According to Osho, pessimism is the mind’s negative lens born from the collapse of shallow optimism: after repeated disappointments, one becomes an ex-optimist who counts thorns and ignores roses, constantly seeking flaws and expecting the worst. It’s an easy, unconscious stance of saying no to life, which can be transcended only by growing awareness beyond both optimism and pessimism.
It’s when getting let down makes you look only for what’s wrong—like seeing only the thorns and missing the rose.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved master, what is pessimism?
Gyanesh, man can look at life in two ways: either through a no or through a yes. Either he can be negative in his approach or positive. These are the two easily available ways for the mind. There is also a third way, but to achieve to the third you have to go through arduous effort of becoming more and more aware. To the sleeping person these two ways are ready-made, available from the very birth. The positive person lives through a kind of optimism. His optimism is shallow, but he is full of hopes. He counts only the roses on the rosebush; he does not look at the thorns, he ignores them. Sooner or later he is bound to be disappointed. Every child begins with a positive attitude towards life. That is natural because if the child begins with a negative attitude he will not begin at all; he…
Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF A PESSIMIST? Shivananda, a pessimist is an optimist who has become frustrated with his optimism. He hoped too much and failed, he dreamed too much and could not achieve anything substantial. The pessimist is an optimist standing on his head; they are not different fellows -- that's what I want to make clear to you. Unless you have been an optimist you can never be a pessimist. First you have to become an optimist. And each child is brought up with great optimism. All parents think that they have great children. Ask any mother: she thinks she has the unique child; the most superior, rare, incomparable. Each mother brags about the child. Parents bring up children with great optimism that they are going to be Alexander the Greats or Jesus Christs or Gautam Buddhas. But slowly slowly life proves just the contrary.
Beloved Osho, I have heard....
A PSYCHOLOGIST WANTS TO EXPERIMENT WITH HIS TWIN SONS. HE TAKES THEM DOWN TO HIS GROUP ROOMS AND PUTS EACH IN A ROOM BY HIMSELF. IN IKE'S ROOM HE LOADS IN A PILE OF TV-ADVERTISED, HARD-SELL TOYS. IKE IS DIAGNOSED AS A COMPLAINING, NEGATIVE PESSIMIST. IN MIKE'S ROOM HE LOADS IN AN ENORMOUS PILE OF MANURE. MIKE IS THE OPTIMIST. AN HOUR AFTER THEY ARE LOCKED IN, HE ENTERS IKE'S ROOM. THERE IS IKE TOSSING OUT TOY AFTER TOY, COMPLAINING, "THIS IS NOT ANY GOOD, THAT ONE WON'T WORK." AS HE OPENS THE DOOR INTO THE SECOND ROOM HE IS UNABLE TO FIND HIS SON FOR A FEW MOMENTS. BUT HE HEARS HIS VOICE; IT IS SAYING, "THERE'S GOTTA BE A PONY, THERE'S GOTTA BE A PONY." AND AS HE APPEARS HE IS SHOWN FRANTICALLY DIGGING THROUGH THE MANURE, LOOKING FOR THE PONY. I HAVE CHANGED ROOMS; I HAVE GOT…
Osho, what is the difference between surrender and blind imitation?
So be careful: the freedom you allow yourself, allow the other too. You have no right to judge another as blindly credulous or as a surrendered being. Drop that concern. You cannot judge anyway—how will you enter another’s heart? How will you know? Think only about yourself. See within whether, up to now, you have lived by blind belief or by surrender. Decide only there; leave worrying about others. Otherwise, all your judgments will be wrong. Jesus said: Judge not; do not set yourself up as a judge in relation to another. To the friend who has asked: if you are asking for yourself, good. Drop worrying about others. Look within and see: whatever I have been clinging to till now—have I ever staked my life to hold it? Have I meditated for it? Have I loved for it? Or am I just clutching what culture, society, civilization handed me?…
You said last night that total despair, frustration and hopelessness is the beginning ground for yoga. This gives yoga a pessimistic look. Is this pessimistic state really necessary to begin the path of yoga? Does an optimist also begin with the path of yoga?
It is neither. It is not pessimistic, it is not optimistic, because pessimism and optimism are two aspects of the same coin. A pessimist means one who was optimist in the past; an optimist means one who will be pessimist in the future. All optimism leads to pessimism, because every hope leads to hopelessness. If you are still hoping, then yoga is not for you. The desire is there; hope is there; the samsar is there, the world is there. Your desire is the world, your hope is the bondage, because hope will not allow you to be in the present. It will go on forcing you towards the future; it will not allow you to be centered. It will pull and push, but it will not allow you to remain in a restful moment, in a state of stillness. It will not allow you So when I say total…