LAUGHTER IS RELIGIOUS (OSHO)

Laughter is as precious as prayer or even more precious than prayer, because the man who cannot laugh cannot pray either. A prayer that does not come out of a joyous heart is already dead.It cannot reach god, it cannot leave the earth, it has no wings. It is like a rock: it will fall back to the earth, it cannot fly into the sky.
Religion has lived without laughter, that's why religion has been a corpse. And you are worshping corpses in your churches and in your temples and in your mosques, you have become worshipers of death. Rather than worshiping life you have been worshiping death.
My approach is totally different- I bring you a new vision. Religion is against laughter, is against love, is against rejoicing, is against celebration. The religious person, the so-called religious person, condemns everything of this world; he lives surrounded by a thousands and one condemnations. He lives in fear, in trembling. He does not live, he only vegetates.
Your so-called saints and mahatmas are not real people, they don't have the guts to be real, they are phony. But you have worshiped them for so long, and you still go on worshiping them. And the reason you worship them is because they are so dead, because they are so serious, because they are so ugly, because their whole approach towards life is so negative. They are anti-life,anti-love, anti-laughter-how can they be for god? It is only through love and laughter and a tremendous joy in life that you start feeling the presence of something that is beyond.