This content was created by Bridgeen Rea-Kaya. This content was uploaded by Bridgeen Rea-Kaya. This is a YouTube recording titled "The cow that cried #6 by Ajahn Bhrahm, read by Bridgeen from Immeasurable MInds" (created 2020-03-20). It is a solo spoken reading/storytelling by Bridgeen delivered in the context of a mindfulness/MBSR retreat. The narrator reads Ajahn Brahm's story about a violent man from Belfast who worked as a slaughterer on a prison farm and is profoundly transformed after a cow silently stares at him and sheds tears, leading him to become vegetarian — a tale illustrating compassion and personal change.
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Hello everyone, how you doing? I hope you're doing okay. Thanks all for your lovely messages, it's really encouraging and I'm glad you're enjoying the stories. Tonight is one of my favourite stories, it's called The Cowie That Cried. It's the only story in the book that is featuring a guy from Belfast. I like to read it on my MBSR, my mindfulness-based stress reduction retreat. It's usually a first retreat for everyone, and I like to read it before lunchtime. And I'm not apologizing if you like steak. I hope you're gonna like this, this story. It's a great wee story. Sit back, enjoy. I arrived early to lead my meditation class in a low-security prison. A crim who I'd never seen before was waiting to speak with me. He was a giant of a man with bushy hair and beard and tattooed arms. The scars on his face told me he'd been in many a violent fight. He looked so fearsome that I wondered why he was coming to learn meditation. He wasn't the type. I was wrong, of course. He told me that something had happened a few days before that had spooked the hell out of him. As he started speaking, I picked up his thick Ulster accent. To give me some background, he told me that he'd grown up in the violent streets of Belfast. His first stabbing was when he was 7 years old. The school bully had demanded the money he had for his lunch. He said no. The older boy took out a long knife and asked him for the money a second time. He thought the bully was bluffing. He said no again. The bully never asked a third time. He just plunged the knife into the 7-year-old's arm, drew it out, and walked away. He told me that he ran in shock from the schoolyard with blood streaming down his arm to his father's house close by. His unemployed father took one look at the wound and led his son into their kitchen, but not to dress the wound. The father opened a drawer, Took out a big kitchen knife, gave it to his son, and ordered him to go back to school and stab the boy back. That was how he'd been brought up. If he hadn't grown so big and strong, he would have been long dead. The jail was a prison farm where short-term prisoners or long-term prisoners close to release could be prepared for life outside, some by learning a trade. in the farming industry. Furthermore, the produce from the prison farm would supply all the prisons around Perth with inexpensive food, thus keeping down costs. Australian farms grow cows, sheep, and pigs, not just wheat and vegetables. So did the prison farm, but unlike the other farms, the prison farm had its own slaughterhouse on site. Every prisoner had to have a job in the prison farm. I was informed by many of the inmates that the most sought-after jobs were in the slaughterhouse. These jobs were especially popular with violent offenders, and the most sought-after job of all, which you had to fight for, was the job of the slaughterer himself. That giant and fearsome Irishman? was the slaughterer. He described the slaughterhouse to me: super strong stainless steel railings, wide at the opening, narrowed down to a single channel inside the building, just wide enough for one animal to pass through at a time. Next to the narrow channel, raised on a platform, he would stand with the electric gun. Cows, pigs, or sheep would be forced into the stainless steel funnel using cattle prods. He said they would always scream, each in its own way, and try to escape. They could smell death, hear death, feel death. When an animal was alongside his platform, it would be writhing and wriggling and moaning in full voice. Even though his gun could kill a large bull With a single high-voltage charge, the animal would never stand still long enough for him to aim properly. So it was one shot to stun, next shot to kill, one shot to stun, next shot to kill, animal after animal, day after day. The Irishman started to become excited as he moved to the occurrence only a few days before, That had unsettled him so much. He started to swear. In what followed, he kept repeating, this is the God's effing truth. He was afraid I wouldn't believe him. That day they needed beef for the prisons around Perth. They were slaughtering cows. One shot to stun, next shot to kill. He was well into a normal day's killing. When a cow came up like he'd never seen before. This cow was silent. There wasn't even a whimper. Its head was down as it walked purposely, voluntarily, slowly into position next to the platform. It did not writhe or wriggle or try to escape. Once in position, the cow lifted her head and stared at her executioner absolutely still. The Irishman hadn't seen anything even close to this before. His mind went numb with confusion. He couldn't lift his gun, nor could he take his eyes away from the eyes of the cow. The cow was looking right inside him. He slipped into timeless spaces. He couldn't tell me how long it took, but as he held the cow in eye contact, he noticed something that shook him even more. Cows have very big eyes. He saw in the left eye of the cow, above the lower eyelid, Water began to gather. The amount of water grew and grew until it was too much for the eyelid to hold. It began to trickle slowly all the way down her cheek, forming a glistening line of tears. Long-closed doors were slowly opening to his heart as he looked in disbelief He saw in the right eye of the cow, above the lower eyelid, more water growing, gathering by the moment until it too was more than the eyelid could contain. A second stream of water trickled slowly down her face and the man broke down. The cow was crying. He told me that he threw down his gun, swore to the full extent of his considerable capacity to the prison officers, That they could do whatever they liked to him, but that cow ain't dying. He ended by telling me he was a vegetarian now. That story was true. Other inmates of the prison farm confirmed it for me. The cow that cried taught one of the most violent of men what it means to care. Oh, that one always gets me just here. I don't know how it got you. Maybe you can let me know and I will have a different story for you tomorrow. Thanks for listening and see you online.
