I heard this story from the Supercoach, Michael Neill. http://www.michaelneill.org.
Two monks, a master and apprentice, were travelling through India visiting various villages. They arrived in one village that was very poor. Even so a family gave them food and shelter for the night, despite having very little for themselves.
However, they did have a cow, which as you may know is sacred in India. It had a well built, cosy byre, with plenty of hay to eat. clearly everything they had went on caring for the special beast.
The two monks passed a peaceful night, but the master woke the apprentice very early and said that they were leaving immediately. As they left the house he took a knife and killed the cow.
The apprentice was horrified and questioned the master, who would not explain himself. The apprentice never got over it.
Many years later the apprentice was now the master, travelling with his own apprentice. He found himself near the same village and decided to stop and see how the family had coped with such a tragedy.
The village was thriving, the family had large gardens filled with vegetables and fruit, the house was beautiful, and once again they welcomed the two monks and fed them very well.
After the meal the monk asked what had changed. The father told him that on the day they left someone had killed their sacred cow, but they could never discover who, everyone claimed innocence.
They went into despair, they had failed to protect such a precious animal and were sure that the gods would be furious with them. They were quickly in a terrible state, starving and without hope.
The daughter of the family suggested that now they didn’t have the cow to feed they could remove the byre and plant some vegetables and fruit. Otherwise they would die.
They turned out to have a talent for growing produce and soon had more than they could eat, so they started to sell it. Eventually they were doing so well that the whole village started helping them to grow and sell the fruit and vegetables. Everyone was in a much better position and life was good.
The moral of the story
It was then that the monk realised that his former master had understood that their care of the cow was keeping them in poverty and hunger. In killing the cow he forced them to find a better way.
In other words, what are you hanging onto in life that is not serving your highest good? Where are you misplacing your energy?
What is your sacred cow?
🤣🐄🐮
Deb xx
Deb Hawken - Amorah 