Positive Thinking 'Untruthful' and 'Dishonest', says Osho.
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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
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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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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
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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
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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 ?
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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.
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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 Note Notethat thatOshodham Oshodhamwill willbe beopen openfor forregular regularmeditations meditationsduring duringthese thesedays. days. Venue : Osho Dhyan Mandir 44, Jhatikara Road, Pandwala Khurd Near Najafgarh New Delhi-110043
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