Playfulness Quotes

“Giovanni had awakened an itch, had released a gnaw in me. I realized it one afternoon, when I was taking him to work via the Boulevard Montparnasse. We had bought a kilo of cherries and we were eating them as we walked along. We were both insufferably childish and high-spirited that afternoon and the spectacle we presented, two grown men jostling each other on the wide sidewalk and aiming the cherry pits, as though they were spitballs, into each other's faces, must have been outrageous. And I realized that such childishness was fantastic at my age and the happiness out of which it sprang yet more so; for that moment I really loved Giovanni, who had never seemed more beautiful than he was that afternoon.”
― James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

“A dog can be a ‘significant other’ as it infuses a magic fluid stream of oxytocin, trust, ease, and patience; and transforms a man’s life into a paradise of complicity and mutual sympathy, arousing at the same time an instinct of playfulness that many people have lost since their young age and that puts things in new perspectives.( "I am young and have no dog")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“If life has got to be a play, let's play it well. As the avoidance of problems and the maintenance of inner peace may guide us smartly through open and unswerving confrontations, let's face up to conflicts playfully, as well. Playfulness allows us to see things from different angles and may sometimes save us from harmful outcomes. ("The band was still playing")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“The presence of a dog is a powerful catalyst, helping us rekindle the forgotten impulse of playfulness. Dogs invite us to enjoy the unsuspected moments that break the monotony of everyday life, reorienting us toward the freedom of simply "being" and reminding us of the importance of living in the "moment." ("I am young and have no dog")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“I am so tired.
I have grown old from being serious.
I have grown ill from being serious.
I want to laugh at myself.
I want to forget myself.
I am so tired.”
― Kamand Kojouri

“A lot is said about the serious by the fact that the most intelligent person around is almost always the most playful.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“The world is full of cowards she thinks. And it turns out sometimes the opposite of cowardice is playfulness.”
― Nell Stevens, Briefly, A Delicious Life

“Our seriousness prevents us from enjoying the circus of life.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“There is a correlation between how seriously we take life and how many problems it gives us.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“In cricket fielding, if catch comes right in your hand, there is no fun. You enjoy the most when you have to dive to catch the ball. This is what playfulness is all about. Difference between being a servant of someone and surrendering to someone is playfulness. Don’t make things too easy in your relationship with your spouse or children or gods. Keep the playfulness alive.”
― Shunya

“The worst thing about our cultures, education systems, and religions is that they make us take life seriously.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Most adult geniuses are more playful than most children.”
― @Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“The immature think maturity is mutually exclusive with playfulness.”
― @Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“The Brave Man
Carves
Out His Fortune,
And
Every Man
Is The Son
Of His Own
Works.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

“Politics is sports for people who think they are smart and more serious about life.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“I often wonder whether the playground of the imagination is our truest space after all.”
― Hannah Paasch, Millenneagram: The Enneagram Guide for Discovering Your Truest, Baddest Self

“Compassion, kindness, joy, laughter, playfulness, light-heartedness, wonder and awe don’t simply feel good—they’re also a neurobiological recipe for wellbeing and longevity.”
― Simona Ondrejkova

“Most adults make adulthood seem like a disease that is caused by a deficiency of playfulness.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Failure embraces everyone, but only experts know, how to slip her the tongue.”
― Curtis Tyrone Jones

“What has always struck me about every Zen master I've met and every Zen book I've read is the sense of humor. Mindfulness in practice is not endlessly silent as much as it is delightfully playful. Presence and connection come with a pinch of sassiness that allows us to return to our inner child in authenticity and lightness.”
― Aline Ra M, Bullshit-Free Mindfulness: An Uncommon Guide for Joy in Everyday Life

“Life is each moment precious to creativity. What you create does not matter, and it may just be an image in the void - but whatever you do must come out of your playfulness and satisfaction. Love is the purpose, and life is the journey.”
― Lenfantvivant

“Connect with your creative side.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“Question : BELOVED MASTER, IS THERE ANY POSSIBILITY FOR ENLIGHTENMENT FOR A NONSERIOUS MEDITATOR?

Osho : There is only possibility of enlightenment if you are a nonserious meditator..seriousness is not health. Seriousness is a tense state of mind, it is sadness; it is not overflowing joy. 

Yes, the old traditions will tell you, "Be serious." I cannot say that to you. Why be serious? The birds singing in the morning are not serious. The stars in the night are not serious.

The flowers in their different colors and fragrances are not serious. Except man, have you anything else in existence which is serious? The oceans, the rivers, the mountains... nothing is serious, except man.

Who has made man serious? It is your old traditions which have created the idea that life is not a rejoicing, that life is not playfulness; that life has to be serious, only then can you enter into paradise, only then can you meet God. But I want to tell you, even God will not give you an audience if you reach there with a serious, long face. You have to go there like an innocent child, playful, joyous. You have to learn something of the sense of humor. 

My approach is to create a world where laughter is good, is healthy, is supported not condemned. 

I would like all our religious places to be playful.

"Leela" means playfulness. 

If the whole of existence is divine play, then our lives should also be a part of it, a divine play.

So don't be worried about meditating nonseriously; in fact, that is the right way to meditate. Meditate playfully, nonseriously..Meditation needs relaxation. Meditation needs a joyful heart. It is not work, it is play.

So you can meditate anywhere - taking a shower you can meditate, sleeping in your bed you can meditate, making love to your wife or your husband you can meditate - because meditation has no barriers, no conditions.

Meditation simply means a silent state of mind. You can do anything with the silent state of mind.

And whatever you do will become more graceful, will become more creative, will bring better flowers, better fruits. Your life will become in every dimension richer. I am all for richness, in all the dimensions of life. Money alone is not richness.

If you can meditate in the different areas of your activities you will be making different dimensions richer, deeper. But don't be serious. 

I remember, my grandfather was a very serious meditator....

I was always watching. Whenever he meditated I would disturb him. Anything was enough. Just pulling the lobe of his ear - and he is meditating - or closing his nose... And he would be furious.

I would say, "A meditator is not supposed to be so angry and so furious. And I know perfectly that when there is a customer in the shop, even meditating, you tell him to wait. This is strange. You don't get angry about that. Then you forget all your seriousness. A dog enters in the house, and you are meditating and you start pointing to the dog saying, 'Throw him out.' What kind of meditation is this?

"The best will be: don't pretend to be serious, be human, and there is no problem. You can continue to be silent and take care of the customer. You can remain silent and take care of the dog. You can remain silent and take care of me."

But all the so-called religious people are very angry people.This is because of their seriousness.

"Otherwise," I told my grandfather, "if you are really in meditation, and I come to you, you can hold my hand, you can dance with me. You can play with me and still your inner world remains silent, watchful."

Meditation is totally an undercurrent activity, so nothing touches it. There is no need to be serious.

Please don't think of meditation as seriousness. It is a very playful activity. Make it as light as possible. It should not be a burden on your heart.

It should give you wings to fly in the sky.”
― Osho

“Anand Gerard. Anand means bliss; gerard mean brave, courageous, and it also means a loyal heart - a blissful, courageous, loyal heart. And these are the basic qualities of a religious consciousness.

Religion has nothing to do with seriousness; seriousness is pathology. Religion is playful, sportlike, it is fun. Prayer is playing with God, and it is possible only if one remembers that one has to continuously choose to be cheerful. Mind tends to be serious and sad. Mind exists and lives in misery; misery is food for it. The moment you are blissful, mind disappears - hence the beauty of laughter. Laughter has something intrinsically spiritual in it: when you really laugh, mind disappears, and time also disappears. In total laughter you are herenow. There is no ego, nobody is laughing in you - it is pure laughter.

The actor disappears, the doer disappears, only the happening remains. That is the beauty of blissfulness, and its benediction. It is possible only for a courageous person because it needs guts to lose the mind. It needs guts to get out of the calculative mechanism of the mind, and unless you get out of the mind you can't enter into the heart.

Mind is doubt; the heart is trust, and trust is the door to the divine.

Hate is part of our unconsciousness: the more unconscious we are, the more hateful. The moment one starts waking up, becomes more alert, more aware, more conscious, one starts changing from darkness to light. That is real transformation - not the change in your character but the change in your very consciousness. And the moment you are full of light, your life is full of love. That love is real character - not the so-called cultivated virtue.

This inner light is possible only through being more alert. That's what meditation is all about: the art of alertness. Ordinarily we live like robots: mechanically, repetitively. We have to de-automatize
ourselves, we have to make each act conscious. Small, ordinary acts, walking, sitting, standing, they all have to be changed into awareness.

Walk, but remain a witness to it. Eat, and remain a witness to it. Think, and remain a witness to it. Slowly slowly you start accumulating great reservoirs of awareness in you. At a certain point awareness changes into light. Just as at one hundred degrees' heat water evaporates, when your being is full of light your actions are full of love. Then love is spontaneous. You are not even thinking of it, you are not doing it: it is happening. You become just a medium to God.”
― Osho

“Meditate playfully, don't meditate seriously.

'Fun' is a very religious word; 'seriousness' is very irreligious. If you want to attain to the original mind, you will have to live a very non-serious, though sincere life; you will have to transform your work into play; you will have to transform all your duties into love.”
― Osho

“Now I want to expedition the ceiling.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, Borne

“The only way art lives is through the experience of the observer. The reality of art begins with the eyes of the beholder, through imagination, invention and confrontation.”
― Keith Haring

“If laughter and play are tools for healing, failure is the sharpening stone.”
― Ken Breniman, Subversive Acts of Humanity : A Survival Guide for Choosing Evolution over Self-Destruction

“Alright, here’s a short and light one:


---

She’s away today.
The breeze borrowed her
for a dance among the leaves.”
― Monika Ajay Kaul

“She’s away today.
The breeze borrowed her
for a dance among the leaves.”
― Monika Ajay Kaul