We regularly select topics from Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s vast treasury of advice to present. Here we offer some of Rinpoche’s instructions on how to benefit animals.
‘Whenever I visit a market and see the chickens crowded together in tiny cages that give them no room to move around and spread their wings and the fish slowly drowning in the air, my heart goes out to them. People have to learn to think about animals in a different way, as sentient beings who love life and fear death.’
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
‘It’s not enough that you keep the animals and they give you comfort. You must do something of practical benefit for them. This is what you can do every day:
Take them around holy objects – circumambulate. Everyday you can put on a table many tsa-tsas and statues, and take the animal around chanting mantras at the same time. This way it also helps the person who carries the animal around.
Recite prayers in their ears, verbally, to plant the seed of all the realizations of the path to enlightenment.
This makes a huge difference. It has inconceivable result, unbelievable result. That makes them have a good rebirth next life, to be born as a human being and meet the dharma.’
Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Blessing Animals Around the World
FPMT has many resources on how to liberate and benefit animals. Below is an uplifting video of Rinpoche blessing animals around the world.
Recitations for Animals on Spotify
Recently, Lama Zopa Rinpoche released an album ‘Recitations for Animals’ on Spotify which can be found through clicking on the image below.
Dzambhala the Goat and the Animal Sanctuary in Kopan
This moving short video below, is about Dzambhala the goat who was rescued from the butcher, and was the first goat to receive an artificial limb in Nepal. He was a resident of the animal shelter at Kopan Monastery. Here, animals that have been rescued from the butcher or from Nepalese animal sacrifices can live out their lives in peace, and undertake special practices which according to Buddhist beliefs, will help them attain a higher rebirth. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has rescued many animals from being killed or neglected. Because of the COVID pandemic which has affected Nepal so badly, this animal sanctuary is in great need of resources. To find out more, and to see how you can help please visit.
How to help animals when gardening
Rinpoche is often asked for specific advice from his students on how to avoid harming animals. For example, Rinpoche gave the advice below on how to avoid harming animals when gardening.
‘If worms are cut or killed, you can pray like this: “Due to the past, present and future merits collected by me and the three times merits collected by countless buddhas and bodhisattvas, may this worm be free from the lower realm sufferings immediately and be reborn in the pure lands, where this sentient being can become enlightened quickly. Or at least, may it receive a perfect human rebirth, meet the Mahayana teachings and find a perfectly qualified Mahayana guru, revealing the unmistaken path to enlightenment.”
If you pray like this, when you dedicate your own and all the buddhas’ and bodhisattvas’ merits, it becomes very powerful. It’s like when you collect one dollar from a trillion people, you get a trillion dollars, and then you get a lot of money to do big projects.
You can recite the Lotus Pinnacle of Amoghapasha mantra.
OM PADMO USHNISHA VIMALE HUM PHAT
Recite this a few times, then blow over the animal which was killed or injured. It’s very good to do that for worms which were killed or injured.’ Read the full article on how to help animals harmed by gardening.