"I have broken thy yoke" - The Buddha and a Cattleman

Haneda Airport on Tokyo Bay

The Buddha and a Cattleman

A man in charge of taking care of cattle for a owner of them was listening to the Buddha.

The Buddha said that one should not be trapped by desire generated in his mind or toward material riches and he should live avoiding every evil act to reach enlightenment like a tree flowing in a big river to finally reach the sea without being carried out to a shore or being rotten while floating.

The Buddha concluded that one should leave all the worldly matters behind to attain the Buddhahood.  Otherwise, the Buddha added, you would be bound by all the yokes of this world.

So, the cattleman asked to the Buddha to accept him as his disciple.  The Buddha agreed but said, "First, you have to take the cattle back to the owner of them."

But the cattleman said, "Allow me to leave them as they are, since they will go back by themselves to calves kept in the owner's farm."

However, the Buddha insisted: "Yet, you must bring them back to the owner by yourself."

So, the cattleman obeyed the word of the Buddha to lead the cattle to the owner's farm, and then he became a follower of the Buddha.

Later this man left the group of followers of the Buddha to pursue his way to enlightenment to be eventually counted as one of major Arhats, namely those who reached higher spiritual status just behind the Buddha.

I suppose that the owner of the cattle would not help demons attack and destroy the cattleman during his ascetic training to finally become an Arhat.

  
In addition, even today cattle are regarded as holy animals in India.



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Jer 2:19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
Jer 2:20 For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.
Jer 2:21 Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?