Laughter Meditation (Om Johari, 847-985-6677; omjohari@comcast.net) 1

(A) Please watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Vw1DdHXMw; and 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX6BOMjafBI&feature=related (from 15 min.) 3

(B) Osho Quotes on Laughter and Laughter as a Meditation (excerpts from: 4 http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Jokes/osho_laughter_meditation.htm): (1) If 5 people could laugh totally… without any reason, they would not need any other 6

meditation… because while you are laughing you cannot think… you cannot be in the 7 past, you cannot be in the future: you have to be here now… (2) My own experience 8 says to me that if you can laugh rightly… it will bring you out of unconsciousness into 9 the open sky, from the darkness to the light… nothing makes you so total as laughter; 10 nothing makes you stop your thinking as laughter does. Just for a moment you are no 11

more a mind… you are no more in time… you are total and whole and healed. (3) … in 12

laughter you are total without anyone saying to you, "Be total." (4) The secret of the 13

joke is that it brings you to a point where you are expecting, expecting, expecting that 14 this is going to happen; then it never happens. And what happens is so sudden, and 15

because you were expecting something you were coming to a tension, and then 16 suddenly something else happens, and the tension has come to such a climax that it 17

explodes. You are all laughter. It is a tremendous release, it is great meditation. If you 18 can laugh totally, it will give you a moment of no-time, no-mind. Mind lives logically with 19 expectations, laughter is something that comes from the beyond. Mind is always 20

guessing what is going to happen, groping. And something happens which is absolutely 21 contrary to its expectations: it simply stops for a moment. (5) Laughter is the only 22 ordinary experience when you are no longer a mind, and I use it to give you glimpses of 23

no-mind, of meditation, of a transcendence of mind… (6) Before we enter into… 24

meditation, I don't want you to be serious. I am so against seriousness - it is a spiritual 25 sickness. Laughter is spiritual health. And laughter is very unburdening… (7) ...I am 26 using laughter as a preface, a foreword to the coming silence... the more total the 27

laughter, the greater the silence that will follow behind it… In laughter only, once in a 28 while you forget yourself; just the laughter remains and you are not. (8) To me, to laugh 29

wholeheartedly is the greatest celebration that can happen to a man… to become the 30

laughter. Then no meditation is needed, it is enough. (9) …Laughter seems to be too 31 mundane. It is not so. Laughter is one of the most sacred phenomenon on the earth. In 32

fact in profound laughter mind disappears exactly like it disappears in meditation. That's 33 why laughter is so relaxing, so rejuvenating. A good laugh is a tonic, it is very vital for 34 one's well-being. (10) … A heartfelt laughter releases your hidden sources of energy… 35

when it is really arising out of your heart, when it is total, whole, when your whole being 36 is throbbing with it, then it gives you a taste of meditation. (11) Mind disappears; it 37

cannot exist in laughter… for a moment… there is only laughter… pure laughter. And 38 that's exactly what meditation is. When the dancer disappears and there is only dance it 39 is meditation, when the singer disappears and there is only singing it is meditation… 40 when the walker disappears and is only walking it is meditation… And laughter gives 41 you the taste of meditation more easily than anything else. (12) Laughter is 42

tremendously healthy. Playfulness is as sacred as any prayer… because playfulness, 43

laughter, singing, dancing, will relax you… Let-go is the secret of meditation. 44