Positive Thinking

Positive Thinking
'Untruthful' and 'Dishonest', says Osho.
E
veryone has found a new mantra to cope with the stresses and tensions of
modern life…Positive Thinking. Can everything negative become positive just
by thinking in a positive way? Should one ignore the negative by thinking
positive? Is 'thinking' enough to blow away the problems?
A recent TV talk show was aired on Positive Thinking. And, as expected, it
started with the participants totally endorsing this concept to the hilt. The show
took an about turn when Osho's insight – totally opposite to the popular view, as
usual! - was presented. Here, in Osho's words, is the background to this view.
I teach you
transcendence -neither positive nor
negative. Be a
watcher: witness
both. When there is
day, witness the
day, and when
there is night,
witness the
night -- and don't
get identified
with either.
- Osho
46
OSHO WORLD
Positive thinking means
being untruthful; it means
being dishonest.
I
t means seeing a certain thing
and yet denying what you have
seen; it means deceiving
yourself and others. Positive
thinking is the only bullshit
philosophy that America has
contributed to human thought -nothing else. Dale Carnegie,
Napoleon Hill, and the Christian
priest, Vincent Peale -- all these
people have filled the whole
American mind with this absolutely
absurd idea of a positive
philosophy. And it appeals
particularly to mediocre minds.
Dale Carnegie's book, How To
Win Friends and Influence People,
has been sold in numbers just next
to the Christian Bible. No other
book has been able to reach that
popularity. The Christian Bible
should not be a competitor in fact,
because it is more or less given free,
forced on people. But Dale
Carnegie's book people have been
purchasing; it has not been given to
you free. And it has created a
certain kind of ideology which has
given birth to many books of a
similar kind. But to me it is
nauseating.
The very idea that you want to
influence people is the idea of a
salesman, and that's what Dale
Carnegie was -- salesman turned
philosopher. It has happened many
But what about enemies ?
philosopher. It has happened
many times. Just recently Werner
Erhard, the founder of EST.... He
was a salesman of encyclopedias,
dictionaries, but in trying to sell
enclyclopedias and dictionaries he
became aware of salesmanship.
Then why bother about
encyclopedias? Why not sell ideas
directly? -- which are a more
invisible commodity. People can't
see an idea and yet they keep
purchasing it. And once you have
paid two hundred and fifty dollars
for a certain idea which you can't
see, you have to pretend that you
have got it; otherwise people will
think you are a fool. Two hundred
and fifty dollars, and you have not
"got it"...? It is very simple.
Negative Thinking is not
weak either!
Why can't the monk enjoy
his Ferrari?
Positive thinking is just
deceiving people.
If influencing people and
winning friends becomes your
ideology, you will have to do two
things. One is you will have to act,
behave the way people wish you to
act and behave. That's the simple
way to influence them, there is no
other way.
The whole philosophy can be
condensed into a simple sentence: if
you want people to be influenced
by you, just behave the way they
think is the right way to behave.
You prove to be their ideal, which
they also want to be but have not
been able to be yet. Of course, you
cannot become anybody else's
ideal, but you can pretend. You will
become a hypocrite.
And if you are going to
influence many people, then of
course you will have to have many
personalities, many masks, because
each person is influenced by a
different mask.
If you want to influence a
Hindu, you have to have a different
kind of personality than when you
are trying to influence a Christian.
To Christians, Jesus crucified on the
cross is the symbol of the greatest
sacrifice anybody can make to
redeem humanity.
Dale Carnegie started this whole
school of positive philosophy,
positive thinking: Don't see the
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47
negative part, don't see the
darker side. But by your not seeing
it, do you think it disappears? You
are just befooling yourself. You
cannot change reality. The night
will still be there; you can think that
it is daytime for twenty-four hours,
but by your thinking it, it is not
going to be light twenty-four hours
a day.
The negative is as much
part of life as the positive.
They balance each other.
"You are befooling
others" said
Henry Ford
The
philosophy of
positive
thinking says:
"Take
everything
positively. The
negative should
not have any
space in your
approach, there
should be no
negative part."
This is making a
part, the positive
part, almost the
whole
48
OSHO WORLD
After Dale Carnegie, the great
name in the tradition of this
positive thinking is Napoleon Hill.
Think and Grow Rich is his greatest
contribution to the world -- a
beautifully written book, but all
crap. Think and grow rich... you
don't have to do anything, you only
have to think in absolutely positive
terms and riches will start flowing
towards you. If they don't come,
that simply means that you have
not been thinking absolutely
positively.
So these are beautiful games in
which you cannot defeat the man
who is proposing the game. He has
the key in his hands. If you succeed
by chance, then he succeeds
because his philosophy -- think and
grow rich -- has succeeded. You
have been thinking and thinking
and thinking and positively
thinking that dollars are showering
on you -- these are not snowflakes
but dollars showering on you -- and
suddenly your uncle dies and
leaves you a big inheritance.
Naturally, positive thinking works!
But if you don't succeed... and
ninety-nine per cent of the time you
are not going to succeed -- you
know perfectly well that your
positive thinking is not absolutely
positive thinking is not
absolutely positive; you know that
there is doubt. Once in a while you
open your eyes to see whether they
are dollars or just snowflakes. You
see they are just snowflakes, and
you again close your eyes and start
thinking that dollars are showering.
But the doubt is there, that these
really are snowflakes. Whom are
you trying to befool? All these
thoughts are going on: "This is just
nonsense, I shouldn't waste my
time, I could be earning some
dollars; this way I am losing rather
than gaining."
But Napoleon Hill writes
beautifully and gives examples of
how people have succeeded by
positive thinking. And you can find
people -- this world is big enough.
For everything you can find an
example. Why one? -- you can find
hundreds of examples if you just
look around and try to find them.
And all these people have been
doing just that: they find examples,
and they place the examples in
beautiful poetic prose. And of
course you want to be rich, so they
exploit your ambition, your desire.
They give you such a simple
method -- and they don't ask
anything of you in return.
About Napoleon Hill I
remember... he himself was a poor
man. That would have been enough
proof to disprove his whole
philosophy. He became rich by
selling the book, Think and Grow
Rich. But it was not positive
thinking that was making him rich - it was fools around the world who
purchased the book, it was his
work, his labour, his effort. But in
the very beginning days, when his
book came out, he used to stand in
bookstores to persuade people to
uy the book. And it happened that
Henry Ford came in his latest
buy the book. And it happened
that Henry Ford came in his latest
model car and went into the
bookshop to find something light to
read. And Napoleon Hill did not
want to miss this chance. He went
forward with his book and said, "A
great book has just been published - you will be happy with it. And it
is not only a book, it is a sure
method of success."
Henry Ford looked at the man
and said, "Are you the writer of the
book?"
Napoleon Hill said proudly,
"Yes, I am the writer of the book."
And he can be proud: that the book
he has written is a piece of art. And
to create a piece of art out of crap is
real mastery.
Henry Ford, without touching
the book, just asked one question,
"Have you come in your own car or
on the bus?"
Napoleon Hill could not
understand what he meant. He
said, "Of course, I came on the bus."
Henry Ford said, "Look outside.
That is my private car, and I am
Henry Ford. You are befooling
others; you don't have even a
private car and you write a book
called Think and Grow Rich! And I
Become poor by not thinking?
private car and you write a book
called Think and Grow Rich! And I
have grown rich without thinking,
so I don't want to bother with it.
You think and grow rich! -- and
when you grow rich then you come
to me. That will be the proof. The
book is not the proof"
And it is said that Napoleon Hill
never could summon the courage to
meet this old man, Henry Ford,
again, even though he became a
little richer. But compared to Henry
Ford he was always a poor man and
was bound to remain a poor man,
always. But Henry Ford's logic was
clear.
Out of these people, one
Christian priest, Norman Vincent
Peale, has created a positive
philosophy. And he has tried to
convert the whole Christian
attitude -- as if it is a philosophy of
positive thinking. And of course he
could have quoted all the religions
of the world, but he wanted to
spread Christianity, so he did not
take account of any other religions.
Am I against positive
philosophy? Yes, because I
am also against negative
philosophy.
I have to be against both because
both choose only half the fact, and
both try to ignore the other half.
And remember: a half-truth is
far more dangerous than a whole
lie, because the whole lie will be
discovered by you sooner or later.
How long can it remain
undiscovered by you? A lie, of
course, is a lie; it is just a palace
made of playing cards -- a little
breeze and the whole palace
disappears. But the half-truth is
dangerous. You may never discover
it, you may continue to think it is
dangerous. You may never
discover it, you may continue to
think it is the whole truth. So the
real problem is not the whole lie,
the real problem is the half-truth
pretending to be the whole truth;
and that is what these people are
doing.
The philosophy of positive
thinking says: "Take everything
positively. The negative should not
have any space in your approach,
there should be no negative part."
This is making a part, the positive
part, almost the whole.
The same is true about negative
people, although there are none
who preach the philosophy of
negative thinking, because who is
going to listen to them? They will
say, "If somebody is smiling, look
out -- there must be something he is
hiding behind the smile. In fact, he
must want to cry or weep. Look out
-- don't be deceived by his smiling;
find out the negative. If he is
looking very happy, that means
certainly there is something that he
is trying to hide behind his
happiness."
People are so miserable, who is
going to listen to such a
philosopher? They will say, "We are
already so miserable, and you are
teaching us to search for more
misery! Even if a false smile is
there, at least it is there. Please
forgive us, we can't keep digging
and finding the tears. We have
enough tears already. And just a
smile -- although it may be just a
mannerism, a formality, just a
civilised way of meeting
somebody...."
When you meet somebody and
ask, "How are you?" He says, "I am
perfectly well."
Now, if you are a negative
philosopher you have to find out
what this man is hiding: "How can
MAY 2008
49
True religion is not positive, nor is it
negative. It is neither via negative nor via
positive; it is via transcendence...
philosopher you have to find out
what this man is hiding: "How can
he be perfectly well? Have you ever
heard of anybody in the world
being perfectly well? He is lying!"
But nobody will listen to a negative
philosopher. You also say, "I am
perfectly well. You are perfectly
well? -- good." And you depart in
good spirits. What is the point of
showing one's wounds to each
other and making each other more
miserable than before?
So there is no school of negative
philosophers. But there are more
people who believe in negative
philosophy without knowing it
than there are people who believe
in positive philosophy. In fact, all
these believers in positive
these believers in positive
philosophy are basically negative.
To hide that negativity they
believe firmly in the positive
philosophy.
I am not in support of either
side. I am in favour of taking the
whole truth, and that's what I
would like you to do too: take the
whole truth, because the negative is
as essential as the positive.
You cannot create
electricity with only the
positive pole;
You will need the negative pole
too. Only with both the negative
and the positive pole can you create
electricity. Is the negative absolutely
negative? It is complementary, so it
is not against the positive.
"Take it positively.
Don't complain."
But you can also lose!
What do you do then ?
50
OSHO WORLD
No, find out who the criminals
are and let them be punished as
heavily as possible. You punish a
single man if he kills somebody,
and perhaps a single man was
behind the whole explosion which
has killed thousands of people,
crippled thousands of people. But
he will be left completely free to do
it again, and people like him will
also not feel any necessity to be
more alert, to be more careful.
more alert, to be more careful.
When you look at both sides
they fit together, they complement
each other. They are just like
the Chinese symbol of yin
and yang.
Have you seen the Chinese
symbol of yin and yang? -- two fish
in a circle, one fish in one halfcircle, the other fish in the other
half-circle; but both fish fitting
together, making it a whole. Yin
means the feminine; yang means
the masculine.
This is applicable to all
polarities, positive and negative;
they are just like two fish moving in
such a way, so closely, that they
make a circle.
Then you look at existence with
the eyes of a religious man.
Then there is no saint, no sinner;
they are all complementary to each
other. They are both needed in
some way.
Yes, better ways can be found so
that they can complement each
other more lucidly, more gracefully,
more beautifully.
The optimist can
become a pessimist,
the pessimist can
become an optimist.
They are not contraries; they are
two points on the same spectrum.
I don't teach you optimism. In
the West it is very fashionable
nowadays; it is called "positive
thinking." That is a new name for
optimism; the old name has become
a little too out of fashion, out-ofdate.
The new name is positive
thinking. I don't teach you
positive thinking, because positive
thinking carries the negative in
its wake.
I teach you transcendence -neither positive nor negative. Be a
watcher: witness both. When there
is day, witness the day, and when
there is night, witness the night -and don't get identified with either.
You are neither the day nor the
night; you are the transcendental
consciousness. Become more
and more centred there in that
transcendence.
True religion is not positive, nor
is it negative. It is neither via
negative nor via positive; it is via
transcendence.
If you look for the
negative you will find it,
because the negative is
there in the same
proportion as the positive.
If you look for the positive, you
will find the positive. But by
finding the positive, you cannot
destroy the negative; the negative is
there, side by side. They are always
there, side by side. They are
always together like negative and
positive poles of electricity. You
can't have electricity with one pole,
you will need both.
Life needs both: thorns and
roses, days and nights,
happiness/unhappiness,
birth/death.
Be a witness to it all and you
will know something that is beyond
birth, beyond death; something
that is beyond darkness and
beyond light; something that is
beyond happiness, beyond
unhappiness. Buddha has called it
peace, nirvana.
Read or Listen to
Full Discourse on
www.oshoworld.com
OSHODHAM
NEW DELHI
OSHO Mystic ROSE
June 21 to July 11
Inauguration: June 20, 6:30 p.m.
Conducted by:
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Swami Ravindra Bharti
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