The Cat and the Secret

The Cat Who Went to Heaven is a novel written by Elizabeth Coatsworth, which won the Newbery Medal in 1931. When I first came across the book, I thought it was just going to be another book about Buddhism, only in English. But a few pages onwards did my eyes prove me wrong. To me, The Cat Who Went to Heaven is not trying to evangelize; rather it is a touching little tale about the law of attraction.

This book is set in ancient Japan, where cats are not favored nearly as highly as they are now. For as legend has it, the cat turned her back on the Buddha once long ago, and so Nirvana turned its back on her. A young painter adopted a three-colored cat into his poor household, and named her “Good Fortune”. Soon afterwards, a priest of the village temple came to the poor artist with a commission to paint a picture depicting Buddha’s death. The artist embarked on a journey down imagination’s lane to better know the Buddha. As the days progressed, Good Fortune sat at her masters’ side, seeming to yearn after a place on the canvas that she could not have. When the artist finished painting the last animal, Good Fortune came as usual, her eyes silently beseeching her master to place her kind among those that had the doors of Heaven wide open to them. The artist, moved by the pleading he could see in Good Fortune, took out his brush and finally complied. His little pet was so overjoyed by the sight that she fell over and departed this world. The next day, when the priest came to inspect the finished painting, it was ordered to be burned due to inaccuracy of content. Still, the painter was not sorry that he had given the cat a place in his painting. But the next morning, priests suddenly came rushing into his tiny house, and they dragged him to the temple. What they all saw was a miracle. The Buddha had a hand stretched out, blessing the figure of a white cat with head bowed in adoration.

I think there is something to be said concerning this book and the law of attraction. The young artist had been imagining Buddha’s life for so long that I suppose some of the true spirit of the Buddha had entered him. This is why he went from hating Good Fortune to liking her, then finally forgiving her for the past sins of her ancestor and giving her a place on his painting. Also, I think Good Fortune has a little run in with the law of attraction. In the book, Elizabeth Coatsworth told us that early every morning, Good Fortune was already sitting in front of the small statue of the Buddha in the house; furthermore, she had a very earnest expression on her face. It appeared that she knew the Buddha, as if she needed to communicate to Him, or just look at Him. This was a far cry from her ancestor, who had his back turned to the Holy One. I think that because she was so happy that her heart burst when she saw that the artist had drawn a cat on the painting, Good Fortune had been begging for forgiveness from the Buddha with all her heart. This is exactly what the law of attraction is talking about.

Some people would say that The Cat Who Went to Heaven is a book that is about the Buddha. But if you look at it another way, it is also about wanting something with all your heart and finally getting it in the end. Just like The Alchemist says:

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

It’s exactly what happened to the cat and her bittersweet end.