# The blind cats of the closed coal mine

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-mutant-cats-welsh-coal-mine
- Themes: craving, rebirth, evolution, animals
- Life situations: questions about rebirth, understanding desire

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

Ajahn Brahm recalls a journal article from decades earlier. After Thatcher's government closed a coal mine in South Wales (near Cardiff or Swansea, he can't remember), locals threw unwanted kittens down the shaft. Ten or fifteen years later engineers inspecting the mine found a mound of dead cats at the bottom — and living cats too: a new kind, born blind but with huge ears, because underground they needed hearing and not sight. He says he saw a photograph of them.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

Now, the evidence which uh got me interested in this. Many, many years ago, I saw this article sort of in a journal. And this was the evidence of the the mutant cats. This is a timely one here because we've got a little kitten in the back there. But some years ago, it must have been about um 24, 5 years. No, it must be about 30 years ago. Uh when uh Margaret Thatcher, she was the Prime Minister of England. One of the first thing she did when she came into power was to fight the unions in that country. And one of the things was to close the coal mines because they were uneconomical, so she thought. So, they closed many coal mines and many of those coal mines were in South Wales. Some were up in the north, but this particular one which was closed was I think next to Cardiff or Swansea, I can't remember which. And once it was closed and a fence was put around it, the people in the local area, if they had extra kittens, instead of actually dropping it at a Buddhist monastery and getting the monk to bring it and see if he can find a nice home here, they were far more cruel. They would go under the fence in this coal mine. They'd go to the edge of the pit which went hundreds of meters down and they'd throw these unwanted kittens down the shaft. Just throw them down. They were so cruel. But the only reason I found out this was happening was about I don't know, it was maybe 10 years later. They sent engineers down into that mine to check on its stability to make sure that it wasn't going to collapse. So, they had to do an inspection. And when they went down the bottom of the shaft, that's when they found this whole mound of like, you know, dead cat flesh and fur of all the cats who'd been actually thrown down there. But you also know that cats, especially kittens, that sometimes they do fall, they land on their feet. They're incredibly agile, almost supernaturally agile. Because many of the cats survived. They survived the fall. They knew that because there was a heap of cats underground. But in those 10 or 15 years, I forget how long, but it wasn't that long. They knew when the coal mine was closed down and they knew when they actually like this happened, they found a whole new species of cat underground. Cats with huge ears that they came from rats who were blind, born blind, but huge ears. There was a new species of cat had evolved in the space of 10 or 15 years. How did that happen? It's obvious. Those cats living down hundreds of meters underground where no light came, they didn't need eyes. So, basically, the eyes weren't developed. They needed ears because it was sound which would lead them to their their dinner, sound which would protect them from their enemies, sound which would lead them to their mate so they could reproduce. So, the ears, because the ears were really necessary, they grew grew grew grew grew. The huge ears. Eyes not necessary. They were just blind. And a whole new species. I remember seeing a photograph of them. I'd never seen a cat like that. It had evolved.

## Teaching point

(As he uses it) desire and need are creative forces that shape bodies and lives — and continue after death to create the next life.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Ajahn Brahm recalls an old article about blind, big-eared cats found in a closed Welsh mine. The details are doubtful, but he uses it to make a Buddhist point. What we desire and think important shapes who we become, now and, he teaches, beyond death. So choose carefully what you keep wanting.

## Source

- [Reincarnation | Ajahn Brahm | 9 Jan 2009](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htQ12Z2MV0Q) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 25:17 to 28:50: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htQ12Z2MV0Q&t=1517s