According to Osho, luck isn’t in the black cat but in your state of being; superstition bites only the fearful. If you are courageous and aware (“a man”), nothing ominous happens; if you’re ruled by fear (“a mouse”), you create your own misfortune. Drop fear and credulity, act consciously, and life stops being governed by omens.
It’s not the cat that brings bad luck, it’s being scared and superstitious.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: Second question: Osho, is believing in fate always bad? Nothing is absolutely good or absolutely bad in every situation. There are times when even poison is good, because there are illnesses for which poison is medicine. And there are times when even nectar can be harmful, because there can be illnesses in which taking anything into the body is too costly—even nectar. There are conditions in which fasting itself becomes the door to health; at such times, don’t drink nectar either. Nothing in life is fixed and rigid—but that is exactly what we try to make it. We want labels: such-and-such is bad—“fate,” for example. People ask me, say it clearly, is believing in fate right or wrong? Fate can be understood rightly—in which case it is of great value. Fate can also be understood wrongly—in which case it is greatly misused.
Then the guru died. And since he had never understood, he thought the old man was babbling—had gone senile. He was over sixty. Two kinds of men were not reliable in the old days—those who had gone beyond sixty. Today those who sit on the ‘chair’ are unreliable—when they get the chair, their heads go. The old man died. This sannyasin had only one loincloth—when he hung it to dry the rats would gnaw it. He asked the villagers: What to do? They said: Keep a cat. He completely forgot the guru had said, Do not keep a cat. He had spoken from experience, for the same story had happened to him. The story is the same—only the characters change. There seemed no harm—he kept a cat. Trouble began—because the cat needed food, milk. The rats were finished by the cat—but the cat came! He asked the villagers.
Last night you discussed the censorship and suppression by the conscious mind of the unconscious instincts, and you said that the unconscious instincts belong to the animal heritage in man's evolution. Then is it not good to channel and regulate them according to the intelligence, discrimination and art of living which belong to the conscious mind?
A great musician is creating music. No father can feel so much fulfilled as a musician feels when great music is created, and no son can give so much happiness to any parent as a great piece of music can give to the musician, or great poetry can give to the poet. Because he is creating on higher realms, nature relieves him of lower creation: the energy has moved higher. Tantra says, do not fight with the energy, allow the energy to move higher. And there are many realms of higher movement and many dimensions. Buddha is neither a painter nor a musician nor a poet, but he has gone beyond sex. What has happened to him? The highest creation is the creation of oneself. The highest creation is the creation of total consciousness within, creation of a whole within, oneness. That is the peak, the Himalayan peak. Buddha is…
Beloved Osho, I have watched a cat play with a mouse before killing it to eat. As if it's a game, the cat seems to get so much pleasure out of torturing the poor mouse. I have often found myself intervening on the poor mouse's behalf. Is cruelty an inherent quality of existence or a part of our biology, or what?
I said to the man, "You don't even have a ticket, and you were thinking that a seat may be booked for you! And you rushed, just pushed me aside. I don't understand what kind of man you are. But one thing I can understand: your worry. "Now I can see that you have not pushed me -- you were afraid of the conductor seeing you. He has thrown you out of three other places and he will be reaching here, so before he reaches you, go in and settle somewhere, pretend that you are asleep or something, or just go to the bathroom and stand there. Your hurry and your unmannerly behavior, your violent push to me, simply shows something is missing in you." People who are doing wrong things are always psychologically missing something, and if they can be helped just to meditate a little, it won't be…
Osho, Paltu Das says, “All auspicious ascendants and muhurts are false, and they even spoil the work.” And astrology says that by choosing an auspicious ascendant and time, the chances of success increase...?
Astrology is a pursuit of the worldly mind. No spiritual person goes to an astrologer. It is the worldly man who goes to astrologers: “We must do the ground-breaking for a new house—find a lagna-muhurt; we’re opening a new shop—find a lagna-muhurt; we’re inaugurating a new film—find a lagna-muhurt; my son’s getting married—find a lagna-muhurt.” The worldly man is afraid: “What if something goes wrong!” And there is reason for fear—everything is going wrong; so the fear is that even more might go wrong! That is how he is stuck: “May nothing else go wrong!” He is frightened. Out of fear he tries every possible safeguard. And he forgets the One from whom true safety can come. That is exactly what Paltu is saying: the One on whose support all becomes right—you don’t remember Him. Instead you arrange everything else: you ask for auspicious timings. With simple trust, with faith,…