The more watchful you become, the more you will find life such a comedy. So much is happening all around — so much stupidity, so much ridiculousness. But a buddha does not laugh because twenty-four hours a day, in his clarity and transparent vision, each cell of his being is laughing. There is no need to laugh loudly — silently he is in laughter. That is laughing without laughter.
If you become detached you will be able to see how people are attached to trivia, and how much they are suffering. And you will laugh at yourself because you were also in the same boat before. Detachment is certainly the essence of the way
…AND THE GOAL OF THOSE WHO PRACTICE IS FREEDOM FROM APPEARANCES.
What you see in the world is not the reality, but only an appearance. Deep behind the appearance, the mask, is the reality. To know the reality you have to be free from appearances. And all your attachments prevent you; you become attached to the mask. We rarely grow and become mature. We just go on changing our toys. We remain children; we go on changing our teddy bears.
You must have seen in railway stations, in airports, small children dragging their teddy bears with them, ugly, dirty, but to them they are very essential. Without them they cannot sleep; the teddy bear is their companion. They will become older and they will drop the teddy bear but they will drop it only when they have found another teddy bear. It does not matter what the shape of the teddy bear is — it can be money.
You may not be aware — because you are not aware — but if you look a little bit, you can find what your teddy bear is.
All appearances in the world are preventing you from knowing the reality of the world and of your own being. What appears is not the reality. Reality is hidden behind appearances, and unless you become attuned with reality, those appearances which are just dream stuff are going to torture you continuously. And everybody is feeling the agony, the misery, but goes on living it because there seems to be no way to drop it.
And it is the essential way of all the religions: detachment, freedom from appearances.
OSHO