From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 29. POSITIVE THINKING: PHILOSOPHY FOR PHONIES
his book and he 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 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 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 gather up 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 wants to spread Christianity,
so he doesn’t take account of any other religions.
And in Jesus you can find.... All the religions have been doing the same harm that Jesus did:
”Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of God” – now Mother Teresa is not saying anything
different. Norman Vincent Peale has become a world-famous preacher. His whole standpoint is:
don’t look at anything from the negative, critical attitude. Look from the positive, accepting, receptive
attitude. And he says that if you do it, you transform the nature of the object – which is absolutely
wrong.
Just by saying, ”Blessed are the poor because theirs is the kingdom of God,” you don’t change
poverty. Otherwise in two thousand years Christian priests would have made poverty disappear.
Poverty goes on growing, the blessed people go on growing.
In fact, there will be so many blessed people that in the kingdom of God, shared by all these blessed
people, they will again be poor; they are not going to get much share in it. All these shareholders
in the kingdom of God will make God also poor. It will be a company of poor shareholders and
directors – the directors of course must be the beggars who are poorer than the poor.
Two thousand years of continuously teaching... has it changed the nature of poverty? No. It has
done only one thing – it has killed the revolutionary spirit in the poor. Poverty remains in its own
place and goes on growing in leaps and bounds.
From Ignorance to Innocence 430 Osho