Message for the young

Sadhana
Whenever I travel in India I find more and more young people coming to Osho meditations. It is so refreshing to see them- bright, intelligent, healthy, no religious air. What they want is joy and freedom. Osho meditations suit them perfectly. No committment, no gurudom, simply scientific and experiential. We all have a blast together.
Osho's message is certainly for the young. But who is young?
Osho says, " My message for the young is to always remain young. Never become old. Your body will become old, but your mind has no necessity to become old. If your mind remains young and fresh, ready to learn, ready to explore new dimensions of life, you are alive. The moment your mind stops exploring, expanding, you are no more alive. You may vegetate, you may drag your body around for twenty, thirty more years. My experience is that people die near about thirty but live to near about seventy-five. Those forty-five years they are just hanging around like cabbages, and when there are so many vegetables all around you, there's no room for young people to live.
Others want to prescribe everything in your life. You can remain young only if you never accept any conditioning from anybody else. Youngness is something like sharpening your sword; you should inquire into everything on your own. Don't believe in the holy scriptures, because there is nothing holy in them, they are not even first-rate literature.
Your starting point should not be belief, but a healthy doubt. And remember, doubt does not mean disbelief, doubt simply means, "I don't know and I want to inquire. I have not come to a conclusion to say yes or no."
Doubt is youth, belief is old age. The person is tired of inquiry; he has started believing in somebody else. It is better to die as a seeker; at least you will have the contentment that you did everything that was possible, and you will have an originality.
And this is my experience: to wear your original face is the greatest joy in the world, but everybody is wearing a mask. Somebody is Hindu, that is a mask; somebody is a Mohammedan, that is a mask. A young man has to fight against all masks; he has to declare to the universe, "I am going to remain individual, I am going to remain just myself, I am not going to imitate anybody. And I will do everything that is possible to find the truth."
And whenever anybody has made this decision, has had this determination, he has always found. Existence is very compassionate.
The Last Testament Vol. 4

Laughter Meditation

Sadhana

When did you laugh last? In case you have forgotten, let me remind you that only human beings can laugh, no other species is endowed with this amazing capacity. What a great honor!
Many laughter clubs have sprouted around the world and doctors advise it as a therapy, too. But laughter cannot cleanse emotions if it does not dig deeper into the giggle points which is also the source of tears. If tears do not follow laughter, it remains superficial. Also, after laughing totally if you don't sit silently and meditate, laughter will be nothing but catharsis.
Laughter can be a great medicine and it can cure many tensions, anxieties, worries if it is total and unconditional, says Osho.
Laughing 'at' somebody is sick, laughing for a reason is intellectual, and laughing without a reason is spiritual. For it is an expression of one's hidden sources of energy.
Osho is so creative that he has even devised a meditation out of laughter. Very easy and delightful to do.
So on your marks get set and go!
First stage: 30 minutes
Laugh for no reason at all – go in and find your own laughter inside. Allow the laugher to bubble up from the inside.
Create a giggle in the very guts of your being, as if your whole body is giggling, laughing. Start swaying with that laughter; let it spread from the belly to the whole of your body: hands laughing, feet laughing. Go crazily into it. For thirty minutes do the laughing. If it comes uproariously, loudly, allow it. If it comes silently, then sometimes silently, sometimes loudly, but simply laugh for thirty minutes.
Second stage: 15 minutes
Lie down on the belly, silent and still Lie down on the floor; spread yourself on the floor, facing the floor. Make contact with the earth, the whole body lying down there on the earth, and just feel that the earth is the mother and you are the child. Get lost in that feeling. Breathe with the earth, feel one with the earth. We come from the earth and one day we will be going back to it.
Third stage: 15 minutes
Dance to the tune of energizing music.


Courtesy Osho International Foundation