In darshan, Osho says, “A man without meditation never comes to know the blessedness of life. He can only feel complaints against life.”
Without meditation one’s approach is bound to be negative; one only picks the wrong things. One picks the thorns in the rosebush and forgets about the flowers. That’s why you see the whole humanity in misery. It is of peoples’ own choice, they are ready to jump upon anything that is wrong.
Once I used to work as an editor on a newspaper, and there I discovered that a few people are born proof readers. Nobody can compete with them. Here is Vivek – she is a born proof reader. (Vivek, who cares for Osho around the clock, is sitting on his left. She looks at him now, a surprised smile on her face, and then laughs.) Just show her anything and she will immediately see the word that is wrong. The whole page is there but she simply lands on the word – and always correctly! (laughter) Without missing the target she will immediately go to the word. Just as there are born poets there are born proof readers! (laughter)
But in life if you are a born proof reader you will have many troubles. Meditation changes your approach from the negative to the positive. Of course meditation cannot make a person a good proof reader. He will go on missing the word that is wrong! (laughter) Life is both thorns and flowers. It is better to choose the flowers. But this should not be done artificially. That is what is known in the West as positive thinking: those kind of people teach ‘Think positively, affirmatively; go on denying the thorns and go on searching for the flowers. If they are not there, invent them.’
That is going to be shallow and superficial, because your mind is not yet meditative, and mind’s basic quality is being negative. So you have certain cultivated habits. You can teach the dog a few tricks, but the dog does not become a genius. Even if he knows a few tricks he will do something foolish, he is bound to do it.
A few people were playing cards and a man was standing watching. He was amazed because three were men and the fourth partner was a dog; he could not believe his eyes – the dog was doing perfectly well.
So he asked, ‘To whom does this dog belong?’ The owner was also playing, he was one of the players; he said, ‘He belongs to me.’
The enquirer said ‘This dog is really a genius.’ The owner said ‘Nothing like that. He is still a fool, because whenever he gets good cards he wags his tail (much laughter) and he exposes everything.’
That’s what happens to positive thinkers!
A meditator is not a positive thinker, a meditator simply drops the mind. And the moment the mind is gone there is positivity without any effort – an effortless positivity, an effortless affirmation of life. Then suddenly it is all spring, then suddenly it is all a festival of lights, and one for the first time experiences blissfulness, blessedness, benediction; and out of that arises a gratitude towards existence.
Osho, Going All the Way, Ch 27 (unpublished)
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