The Old Proverb is Right
Meditation is a simple art, very simple. It need not be taken seriously. It is so simple that even a child can learn it, in fact a child can learn it more easily. The older one becomes, the more serious one becomes. In fact it is thought that if you are mature you have to be serious. Seriousness and maturity somehow have been associated - it is a wrong association.
A really mature person cannot be serious, there is nothing to be serious about. The whole of life is fun, it is a play, a play of consciousness. And that's what meditation reveals to you - that the whole of life is a beautiful play of energy. The same energy is in the trees, in the stars, in the rivers, in the mountains, in you, in animals. It is the same energy dancing in different forms. We in the East have called it ′leela′; leela means god′s play. But the Judaic attitude which is carried by Christianity and Islam is very serious.
The Talmud says god is not your uncle, and I say to you he is your uncle! (laughter) Forget all about him being your father - that is a serious thing. He is your uncle and he is a very nice fellow! The Talmud insists that he is not nice, he is not your uncle, be afraid of him. And I say to you, don′t be afraid of him, don′t be afraid of existence. It is beautiful, there is no need to be afraid. It is not antagonistic to you, it is nourishing to you.
Meditation reveals many things but the first revelation is the playfulness of existence - and then one becomes like a child.
Jesus says, "Unless you are like small children you will not enter my kingdom of god." He is right; you have to be like small children, so small that you don′t have any weight of experience. Experience makes people serious and a meditator has to drop all experience, the whole past. He has to bury his past, he has to die every moment to the past so that every moment he is renewed, so that every moment he is a new person. And then miracles become possible. If you are cheerful the whole existence starts laughing with you!
The old proverb is right. Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone.