I have read about three monks. No names are mentioned, because they never disclosed their names to anybody. They never answered anything. In China, they are simply known as the three laughing monks. And they did only one thing: they would enter a village, stand in the market place and start laughing. They would laugh with their whole being and suddenly people would become aware. Then others would also get the infection and a crowd would gather. The whole crowd would start laughing just because of them. What was happening? The whole town would get involved. Then they would move to another town. They were loved very much. That was their only sermon, their only message; that laugh. And they would not teach; they would simply create a situation. Then it happened that they became famous all over the country. Three laughing monks. All of China loved them, respected them. Nobody had ever preached in such a way that life must be just a laughter and nothing else. They were not laughing at anyone in particular. They were simply laughing as if they had understood the Cosmic joke. And they spread so much joy all over China without using a single word. People would ask for their names, but they would simply laugh. So that became their name — the three laughing monks. Then they grew old. And while staying in one village. one of the three monks died. The whole village became very much expectant because they thought that when one of them had died, the other two would surely weep. This must be worth seeing because no one had ever seen these people weeping. The whole village gathered. But the two monks were standing beside the corpse of the third and laughing — such a belly laugh. So the villagers asked them to explain this. So for the first time, the two monks spoke and said, “We are laughing because this man has won. We were always wondering as to who would die first and this man has defeated us. We are laughing at our defeat and his victory. Also he lived with us for many years and we laughed together and we enjoyed each other’s togetherness, presence. There can be no better way of giving him the last send off. We can only laugh.” But the whole village was sad. And when the dead monk’s body was put on the funeral pyre, then the village realized that the remaining two monks were not the only ones who were joking, the third who was dead was also laughing. He had asked his companions not to change his clothes. It was conventional that when a man died they changed his dress and gave a bath to the body. So the third monk had said, ‘Don’t give me a bath because I have never been unclean. So much laughter has been in my life that no impurity can accumulate, can come to me. I have not gathered any dust. Laughter is always young and fresh. So don’t give me a bath and don’t change my clothes.’ So just to respect his wishes, they did not change his clothes. And when the body was put to fire, suddenly they became aware that he had hidden some Chinese fire-works under his clothes and they had started going off. So the whole village laughed and the other two monks said: ‘You rascal, you are dead, but you have defeated us once again. Your laughter is the last.’ There is a Cosmic laughter which comes into being when the whole joke of this Cosmos is understood. That is of the highest. And only a Buddha can laugh like that. These three monks must have been three Buddhas.

http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=-4265548233927066615&ei=hHV7Ssi3IqGC2wL1-83VAw&q=

How can I be myself? Just drop the pretensions, just drop this urge to be somebody else, just drop this desire to look like Christ, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Krishna, to look like your neighbour. Drop competition and drop comparison and you will be yourself. Comparison is the poison. You are always thinking in terms of how the other is doing. He has got a big house and a big car and you are miserable. And he is climbing up on the staircase of power and politics and you are miserable. Compare, and you will imitate. If you compare yourself with the rich people, you will start running in the same direction. If you compare yourself with the learned people, you will start accumulating knowledge. If you compare yourself with the so-called saints, you will start accumulating virtue – and you will be imitative. And to be imitative is to miss the whole opportunity to be oneself. Drop comparison. You are unique. Nobody else is like you, nobody else has ever been like you, and nobody else is ever going to be like you. You are simply unique – and when you are unique, you are not better than others, remember. They are also unique. To be unique is an ordinary quality of every being. To be unique is not a comparison; to be unique is as natural as breathing. Everybody is breathing and everybody is unique. While you are alive, you are unique. Only corpses are all alike; living persons are unique. They are never similar – they cannot be. Life never follows any repetitive course. Tao never repeats: it goes on singing a new song every day; it paints something new every day. Respect your uniqueness, and drop comparison. Comparison is the culprit. Once you compare, you are on the track. Don’t compare with anybody – he is not you, you are not he. You are going to be yourself; he is going to be himself: let him be, and you relax into your being. Start enjoying whatsoever you are. Delight in the moments that are available to you. Comparison brings future, comparison brings ambition, and comparison brings violence. You start fighting, struggling, you become hostile.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2080832690957342600&ei=tJ4-SqL7K6Dm2gL__LWuCg&q=

Nicht Lösungen brauchst du, sondern Klarheit. Ein richtig verstandenes Problem ist bereits gelöst, weil das Problem nur auftaucht, wenn der Verstand etwas nicht versteht. Du schaffst das Problem, weil du etwas nicht verstehst. Das Wesentliche ist also nicht, das Problem zu lösen; das Wesentliche ist, mehr Verständnis zu erlangen. Und wenn mehr Verständnis und mehr Klarheit da sind und du das Problem vorurteilslos konfrontieren kannst, wenn du es so beobachten kannst, als ob es gar nicht zu dir gehören würde, sondern zu jemand anderem, wenn du eine Distanz kreieren kannst zwischen dem Problem und dir – nur dann lässt es sich lösen. Meditation erzeugt Distanz; sie gibt dir eine Perspektive. Dann transzendierst du das Problem. Du gelangst auf eine andere Bewusstseinsebene.

Mit der Psychoanalyse bleibst du auf der gleichen Ebene. Die Ebene ändert sich nie; du passt dich auf der gleichen Ebene wieder an. Dein Bewusstsein, deine Bewusstheit, deine Fähigkeit, zu beobachten – daran ändert sich gar nichts. Wenn du in Meditation gehst, gelangst du auf immer höhere Ebenen. Dann kannst du auf deine Probleme hinunterschauen. Sie sind jetzt im Tal und du bist auf einem Berg. Von diesem Standort, aus dieser Höhe betrachtet, sehen die Probleme völlig anders aus. Und je mehr die Distanz zunimmt, umso fähiger wirst du, die Probleme zu beobachten, als ob sie gar nicht zu dir gehören würden. Du darfst eines nicht vergessen: Wenn ein Problem nicht dein eigenes ist, weißt du immer gute Ratschläge zu geben, wie man es lösen kann. Wenn jemand anderer betroffen ist, wenn jemand anderer in Schwierigkeiten ist, bist du immer weise. Dann kannst du großartige Ratschläge geben. Aber wenn es dein eigenes Problem ist, weißt du einfach nicht, was du tun sollst. Wie kommt das? Das Problem ist das gleiche, nur bist du jetzt selbst davon betroffen. Solange es das Problem von jemand anderem war, hattest du eine Distanz, aus der du es vorurteilslos betrachten konntest.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8472935505159439178&ei=bukRSsiiB6fG2gKIrrSqDg&q=

The great difference between you on the one hand and Meera or Chaitanya or Ramakrishna on the other hand is this: to you inside the temple an idol is just an idol, for you do not know the technique of worship (making the idol disappear into the Unmanifested) but to these mystics there is no idol, only worship – deepest worship, where they lose the identity, not only of the idol but of their own being. They go into a trance, a “satori”, an ecstatic state beyond the body, mind and perceptions.

These two types of people have two different experiences on seeing the same idol. We see idols, we can not see worship, because we do not know it. As there is less and less of worship in the world, we shall see more and more idols. When there are more and more idols, worship for good will disappear. Such is the case today – you see in India so many Hanuman-idols on the roadside that no one cares even when the street dogs stand and raise a leg to desecrate the idol. It is so, when everyone has is idol – not for worship, but for begging and collecting offerings. There is no worship – no one knows it. In the beginning this was not so. Idols were created by realised souls, the blessed Ones, the enlightened sages. They created a path for those who were yet struggling on the path, who could not travel to the Unmanifested directly, who were grounded and could not fly. So a medium was created. The idol was the easy way to transcendence – the leap from form to formless became easy through its use. In other words: “An idol is a window seen by a man which opens out to beyond its form into the formless.” The window has form, shape, substance. But opening it and looking into the sky we have travelled through the form into the formless. If I say to someone that through my window I can see the formless, he will think me mad because with his window he can see nothing. But his window is closed and he is not aware of this distinction. His logic is clear, “how can this small limited window show the vast infinite formless?” But to one who knows the window can not set a limitation on that onto which it opens; nor does the idol set a limitation on the formless. An idol is not an obstacle in reaching the formless. The window should be open. The idol should be worshipped. Breaking the window is not any rational solution – nor is destruction of the idol any way to reach the formless. The alchemy of the art of worship is to be known, then surely is the idol meaningful. Destruction or preservation of an idol does not disturb the Unmanifested. Worship is an inner, subjective, personal experience – it can not be given to you, it can not be shown, expressed or demonstrated. You have to open your window yourself. A devotee makes an idol and then through worship he makes it disappear. “In an earthly sense he makes the idol, in a spiritual sense he destroys it. He makes it in mud and then lets it dissolve into supreme existence.” says Osho.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8859891538096241080&ei=CyPlSffcDJLQ2wLo-4UK&q=

Once you have tasted the joy of being open you cannot be closed again. First you may open only a window or a door, and then you open all your windows and all the doors. The Upanishads say that to choose between the absolute and the relative is wrong. Any choice will make you partial; you will not be whole. And without whole there is no bliss, without whole there is no holiness; without whole you are always going to be a little bit lopsided, insane. When you are whole you are healthy because you are total. GO BEYOND THE CHANGING… Not against the changing, remember — beyond. Beyond is not against. “Beyond” means LIVE in it, but live in such a way that you remain above it, like a lotus flower. It grows in the lake but goes beyond the lake. It lives in water, but the water cannot touch its velvety leaves. Even in the morning when dewdrops gather on the leaves or petals of the lotus they remain separate. The dewdrops are there on the leaves and you can see them, so beautiful in the morning sun, like pearls, but they are separate. The leaf remains absolutely dry; the dewdrops cannot make it wet.

http://movies.virginmedia.com/player/default.asp?filmid=4011&partner=virgin&psec=&sec=trl&trid=2994&url=

If you make love to a woman and you deny animality, what will you do? That’s why many people have become almost incapable of loving. You may be surprised that in the East ninety-nine percent of women have never known any orgasm. The same was the case in the West also, but now it is changing. Ninety-nine percent of women have never known any sexual ecstasy, because they were never allowed to. Men were allowed to be a little animal-like. but never women. They have to be stiff while making love, dead, almost like a corpse. They should not show any emotion, they should not show that they are enjoying it — because only bad women enjoy sex. A prostitute is allowed to enjoy it, but not a wife. If she enjoys and becomes ecstatic, then the husband will feel hurt and think that this woman is not very good because she should behave like a goddess, not like an animal. But to behave like a goddess without being a goddess is bound to create falseness. The woman lies down, dead, corpse-like, with no emotions.

http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=2500886262659788792&ei=YAqWSaf9FYyA2wKR9vzACw&q=

Osho was a teacher in the university. A professor of mathematics became interested, just seeing Osho day after day… Osho would pass just by the side of his office. They were not introduced — still, Osho would put one of his fingers on his lips and look at him. He would just look here and there — “Is anybody seeing or not? Otherwise they will think this is mad, I don’t know this man.” In the beginning he used to look away, to the other side. Osho would have to clap. Then he thought it was better to stand at the window so Osho would not have to clap, because others would hear. And when Osho insisted on putting one finger on his lips… he thought, “It looks odd that I don’t do anything,” so he started putting one finger on his lips. This is how they became great friends. One day he came to Osho´s house. He said, “This is too much. Are you mad or something? Why do you torture me? And every day! I am so afraid of you, that if you come and my class is there, and if they see all this, they will start doing the same thing. And in front of other people I cannot put my finger on my lips because they will ask, `What are you doing?’” Osho said, “There was no other way.” And he was an Englishman. Osho said, “Without an introduction it is very difficult to start talking with an Englishman, so I thought this would be perfectly right. I am not talking, I am not saying anything to you. I am just putting — it is my finger, these are my lips. I have every authority to put them wherever I want.” He said, “That is right, but — just in front of me, always in front of me!” Osho said, “You have come. Now things can begin.” He said, “What do you mean?” Osho said, “I mean, are you going to destroy your life in mathematics?” He was an old man, just ready to retire. And he was waiting to retire and go back to England and settle back in his own country. He said, “This is an important question I have asked myself many times — am I going to destroy my whole life in mathematics? What have I gained? Just figures and figures, and unnecessarily I am torturing myself and gaining nothing.” Osho said, “I know a way. You can sit silently — that is the symbol; this one finger on my lips simply means be silent. Just for half an hour…. You are alone” — his wife was dead and his sons had gone into their own businesses — “you have nothing else to do. You have a beautiful house and a beautiful garden. You can sit anywhere, just in silence.” He said, “The idea is good, but in silence can I go on repeating from one to a hundred? And from a hundred backwards — ninety-nine, ninety-eight, ninety-seven, down to one, and then back? That way will be easy for me, just like a ladder — from one to two to three to four, and then coming back down the ladder. But without engagement, just sitting silently….” Osho said, “This won’t do because you will still be doing the same stupid thing — the mathematics you have been doing your whole life. But what is the trouble with sitting in silence?” He said, “It just looks… somebody may see me. Somebody may ask, `What are you doing?’ Just my whole upbringing is such that if somebody asks, `What are you doing?’ you cannot say `nothing’; otherwise, people will think something is loose. Nothing? The whole world is there to do everything and you are sitting here doing nothing?”

http://www.truveo.com/CRUISING-ON-A-JONAS-BROTHERS-LOVE-STORY-BOOK-2-chp/id/2554461357

The real fight in the future is going to be between meditation and drugs. In fact, that has always been the case: the real fight is between drugs and meditation, either drugs or meditation. So it is not coincidental that when you start meditating by and by the pull of the drug becomes less and less. If it is not becoming less and less, then know well you are not meditating yet, because when you know the higher, the lower is dropped automatically. But one thing has to be understood. Drugs do something; they UNDO something in you. They help you to get out of the mind. They give you courage to look into reality without thinking. For a moment the curtain slips, and suddenly you are aware that the world has a splendor. It had never had it before. You had passed through the same street and you had looked through the same trees and at the same stars and the same people, and today now everything suddenly is so luminous and everybody is so beautiful and everybody is afire with life, with love. A man of tao — one who has attained  — lives in that state continuously, without any effort.

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=iQgmkMN28nc