Pessimism

 

 

Pessimism is nothing but getting addicted to a miserable way of living — and you are the creator of it. You are miserable because you are jealous. Now, a jealous person cannot hope to be optimistic. You are miserable because you are constantly angry, angry against the whole world, angry that existence has not been fair to you. Such a person cannot be optimistic.And you all believe in religions which are pessimistic. Do you think worshipping a cross is optimistic? It is worshipping death. And people are carrying crosses around their necks. Even if you make the crosses of gold, it does not matter — a cross is a cross.

 

Listen to your holy scriptures. They condemn you continuously, they say that you are sinners, that you are still burdened with the disobedience of Adam and Eve. They condemn everything that is natural in you — that creates guilt. You cannot go against nature, and your mind says, “But you are going against your religion.” That creates guilt.

 

A guilty person, a sinner, cannot be optimistic. Pessimism is going to be his whole way of life — just darkness and more darkness, and no hope for a sunrise.

 

I am not a sinner. What Adam and Eve did was perfectly right. They should be appreciated; they were the first rebels. The whole humanity owes so much to Adam and Eve — everything. If they had not disobeyed a dictatorial God, there would not have been any humanity: no Gautam Buddha, no Socrates, no Baal Shem Tov, no Chuang Tzu. You would be still naked, chewing grass in the Garden of Eden. The whole credit goes to Adam and Eve, that they disobeyed.

 

Disobedience shows intelligence. And it was worth it, eating the fruit of knowledge. They could not reach the other tree; otherwise, they would have eaten the fruit of eternal life too. Why should you feel guilty? You should rejoice! If anybody has to feel guilty, it is the God who prohibited his own son and daughter from being wise, from being alive forever. The sin has been committed by God, he should feel guilty.

 

But the same is the situation about other religions: they all make you feel miserable. It seems the whole business of religion depends on your misery.

 

I don’t have any guilt. I have never committed any sin. I have lived absolutely naturally; I have never listened to any religious commandment. I have listened to the wisdom of my body. I have decided of my own accord. I have loved my freedom, and my eyes are without any dark film. Hence, I am helpless: I cannot be pessimistic. Even in this world which is almost insane, I am optimistic, because I cannot conceive that the forces of life can be defeated by the forces of death. I cannot conceive that truth can be conquered by lies.

 

It is such a deep certainty in me that I know the birth of the new man is very close by.

 

-Osho,  “From Bondage to Freeom, #37, Q2”