our lips and tears in our eyes. The state of Ma Sohan and Manik Babu was a sight to behold! Even with so bitter a topic as Dattabal before us, what is the magic you work, Osho, that even that is transformed into nectar?

Satya Niranjan! Even poison, too, is elixir—veiled, covered, concealed. As a rose grows among thorns. If you look rightly, poison also turns to nectar. It is all the art of seeing. It is all a matter of vision. The whole secret lies in the gaze. Nowhere is anything truly bitter. Everything is to be made lovable, made sweet. And I am preparing the veena of your heart. Every day this preparation is going on. When the veena is ready, any excuse can set it resonating. Even a gust of wind can make its strings tingle. The veena is ready; that is why such an incident happens. There is no crowd here. This is not a path for everyone. This is a settlement of madmen. This is a fair of moths to the flame. And so, you say there was a smile on our lips and tears in our eyes. Both…

Beloved Osho, about four years ago I was in a space which I always remember as "paradise on earth." it felt as if I'd arrived home. Being in such deep and sweet relaxation and love, I felt as if I had fallen deep inside myself. Beloved Osho, why is it so difficult for me to let myself rejoice like that again?

Don't ask for anything to be repeated in your life, because there are always higher things. Why waste your life with anything lower? Always ask for the higher, for the better. And of course, you don't know what is higher and what is greater; again you are just waiting for the unknown. Just as the unknown has given you a gift in the past, it will be giving you many, many gifts; but you have to have the same childlike innocent heart -- waiting and longing, but not definite about what you are asking. Just trust in existence, and you will find better spaces. There is no scarcity of paradises -- there are paradises beyond paradises -- one has just to be innocent and not cling to anything. You are clinging to a certain experience, and that very clinging is becoming a barrier to prevent another experience from happening. If…