Antidote to Boredom
Laughter
Beloved Osho,
Does laughter belong to every stage?
his is worth considering, significant. The first
thing to understand is that, except man, no
animal is capable of laughter. Laughter shows a
very high peak. If you go out on a street and you see a
buffalo laughing you will be scared to death, and if
you report it nobody is going to believe that it
happened. It is impossible.
Why can't animals laugh? Why can't trees laugh?
There is a very deep causality to the laughter; only that
animal can laugh which can get bored. Animals and
trees are not bored. Boredom and laughter -- this is the
polar duality, these are the polar opposites. Man is the
only animal who is bored; boredom is the symbol of
humanity. Look at dogs and cats -- they are never
bored. Man seems to be deep in boredom. Why are
T
they not bored? Why does only man suffer
boredom? And the higher your intelligence the more
you will be bored, a lower intelligence is not bored so
much. That's why primitives are more happy.
You will find more happy people in a primitive
society than in a civilised society; even a Bertrand
Russell becomes jealous. When Bertrand Russell for the
first time came in contact with some primitive tribes he
started feeling jealous because they were so happy -not bored at all. Life was a blessing. They were poor,
starved, almost naked; in every way they had nothing,
but they were not bored with life. In Bombay, in New
York, in London, everybody is bored -- more intelligent,
more civilised, more boredom.
So the secret can be understood: the more you can
think, the more you will be bored, because through
thinking you can compare -- past, future, present.
Through thinking you can hope, through thinking you
and the result becomes illogical, the expectation, the
can ask, "What is the meaning of it?" And the moment a
tension that was created in you, suddenly explodes. You
person asks, "What is the meaning of it?" boredom will
relax, laughter comes out of you.
enter, because really there is no meaning in anything. If
Laughter is a relaxation, but a tension is needed. A
you ask the question, "What is the meaning of it?" you
story creates expectation, tension. You start feeling that
will feel meaninglessness. And when meaninglessness
now the crescendo, now the crescendo will come,
is felt you will be bored. Animals are not bored, trees
something is going to happen. Your backbone is straight
are not bored, rocks are not bored. They never ask,
like a yogi, you have no more thoughts in the mind; the
"What is the meaning of life, what is the purpose of
whole being is just waiting, all the energy moving
life?" They never ask, so they never feel it is
towards the conclusion. And all that you could conceive
meaningless. As they are they accept it,
is not going to happen.
as life is it is accepted. There is no
Suddenly something happens which
boredom.
the mind could not conceive; something
Man feels bored, laughter is the
absurd happens, something illogical,
antidote. You cannot live without
irrational. The end is such a turn that it
laughter, because you can kill your
was impossible for logic to think about it.
boredom only through laughter. You
You explode. The whole energy that has
cannot find a single joke in primitive
become a pillar inside suddenly relaxes.
societies, they don't have any jokes. Jews
Laughter comes out of you through this
have the largest number of jokes, they
relaxation. Man is bored, hence he needs
are the most highly bored people on the
laughter. The more bored he is, the more
earth. But they must be so, because they
and more laughter he will need,
win more Nobel prizes than any other
otherwise he cannot exist.
You
cannot
live
without
laughter,
community. The whole last century
Thirdly, it has also to be understood
almost all the great names are Jews: Freud, Einstein,
about laughter that it is of three types. One, when you
Marx -- Jews. And look at the list of Nobel prizewinners
laugh at someone. This is the meanest, the lowliest, very
-- almost half the Nobel prizes go to the Jews. They
ordinary and vulgar -- when you laugh at somebody
have the largest number of jokes.
else's cost. This is violent, aggressive, insulting. Deep
And this may be the reason why all over the world
down there is a revenge.
Jews are hated -- because everybody feels jealous of
Secondly, when you laugh at yourself. This is worth
them. Wherever they are they will always win any type
achieving, this is cultured, and the man who can laugh
of competition, so everybody feels jealous of them, the
at himself is valuable. He has risen above vulgarity, he
whole world is united against them, feels hate for them.
has risen above low instincts -- hatred, aggression,
When you cannot compete with someone hate is the
violence.
result. And they have the most beautiful jokes on the
And thirdly, the highest laughter, which is not about
earth. Why? They must be feeling very bored; they
anybody -- neither the other nor oneself. The third is just
have to create jokes -- a joke is the antidote to feeling
cosmic, you laugh at the whole situation as it is. The
bored. Laughter is needed to exist, otherwise you will
whole situation as it is, is absurd -- no purpose in the
commit suicide.
future, no beginning in the beginning. The whole
Now try to understand the mechanism of laughter,
situation of existence is such that if you can see the
how it happens. If I tell a joke, why do you laugh?
whole -- such a great vastness, an infinite vastness,
What happens? What is the inner mechanism? If I tell a
moving to no fixed purpose, moving to no goal; so
joke, expectation is created, you start expecting. Your
much going on without leading anywhere; nobody in
mind starts searching for what the end is going to be,
the past to create it, nobody in the end to finish it; a
and you cannot conceive the end. A joke moves in two
whole cosmos, and moving so beautifully, so
dimensions: first it moves in a logical dimension, you
systematically, so rationally -- if you can see this whole
can conceive it. If the joke goes on being logical to the
cosmos, then a laughter arises.
-Osho, Vedanta: Seven Steps to Samadhi
very end there will be no laughter. Suddenly the joke
# 15, God Seeks You
takes a turn and becomes illogical, something which
you could not conceive. And when the joke takes a turn
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