Does Seriousness Help Or Hinder Spiritual Progression?

[S33K3R]

I want to know what you all think

[ajasatya]

both the incapability to be serious and the attachment to seriousness hinder spiritual progression.

[S33K3R]

@ajasatya I have noticed a lot of serious energy within this forum. Do you believe the seriousness is a phase that is a part of spiritual progression at all? I know I myself used to be very serious and I look back at it as a phase almost. A very frustrating time in my life indeed

[ajasatya]

@S33K3R it is certainly a phase, since enlightenment requires such a strong commitment. but it's the practitioner's responsibility to find his own balance otherwise he'd be practicing some sort of violence to himself.

about the serious energy, you're probably experiencing episodes of aversion to your own past everytime you see something that resembles it. have you been seeing your own ghosts?

[Shin]

You got to be serious about it to the point you realize being serious about it is counter productive.

You have to go through the serious phase first though, it really can't be skipped.

[SOUL]

Yes, it can.

[S33K3R]

@ajasatya I have actually  I only recently realized the energy I was bringing to my spirituality. I am excited to be here to actually see those ghosts! I feel as though I am seeing myself in all the stages I went through before this. Its very interesting and exciting to see so many working so hard!!! 

[Toby]

Some Osho quote is needed here @Prabhaker.

[S33K3R]

@Shin I like that, simple, to the point and full of knowledge. Thank you.

[Prabhaker]

@Toby

Life is not serious at all. It is just a nonserious play - with nothing to be achieved, with nowhere to reach. It is just a play, with no end. Serious is always end-oriented. It means that you are living in order to achieve something, and life will be meaningless if you don't achieve it.

This is seriousness: the means lies in the end, not in The here and now. The end must be achieved.

If you achieve it, then it is okay. If you don't achieve it, then everything ii lost. You are serious because you have made some condition for your life. You have identified the meaning of your life by some condition that has to be fulfilled.

 

If you are serious, then you cannot flow. Then you are frozen inside; then you become just a dead stone. Then there are resistances around you. You cannot melt, you cannot change as life changes.

 

A serious person can never be innocent, and one who is innocent can never be serious. They are contradictory; they cannot exist together. A child is never serious, but he is very intense. In everything he does, he is intense. If he is playing he is intense; if he is angry he is intense. But an old man is never intense. He is serious. He will turn even play into work because his play becomes a fight, a struggle; a competition. Their is either defeat or victory. All kinds of nonsense will emerge, it will not be just a play. Intensity is something else. It is not seriousness, it is something altogether different.

  Osho ~ The Eternal Quest

Meditation has to be a joyous activity, it has to be a song. One has not to do it as a duty, one has to enjoy it as fun, as play. If you do meditation as a duty you will miss the whole point. Then it cannot happen to you. It can happen only in a very light mood, in a very non-serious mood. Seriousness is heavy, and anything heavy drags you downwards. You have to be as light as a small child playing on the beach, collecting seashells, colored stones, running here and there, almost part of the wind and the sea and the sand and the sun. When that lightness is there you have wings, you can fly upwards. And meditation means an upward movement of your energies.

Osho, The Imprisoned Splendor

I don't want you to be serious. I am so against seriousness – it is a spiritual sickness. Laughter is spiritual health, and laughter is very unburdening. While you laugh, you can put your mind aside very easily. For a man who cannot laugh the doors of the buddha are closed. To me, laughter is one of the greatest values. No religion has ever thought about it. Religions have always been insisting on seriousness, and because of their insistence the whole world is psychologically sick. 
Osho, The Language of Existence, Talk #5

[pluto]

The ascended masters don't use words like "worry" but they use words like "cautious".

If you can decode that and align it to your question you may get the answer you seek.

[S33K3R]

@pluto  I'm not sure where you found worry I'm confused??

[pluto]

2 hours ago, S33K3R said:

@pluto  I'm not sure where you found worry I'm confused??

Not here no it was just an example from a telepathic message i received a while back that could maybe help with your question if you are able to view it from a different angle. I'll come back another time if i able to word and align it better. Apologizes

[Girzo]

I would say the best option is to be serious and dedicated about achieving enlightment and at the same time to be fully aware of pointlessness of all these efforts. Sounds paradoxical at first, but it's totally attainable. These are the conditions in which I fell growth the most.

And yeah, Osho's teachings are very much in that style, so if someone likes this perspective, I recommend reading some of his books.

[Nahm]

@S33K3R depends on how u feel

[S33K3R]

@Girzo Yes! I love Osho. While reading the book of secrets I started off being very serious, but over time that seriousness melted away and I started feeling like I was playing all the time. Now it is difficult for me to be serious  Somehow Osho helped me reclaim the eyes I had as a child I think? 

[Emerald]

Willpower is your friend in many situations, but not in seeking enlightenment. Using willpower as a tool to seek truth, is equivalent to pulling on a plant to try to get it to grow faster. You'll just end up uprooting it.

All you have to do is let the plant grow in the mysterious way that it grows and watch with curiosity and presence. So, seriousness will hinder any attempt to open because seriousness, by its nature, is a closing and stiffening. All you need to do is put the plant in the right conditions while removing the wrong conditions and the plant will grow on its own. All you can ever do is facilitate your growth. You cannot will yourself to grow. The growth happens magically and spontaneously when you relinquish control and put your plant in the right conditions.

But you have to take the time and energy to put the plant in the right conditions. That's as far as willpower goes in the entire conversation.