Why So Serious?

"Life has never been taken with such ecstasy, joy, and bliss as Zen has done.

"The common religions of the world, Hinduism or Christianity, Mohammedanism or Jainism, are all too serious. And their seriousness keeps them imprisoned in words, in theories, in philosophies. Their seriousness does not allow them to laugh, to sing, to dance, to be merry. They have spoiled the whole of humanity, they have destroyed the laughter of every child who has been born.

"It seems there is something in laughter of which our so-called society is afraid..."

– Osho, from Zen: The Quantum Leap from Mind to No-Mind, ch. 3