'Whatever you're doing, come and do it again'

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• The retreat cook on work release

  In brief: Without a cook for a nine-day retreat at Jhana Grove, Ajahn Brahm finds Carl, a brilliant cook who does everything alone. At the closing…

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  We were teaching a retreat many years ago and we couldn't find a we couldn't find a uh a cook for the retreat. So I managed to to grab this guy to do the the cooking for us. And he was brilliant cook. He did it all by himself and he did a wonderful job. And at the end of the retreat when we start to thank people, he disappeared. He'd gone. They said, "Where's Carl? We want to say say thank you to him." And so he's back in kind of prison farm now. He was on work release. And I told people then that Carl was in prison for multiple rape. And straight away people said, "I jump on. You mean you let a multiple rapist come and cook for us for 9 days? Isn't that dangerous? I said, "No, look, I know him. He wouldn't hurt the fly. He never did. He did those crimes when he was uh young and involved in drugs. He wouldn't do anything now. He never did. But the main purpose of not telling them first of all and telling at the very end was to say just how How unfairly do we judge people? He's changed. He's uh paid for his crimes. Maybe not paid. I'm not sure. But he's certainly just leaving him in jail to rot is not going to help anybody. But let him come out. He's I think he's Where is he working now? He's got married to a nice uh girl now. And I think he's working. He's in the northern suburbs somewhere. Osman Park. No, not Osman Park, but somewhere around that area. Really nice guy.

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• Cards from the primary school

  In brief: Arriving early at Karnet prison farm, Ajahn Brahm is dragged by a prisoner, Nick, to a board covered in cards — and Nick is crying. A…

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  Nick, I remember his name, oh this is, okay I'm gonna go off on a tangent, but this is another emotional story which I really really love. Nick, he came up to me once, because I was at the airport waiting to pick up somebody else, another monk from the airport, and I felt the hand on my shoulder, turned around, it was Nick. I taught him in jail and he looked reasonably, in a really good suit, he said “look I'm doing really well now, thank you so much, I'm still meditating every day Ajahn Brahm! I'm still meditating!” And I always remember Nick because he was inside for dealing drugs. And I also remember this occasion once when I went to teach, arrived five minutes early, he grabbed me and said “come over here” and there was a wall. I was teaching meditation in the education part of the education wing of the prison and on the wall there was this huge number of cards, greeting cards, all to Nick, from little five, little grade five, grade six children: “Nick, thank you for coming to my school

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• The cow that cried

  In brief: After a meditation talk at Karnet Prison Farm, a prisoner — a murderer, born in Northern Ireland — asks to see Ajahn Brahm. His prison job…

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  there was a prisoner over there who came to see me after I gave a a a talk on meditation. He wanted a private interview because he was very upset that he was a slaughterer in that prison, and he was about to slaughter a cow. All the cows would be screaming and hollering and trying to escape, but one cow came in which didn't quiet which didn't quiet at all, which came in I I'm going to tell the story now. I've already started. Of all the cows and the sheep and other animals which this guy had to slaughter, that was his job in Carnat Prison Farm. He was a prisoner. He was a murderer, actually, he told me. And now he got this job of killing cows and sheep, the slaughterer. He said, "All the animals who came in would always cry and struggle to escape. They needed dogs and these electric shock cattle prods to force them into the enclosure into the place where the executioner stood with his electric bolt gun. And he said that every animal would always scream and try and escape. He said on this one day this cow came in without making any noise, head down, and just walked one foot after another slowly and positioned itself voluntarily to stand underneath the platform where its executioner stood. And this cow this cow then lifted its head and looked this prisoner in the eye. Straight eye contact. This was so weird, so unusual, that this man, who was born in Northern Ireland, he told me that he was stabbed when he was 7 years of age. That was his first stabbing. When the school bully came up to him and asked for the money he had for his lunch. He said, "No." And the school bully took out a knife. "Give me your lunch money." He said no a second time. The bully never asked a third time, but plunged the knife into this boy's arm. He was badly wounded with blood streaming down his arm. His first thought was to run to his home, which was just around the corner, where his father was unemployed. He ran into his house, screamed to his father, "I've been stabbed! I've been stabbed!" His father looked at the wound and took him into the kitchen, but not to dress his wound, but to take out another knife from the kitchen drawer, give it to his 7-year-old son, and ordered the son, "Go back into the school and stab the boy back." And he said that was how he was brought up. And that's why he'd been in prison many times. And he confessed to me that he'd killed people. He was a murderer. And now he was killing cows. When you find out where these people come from, their upbringing, sometimes your view of these people as bad people just disappears. Your whole perception of them changes. You think about them in a different way. But anyway, with the cow, as this cow got eye contact with this prisoner, the prisoner couldn't move. He was frozen. He'd never seen such a thing before. He couldn't pull the gun to execute the cow. He didn't know how many minutes passed by, but then something very strange happened. He noticed in the left eye of the cow, just above the lower eyelid, there was liquid welling up, getting more and more and more. And you all know how big cows' eyes are. The water got so much above the left eyelid, bottom eyelid of the cow, that it started to drip over the edge and down the cow's cheek. The cow was crying. He got so confused. Soon he noticed the same was happening in the other eye. On the lower eyelid of the right eye, there was more water coming until that too was far too much for the eyelid to hold. And that too started to stream over the right eyelid and down the cow's cheek. The cow was crying. He swore, threw down the gun, and told and said, "That cow ain't dying." When he came to see me, he said he was now a vegetarian. Here's a murderer who is now a vegetarian cuz he saw a cow cry.

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• Ronnie Kray's promise

  In brief: One of the most notorious prisoners he visited in England was Ronnie Kray, the mentally disturbed one of East London's Kray twins. As…

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  One of the most notorious prisoners I ever met was was Ronnie Cray. He was actually one of the Cray twins in East London. He was the one who was the crazy one. He was actually mentally disturbed and he would do some terrible evil things to others. But when I went to see him just before I left, he said, "Ajent Brah just, you know, thanks for visiting. If I ever get a few quid, I'll send some to your monastery." He never did because he didn't have any quid. He was in died in prison.

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