Why should people take your teachings seriously despite your views on seriousness?

Question: BELOVED OSHO, YOU ARE AGAINST SERIOUSNESS. YOU HAVE LAUGHED ABOUT EVERYTHING, INCLUDING GODS, GODMEN AND SCRIPTURES. HOW COME YOU THINK THAT PEOPLE SHOULD TAKE YOU AND YOUR TEACHING SERIOUSLY? Anand Maitreya, who has told you that I expect people to take me and my teachings seriously? I want to be understood joyously, not seriously. I want to be taken playfully, not seriously -- not with a long British face, but with beautiful laughter. Your laughter, your playfulness is the recognition that you have understood me. Your seriousness shows that you have misunderstood me, you have missed it -- because seriousness is nothing but sickness. It is another name of sadness; it is a shadow of death. And I am all for life.

Osho, when serious, sad people become enlightened, do they remain serious and sad or do they become funny like you?

The enlightened person is always joyous, but the tradition, the convention cannot be joyous. The whole structure of a tradition is basically political; it is there to dominate, it is there to oppress, it is there to exploit. And you cannot exploit people playfully, you have to be very serious. You have to make them so sad, so afraid of life itself, you have to create so much trembling in their being, that out of that fear they fall into your hands; they become objects of your manipulation. A man like me cannot exploit you, because this whole place is more like a tavern than a temple. It is more playful than serious. We are engaged in a beautiful game! The moment you think of it as a game, all seriousness disappears, things become lighter. You can walk in a dancing way; there is no weight on you. But the…

I want to become a sannyasin, but I am very serious about it. And I have been thinking and thinking, but no conclusion seems to be in sight.

TO TAKE SANNYAS SERIOUSLY IS TO MISS THE WHOLE point of it. Sannyas is laughter, playfulness, fun. Laughter is at the very heart of it. You can only take it playfully, not seriously. If you decide out of long long thinking about it, your decision will be wrong. If you come to a conclusion I will not suggest to you that you take sannyas. You have started from a wrong beginning. The whole point of sannyas is to take life non-seriously, playfully, lightly. And if you can take life lightly, you will be able to walk without feet, fly without wings, think without mind. I have heard that angels in heaven can fly, not because they have wings, but because they take themselves very lightly. Bonhoeffer, a Christian mystic who was murdered by Adolf Hitler, wrote from prison his last letter to his friends. In that letter I have come…

Beloved master, is there any possibility for enlightenment for a nonserious meditator?

He was a carpenter. He used to come to do some work in my house also. So I said to him, "I cannot approach the actors this year. Last year was enough! Although I did no harm to anybody -- everybody loved it, the whole city appreciated it. But now they are guarding every actor and they don't allow me close to them. But you are not an actor. Your function is some other work. But you can help me." He said, "Whatever I can do, I will do, because last year it was really great. Can I be of some help?" I said, "Certainly." And he did it.... In the war, Lakshmana, Rama's younger brother, gets wounded by a poisonous arrow. It is fatal. The physicians say that unless a certain herbal plant from the mountain Arunachal is brought, he cannot be saved, by the morning he will be…

Question: OSHO, DO YOU TAKE YOURSELF SERIOUSLY? Never! Seriousness and I have nothing in common; there is no bridge between me and seriousness. Did you hear the latest joke, Rishiraj? Osho goes to the psychiatrist. Says the psychiatrist, 'This is the first time you have come to me, so please tell me your story from the very beginning.' Replies Osho, 'In the beginning, I created the sky and the earth...'