What are the behaviors of animals in relation to violence?

You said that only man is violent and kills for sport and that animals kill for food. Yet I have witnessed dogs tearing apart a fox for sport; a fox killing nine chickens and eating only one -- not to mention the red ants viciously attacking us during meditation. Does this not put animals in the same category as man?

When you go to a tree, to an apple tree or to any other fruit tree and you take the fruit from the tree have you ever thought that you are vicious to the tree? No, the idea never comes. The same is being done by the mosquito to you and mosquitoes are very impartial -- even to a Buddha they will do the same. They did. I was staying in Sarnath once, the place where Buddha gave his first sermon. Buddha moved around only a small part of India, the Bihar, so in forty years of wandering he passed through every village many times, but to Sarnath he never came again. He visited it only once, the first time, and he never came again. So I asked the Buddhist BHIKKHU who was the head of the Sarnath temple, what the matter was. Why did Buddha never come again?. He…

Violence is inevitable for beasts, it is a responsibility for man. It is a fact for beasts, for man it is merely a historical memory. It is the present for beasts, it is past for man. We have the choice in front of us. Man can take a decision to be nonviolent; he can take a decision to be violent also. That is why when a certain person takes a decision to be violent, no beast can compete with him. Really, no beast can be as violent as a man can be, because a beast is violent by nature while man becomes violent by planning. So, even after a through search among beasts, we cannot get such violent beasts as Chengez Khan, or Taimur, or Nadir, or Hitler.

Osho, in the previous discourse you said that nonviolence is man’s nature and violence is man-made. Would you please clarify this again and tell us whether violence is not a nature-given fact?

But how unfortunate it is that no animal attacks one of its own kind—yet man does! And no animal ever kills without cause—this too is curious—except man. An animal does not kill without cause. If it ever kills, there is a need. It is hungry, so it kills. It has to defend itself, so it kills. Man kills without need. There is no need, and yet he kills. Sometimes it even seems that because he has to kill, he manufactures the need! He cannot live without killing, so he creates the need. Sometimes he creates the need in Vietnam, sometimes in Korea, sometimes in Kashmir. There is nothing necessary in it—neither in Kashmir nor in any Vietnam nor in any Cambodia. Nowhere is there a real need. But man creates the need, because to kill without a need would not look proper! Man is rational only in one sense: he…

Osho, there is no mention, so far as we know, of any enlightened being ever being killed by an animal. And scriptures contain many mentions that animals like cobras or tigers or lions would come and sit near enlightened ones. Osho, what is the secret behind this?

Kailash Goswami, Man has a singular quality: if he falls, he can fall below the animals; if he rises, he can rise above the gods. That is uniquely human—that is his dignity. It is in your hands. Man is a ladder—one end descends below the animals, the other goes beyond the clouds. On this very ladder you can climb up, and on this very ladder you can climb down. The ladder is one. No animal can fall below its own kind. If man decides to fall, he will outdo all animals. Who among animals could rival Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Nadir Shah? They slaughtered millions. And that’s history; just recently Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin butchered millions. Which animal has ever killed so many? And there is an amusing fact: no animal kills its own species. No lion kills another lion. No dog kills another dog. Only man kills men. And…

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…