Do Cows Cry?

People come to A Buddhist Perspective many ways, one of which is through keyword searches. I just saw that a recent keyword search was "do cows cry." I cannot answer that but immediately remembered a story a good, and trusted, friend had related to me.

He and his wife were visiting their son and his wife who lived out of town on some acreage that was next to a farm. One morning during the visit, they all awoke to sounds of cows in great distress. Not knowing what was happening, but concerned, the four of them drove over to the farm and found the farmer.

When they asked what was happening, he explained.

One of the older cows had died during the night. When he heard the lowing, he went to the field and saw that the cows were all standing around the dead one and lowing in great distress. He quickly got his tractor, dug a deep hole, and maneuvered the dead cow into the hole.

To his amazement the cows positioned themselves around the hole and one or two even tried to climb down into it. The others were around the rim and the older ones pushed their way to to the edge of the hole as the younger ones were pushed away to stand behind the older ones. It was as if senior mourners had taken their place before younger ones. The farmer had had the older cows since they were calves and hadn't wanted to kill animals just because they were not productive so the herd had been together for several years.

My friend had shaken his head when he told me of this, saying he had never seen anything like it before.

So. Do cows cry? I do not know. But apparently, they can feel loss and great sadness and distress. Something we would do well to understand.

(For a related account I personally witnessed please read Mother and Child)

Update on March 26, 2009 by Venerable Wuling

The above is a photo taken in late 2008 in Sri Lanka. The monk had come to where the cows were to save them from being killed. After he had done so, the above occurred. Prostrating is a traditional way of paying utmost respect to a monastic in Asia.

Belief and Vow

If one wants to quickly be free of the suffering in samsara, there is no method better than mindfully chanting the Buddha-name and seeking rebirth in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

If one wants to be absolutely certain of attaining rebirth in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, it is best for one to be led by belief and compelled forward by vow.

When one’s belief is firm and vow is earnest, even if one chants the Buddha-name with a scattered mind, one will surely be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. When one’s belief is not sincere and vow is not resolute, even if one chants with One Mind Undisturbed, one still will not be able to be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

What is belief? First, one believes in the power of the vows of Amitabha Buddha. Second, one believes in the teachings of Sakyamuni Buddha. Third, one believes in the extolment by all the Buddhas in the six directions.

When people of integrity in this world do not speak any untruthful words, how would Amitabha Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha, and all the Buddhas in the six directions do so? If one does not believe these Buddhas’ words, one truly cannot be saved.

What is vow? At all times, one feels aversion to the suffering of the cycle of birth and death in the Saha world and believes and yearns for the Bodhi bliss in the Western Pure Land.

When one does a deed, if it is a good one, then one dedicates the merit to rebirth in the Western Pure Land; if it is a bad one, then one repents and vows to be reborn in the Western Pure Land. One has no other aspirations. This is vow.

When one has both belief and vow, mindfully chanting the Buddha-name to attain rebirth [in the Western Pure Land] is the main practice, and correcting wrongdoings and cultivating good deeds is the auxiliary practice.

~ Great Master Yinguang

"Whatever you do will be insignificant,

but it is very important that you do it."

 ~ Gandhi ~

On What to Rely

Rely on the teacher’s message,

not the personality.

Rely on the meaning,

not just the words.

Rely on the real meaning,

not the provisional one.

Rely on your wisdom mind,

not your ordinary, judgmental mind.

Where Can A Baby Get a Birth Certificate and Hunting License in the Same Year?

Yesterday I was doing some research for "Here Sweetie, Have a Gun for Your Fifth Birthday." I could have said "for your third" or “for your first” birthday, but I decided no one would believe me. The fifth birthday was unbelievable enough.

I’m from the U.S. so I did some more research on children and hunting, this time for the U.S. As we all know, parents taking their young children hunting is hardly just an Australian occurrence. On the state of Vermont website I found the following fee schedule:

A resident or nonresident lifetime fishing, hunting, or combination fishing and hunting license may be obtained from the Fish & Wildlife Department. Fees are as follows:

for children under 1 year old = 5X current adult license price.

for children 1-15 years old = 15X current adult license price.

for adults 16-24 years old = 30X current adult license price.

for adults 25-64 years old = 25X current adult license price.

What on earth are we teaching our children! Apparently in Vermont, a one year-old child can have a license to hunt.

This week in the news is a story of seventeen year-old boy in Germany who shot and killed fifteen schoolchildren and then shot himself. He had taken the gun from his father's collection of sixteen. In Alabama in the US, a man shot dead eleven people: seven family members then three people he didn’t even know, and finally himself.

The very understandable reaction to these tragedies has been shock, anger, grief, and disbelief. How could this happen? The commonly-heard comment after such tragedies is “I never would have thought he would do something like this. He seemed like a pretty avarage kid.”

Maybe in today’s world, where children aged three and five go hunting with their fathers, where babies can get a hunting license, where teenagers play games in which they perfect their skills at killing virtual people, for many people this is the terrible new “normal.”