How to Benefit Animals

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
I checked regarding your breast cancer and there are some practices and pujas I need to do for you. They are:

• Gektor [Offering to harmful spirits]
• Burning Pinnacle: to be recited seven times
• Tashi Tsegpa: to be recited five times

I will do these, as well as other prayers. I have also asked the Sangha at my place to do prayers and dedications for you.

Definitely this is purifying your karma because you did a lot of practice and dedicated your life for sentient beings, to free them from the oceans of suffering and bring them to happiness. You did this not only for all the animals, but also for all the people, so this is very good what is happening to you. You should rejoice, and I will do these pujas for you.

I want to tell you this from my heart to your heart. What you are experiencing now makes you purify quickly any heavy negative karma from beginningless rebirth. That is now experienced in this life in the form of cancer. Rather than suffering in the lower realms for eons, where you can’t help others or yourself, instead, in this life now, not only can you help yourself, but also, as you have been, you can help so many other people and even animals. You can help so many other sentient beings, it is fantastic. So you should rejoice all the time.

First understand that all your happiness from beginningless rebirth up to now, every single happiness that you experience at present and all the numberless happiness that you will experience in future lives, including liberation from samsara, ultimate happiness, buddhahood—the total elimination of all the obscurations and completion of all the realizations—you received all this from every sentient being. This happiness is received from every hell being, every hungry ghost, every insect, that means from every maggot, spider, tick, every fish in the ocean, those as large as a mountain and those that are so small you can see them only with a microscope, those that even look like bubbles, so all the sentient beings in the ocean, all those living on the ground, for example when you walk on the grass many tiny insects escape away, and those in the trees and bushes, all the sentient beings in the sky, numberless human beings, numberless asuras, numberless suras and numberless intermediate state beings, so you received this happiness from everybody. That means all sentient beings are most precious, most kind. They are your most dear, wish-fulfilling ones, including every sentient being, not only dogs and cats but even the ones you don’t like, in case there is something such as insects that you don’t like.

The Buddha has completed all the qualities, but in terms of kindness, sentient beings are the most kind, even kinder than Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. By relying on Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and praying to them, you can become free from the lower realms, you can purify your negative karma and you can receive all the happiness of all the future rebirths—deva, human and pure land rebirths. By taking refuge in them you achieve ultimate happiness, liberation from samsara, from the oceans of samsara sufferings. By taking refuge in them you can be free from the oceans of subtle negative imprints and obscurations, from the four unknowing minds. You can become free from lower nirvana and you can achieve full enlightenment. But where do Buddha, Dharma and Sangha come from? They come from sentient beings, so you see sentient beings are unbelievably precious, most kind.

In the Bodhicaryavatara, Shantideva says: “As you respect the Buddha, so you should respect sentient beings. Why not?”

I explained the reasons why all the happiness that you receive comes from the kindness of sentient beings, however, all the happiness comes from your virtuous mind, which is the holy action of the Buddha. Buddha’s holy action is possessed by his own mind. It is one within us sentient beings, so that means the Buddha’s holy action came from the Buddha. Buddha came from bodhisattvas; bodhisattvas came bodhicitta; bodhicitta came from great compassion; and great compassion came from the suffering sentient beings who are existing. Without obscured suffering sentient beings there is no compassion arising, then there is no bodhicitta. That means there are no bodhisattvas; that means there are no buddhas; that means there are no buddhas’ holy actions; that means there is no past, present and future happiness, including enlightenment. That means these don’t exist, because there is no evolution.

Even now the subtle happiness that you experience—like when you are feeling  hot, then the cool air passes through your hair so you feel cool—even that experience you received from sentient beings who are obscured. You received all this from the kindness of suffering sentient beings. Even the happiness in a dream you received due to the kindness of sentient beings.

For example, the mother who loves her child and thinks her child is the most important, precious one. She cares for her child even more than her own life. In regards to existence, if she had the choice she would give up her own life to protect her child’s life. Even animals do this. If somebody complains a little bit about the child or gives a little harm it makes the mother very upset, whereas if somebody praises the child a little or gives a small present to the child it makes the mother very happy.

Just like that, this is how bodhicitta is. The Buddha has compassion and loves us 100,000 times more than we love ourselves. Bodhisattvas generate bodhicitta, totally renouncing cherishing the I and only cherishing others who are numberless, cherishing them like wish-granting jewels. Every sentient being is cherished by each bodhisattva. Bodhisattvas have purified negative karma, purified the path and collected extensive merits. Each breath in and out is only done for each sentient being, therefore bodhisattvas collect more than skies of merits. Here I am using this just as an example. Then they actualize the Mahayana path, actualizing all the realizations for all the sentient beings. This is how they achieve full enlightenment; it is only for sentient beings, the numberless sentient beings.

Even a small harm that is done to sentient beings is actually harming the numberless bodhisattvas, it is displeasing to the bodhisattvas, the numberless bodhisattvas, and every small pleasure, every small help done for sentient beings is a great offering to the bodhisattvas, the numberless bodhisattvas. It makes them happiest.

In the same way, any small harm done is like harming the numberless buddhas and any small pleasure or small help offered to sentient beings is the greatest offering to the numberless buddhas. It is said that for the Buddha, between himself and sentient beings, the experience of happiness and suffering is the same.

For example, someone makes extensive offerings, extensive flower offerings to numberless buddhas, to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, Tara, Manjushri and all the numberless buddhas, but toward sentient beings they lie, cheat and kill. They do all those bad things. Nowadays we have a very good example of extremists, of what they are doing toward sentient beings. They are killing people and acting real bad toward sentient beings, but they prostrate morning, afternoon and evening to their god. If we act like that, Buddha is not happy at all.

Even if we don’t make any offering to the Buddha, but we really show respect, care and concern toward sentient beings—including insects not only people—then every small happiness that we cause makes the best offering, the happiest offering to all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, to numberless buddhas and bodhisattvas, not just one or two.

Buddha also said that to benefit sentient beings he will not only abide in dharmakaya manifestations, but also in rupakaya, the holy form body, and in sambhogakaya aspect, as well as in normal aspect. For higher beings the Buddha appears in nirmanakaya aspect, while for ordinary sentient beings who have an impure mind he manifests in impure form, so all kinds of aspects. For devas he manifests as a deva, for suras he manifests as a sura, for asuras he manifest as an asura, for human beings he manifests in human aspect, ordinary aspect. For hell beings he manifests as a hell guide and so forth, for preta beings he shows the aspect of being a preta, and for animals he shows the aspect of being an animal, so there are all kinds of aspects to guide sentient beings.

Of course we see the Buddha many times but we don’t recognize that he is guiding us. Our impure mind is so strong with impure appearance that we don’t even recognize the Buddha from his own side. We don’t recognize that the Buddha is helping us, we don’t recognize that, not only in this life, but from beginningless lives, including this life and also future lives.

Remember this when you are taking care of the dogs and cats, the pitiful beings, and also including the people, when you are taking care of them. Please remember this and do the service with this awareness, with this care. This is the most important, pure Dharma. Generating compassion for even one sentient being brings you closer to enlightenment. It brings you to enlightenment much faster as you are serving sentient beings.

It is said in the Bodhicaryavatara that merely thinking to benefit others is better than offering to the buddhas. It is more special than offering to all the buddhas. Therefore actually attempting to work for sentient beings, no question, no need to say, the benefits are much more than offering to the buddhas.

That means making offerings like cities, like clouds in the sky, offerings filling the whole sky, so offering all this to the buddhas, or generating the thought to benefit sentient beings.

Even just by generating the thought to benefit sentient beings you collect far more merit than offering to the buddhas. It is very special and creates a lot of good karma. This isn’t talking about only helping sentient beings. Even generating the thought to benefit others is more special than making offerings to numberless buddhas.

Generating more compassion for others and serving others is what makes us free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings more quickly, thus we will achieve the peerless happiness—the total cessation of obscurations and the completion of all realizations—more quickly for sentient beings. Therefore, please rejoice in your whole life, as this is what you have been doing. Rejoice in this life and especially at the death time rejoice in your life. Especially think this at the death time.

That’s the most important thing, to be free from the oceans of samsaric sufferings for yourself and to achieve enlightenment for all sentient beings. This is most important, whether you are free from breast cancer or not, that is just nothing. Free or not free, that is nothing.

I wanted to ask you, do other people help you to help those animals or is it just you and your own money? How do you manage financially to help the animals?

I have some things to suggest to you on how to help the animals ultimately. It's OK to help their bodies, but it’s more important to help their mind. The body disintegrates but the mind continues. It is without beginning, from beginningless rebirth up to now, and again it continues from life to life, endlessly in samsara, if we do not meet Dharma, if we don’t get to actualize the true path, the wisdom directly perceiving emptiness. If we don’t cease the cause of suffering, we will have to endlessly suffer in samsara, which is much more terrifying.

There’s a story about an eighty-year-old man. After he entered into the Mahayana path, when the time ripened he became enlightened and did perfect works for sentient beings, bringing them to enlightenment. That means all the perfect works—enlightening all the sentient beings—came from being enlightened himself, and that came from having entered into the Mahayana path. Before that he was an arhat actualizing the path to liberation, which started with being a monk. He was able to be a monk because inconceivable eons ago he was a fly following some cow dung around a stupa, so it became circumambulation, one circumambulation. All these benefits—being an arhat, becoming enlightened and enlightening all sentient beings—all these depended on the small merit created by following the smell of cow dung around a stupa, which became a circumambulation.

From this example you can see how holy objects such as stupas are so powerful, therefore this is one way you can really help animals. In India we have one project called Maitri Charitable Trust. In the past it was mainly focused on treating leprosy but that part was given back to the government to run, so now there are schools, as well as treatment for TB and different sicknesses, and also many treatments and care for dogs.

I advised building eight stupas so that the dogs and also people can go around them and in that way they can purify the heavy negative karma collected since beginningless rebirths, which is the cause of all the suffering, and they can collect extensive merits.

The last time I went to Maitri I also put a special mantra on every animal’s body, also on people’s heads. This mantra purifies many eons of negative karma. Now at Maitri there are almost one hundred dogs, not only the ones being taken care of but also dogs from outside, so some dogs got the blessing twice. I ended up going twice as some more animals came after the first blessing, so I went back to bless the new dogs and then again I blessed the ones that were already there. They also play the Arya Sanghata Sutra through a loudspeaker so that all the animals and dogs who are sick can hear it. This plants the seed of enlightenment.

At Root Institute in Bodhgaya we also have animals that have been liberated (saved from death) such as goats and cows. We built a large stupa for them to circumambulate, also I went there to put the mantra on their body. I don’t know how many animals are there now, however, last year we had about fifty. We had finished building a house for the people looking after animals and we also finished the stupa for the animals to go around, but I didn’t get to check it recently as the road was not so good. I hope all the animals are going around the stupa three times a day—that was the idea, my plan, in order to purify their negative karma collected from beginningless rebirth, so that they can be free from the oceans of samsaric suffering and achieve enlightenment.

In Singapore they made a small recording that plays Buddha Namgyalma mantra, which is unbelievably powerful for long life and to purify obscurations. Whoever hears the mantra, even animals, will never get reborn in the lower realms and also their life goes toward enlightenment, they never go down [to the lower realms] and they will always have buddhas and bodhisattvas around them. This is even just by hearing the Namgyalma mantra, but also especially if it is recited. In Singapore the students made a recording of my chanting and there might be some other mantras included at the end.

Other powerful mantras are:

• Medicine Buddha mantra: just by reciting or hearing this mantra one doesn’t get reborn in the lower realms.

• Maitreya Buddha mantra: it is very powerful for animals to hear this mantra because they never get reborn in the lower realms, as animals.

• Lotus Pinnacle of Amoghapasha mantra: OM PÄDMO USHNISHA VIMALE HUM PHAT. This is very powerful to not be reborn in the lower realms. Even a fully ordained monk who has broken the four root vows, who received the four defeats of: sexual intercourse, stealing what was not given (valid things), killing a human being and telling lies that he has realizations when he doesn’t, so that others believe him and that changes their motivation. Having broken these four root vows causes that person to be reborn in the hell realms, but by reciting this mantra and by remembering the name of the person, that person’s heavy negative karma gets purified and he will receive a high rebirth. There are also many other benefits. The small recording made in Singapore has some of these mantras on it and it is to be played so that animals can hear the mantras.

I will send you one of these recordings so you can play it for the dogs and cats. If you can, play it in three sessions a day—in the morning, noon and evening time. It is very important as it purifies their mind and saves them from the lower realms and they can achieve enlightenment. It is so, so simple.

Also if at all possible you can build a stupa. It could be large, but that might be hard. If you cannot build it because it costs too much, then you can build a number of smaller stupas that could be in a circle or collection so the animals can go around them.

I have a new plan in south India. I didn’t see many shops but in one place I saw many chickens in very small cages. As soon as I saw them I wanted to buy them, but at present we have no place for them at Sera Je Monastery. Also if they were just loose on the ground they would eat worms and insects. They are not like goats who are vegetarian, so for an animal being vegetarian makes a huge difference.

I did think that at the land we have for the Maitreya Project we could build a large area for many chickens to live, but it would have a cement floor. Then we could buy those chickens in the small cages that were to be killed and liberate them there and we could give them food like grains, so they wouldn’t have to eat worms.

In south India I thought to buy some land and build a house with a cement floor and walls and roof, and have many large Namgyalma mantras on the ceiling. Any house that has Namgyalma mantras on the ceiling then anyone who enters and goes underneath the mantras will always get purified and also if they die inside, under the mantras, they will never be reborn in the lower realms, they will have a higher rebirth.

The other mantras to have are large size mantras of Stainless Lotus Pinnacle which can cover the ceiling inside. Just by being under this mantra, the chickens purify one thousand eons of negative karma each time they go under it. This is the same mantra that we usually put above doorways, so each time we come and go, even the mosquitoes, we all purify one thousand eons of negative karma, so it is unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable!

In addition I wanted to play the mantras I mentioned before. I wanted to play the recording so the chickens can hear the mantras and also to play it three times a day: morning, noon and evening time. In three sessions this plants the seed of enlightenment. When feeding them grain, if possible, first recite mantras and then blow on the grains to bless them. This purifies the chickens’ negative karma, and it not only helps them, but also their purpose in being alive is so they can purify their minds from negative karma. This is so important.

This is just some news to inform you of the different ways we try to help animals.

In Singapore, at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, the FPMT center, they have liberated more than 200 million lives and maybe even more now, maybe about 300 million lives. They did this for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and also for my long life. They liberated big fish by first taking them around the center, which has so many holy objects inside, and then they took the fish to the water and liberated them.

Also they liberate many small frogs, shellfish and so forth. They take the animals around the Kangyur, which is all the Buddha’s teachings, and the Tengyur, which is the collection of commentaries on the Buddha’s teachings by Indian and Tibetan masters. This has more than two hundred volumes. Then also the collected works of Lama Tsongkhapa, as well as many other holy objects that are inside the center.

The animals are taken around by children, by old people, by people’s parents and so each time the people also go around it purifies their negative karma and plants the seed of enlightenment. It is so unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable! They all get benefits, including all the people, including the children and old people who are taking the animals around, they also get benefits. Then they recite mantras and blow on the water, to bless the water and then pour the blessed water into the containers that hold the sea animals. If it is animals that live on the land, then they sprinkle the blessed water over them and in addition they recite mantras loudly, so that it plants the seed of enlightenment for those animals who can hear the mantras. This is how we liberate animals.

Some people who have joined in these animal liberations have been cured from cancer. This happened for at least one person, as far as I know, and there may be others.

Thank you very much a billion, zillion, trillion times. If you want to write to me, you are most welcome.

My numberless thanks for what you have done, taking care of all the dogs and cats, as well as helping so many people, for doing tong-len and for all that you have done. Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers...

My most dear one, 
Thank you for your kind email. If it means saving animals from being killed and from other big troubles, then [building an animal sanctuary] is good. If you do this with a sincere heart it creates a lot of good karma and is the cause for yourself and others to have so much success and happiness from life to life. Your life becomes more and more beneficial for others from life to life and then you go to enlightenment. There are many organizations helping people and it’s good to have an organization that helps the animals also.

There is one man in the Bay Area, USA, who is helping dogs. He was going to build a stupa for the dogs. I went to his place once or twice but I didn’t see the stupa. In Italy there is a group saving different horses and animals, so I gave them a donation of US$1,000 to build a stupa in the center of the property, with a few stupas around, so every day the animals can be taken around the stupas to purify their negative karma and create the cause for enlightenment. This gives them so much opportunity. There are many billionaires in the world, but even they don’t get the opportunity that these animals have. Then there is another student who saves horses from being killed after they have been used and other things. I gave him money to build a stupa but I don’t know if he has built it yet or not.

As you know, at Kopan we have an Animal Liberation Sanctuary, where we have about 50 goats. It took a long time to build it. At the beginning they went far away to look for a place. We had that land, but they wanted to use it for retreat and there was also a problem with the sewage. So they went far away looking for land but finally we built the sanctuary there and sorted out the sewage issue. We built stupas all around the sanctuary for the animals to circumbulate. The goats that are to be killed come from India and then we buy them and liberate them. Other people also liberate goats and bring them to us. We keep the goats at the nunnery for a while before taking them to the sanctuary. Some die, but some are okay.

Now I have a special mantra bag for blessing the animals that I carry with me. Mostly it is the mantra that you put above the door. That mantra purifies 100,000 eons of negative karma. I made a new version of that mantra card to put above the door that has about twenty or more of those mantras. Before it was just one mantra, now there are twenty or more. I think I have 500,000 of that mantra in the bag, as well as OM MANI PADME HUM, Mitukpa, the Four Dharmakaya Relic mantras and more.

The original mantra was made in Kopan using a computer and printed on paper, but now I have ordered the mantras to be on microfiche because I would like to have many hundreds of millions. At the moment the Stainless Lotus Pinnacle mantra is just on paper. This mantra purifies several trillion eons of negative karma just by touching the head. Just this mantra purifies several trillion eons of negative karma.

I did a blessing here at Root Institute, Bodhgaya, for all the animals and recited mantras for all the goats and chickens. You must know that chickens need to be put in a house when they are liberated. Otherwise if you buy chickens and liberate them, then every day they eat so many worms. But worms are also precious. It is not that chickens are more valuable than worms. Many people have an unbalanced mind. They think one animal is more precious than another, so they feed many other animals to that one animal.

There is also another place nearby called Maitri Animal Care where they rescue many dogs and goats and other animals. I went there to bless all the animals and also the school children from the local villages. They were blessed once by me and another time by somebody else using the mantra bag. We are building a new stupa here at Root Institute for the animals to go around—sorry I should show you a photo, but I don’t have one. Also I used the mantra bag to bless all the workers here and the sick people in the clinic. Putting all those mantras on their heads purifies a few trillion eons of negative karma.

So anyway, as I was explaining, if you liberate chickens you must put them in a cement house and give them food so they don’t have to eat worms. Then if possible you should also bless all their food and water by reciting mantras. This not only stops their hunger and thirst but also blesses their mind. I told the people here that we must make a new house for the chickens and when it was built we covered the whole roof with mantras. The whole ceiling is covered with the Stainless Pinnacle mantra so the chickens are constantly being purified.

At Garsha, in India, where real Chenrezig came from the mountain water and became the aspect of a stone statue, I'm thinking to build houses for sick people. Garsha is a very, very famous place where Hindus and Buddhists go. The Hindus think the statue is of Shiva but they made a mistake from the word—Lokeshvara—which can mean Shiva. Actually it is Chenrezig. There are many, many sick people at Garsha, as well as people who commit suicide. In one house four people killed themselves. So I thought to build a nice small house with the whole ceiling covered in mantras, where people can come to relax. First have the Stainless Pinnacle mantra covering the whole roof, so that when people enter they get purified.

Also there is the Mantra that Liberates from the Bondage of Body, Speech and Mind. We have one nun who cured herself of skin cancer by reciting that mantra 21 times and also by wearing it. I was thinking to put that mantra in bags hanging from the ceiling and when people come into the house they can touch the mantra bags on their heads and that will help them to purify and free themselves from sicknesses and naga harms, etc.

Also yesterday I wrote to the center in Tahiti and explained about building a prayer wheel in the ocean. Many years ago when I was in Taiwan I met a rich family who built many monasteries and talked to them about building a prayer wheel in the ocean that connects with China. I told the family the benefits of the prayer wheel touching and blessing the water that is mixed with the ocean, so that it purifies the negative karma of all the numberless beings who live in the water as well as those who drink the water. The family was so surprised and they kept silent. Later they told me that they became rich by selling fish, so they were thinking to repay the kindness of the fish but didn’t know how to do that. Many Chinese families make their living selling fish, so to repay the kindness by establishing a prayer wheel in the water is so good. It helps all the numberless beings in the ocean to be liberated.

Thank you and good luck.

With much love and prayers...

Lama Zopa

Note: Rinpoche advised this information is good so people know what to do, especially putting mantras on the roof, and covering the ceiling with the Stainless Pinnacle mantra and the eight auspicous signs, very beautifully designed and well-done. Another mantra that can go on the roof is Mitukpa—large not small— and Namgyalma. Rinpoche also advised that it is very important to have the eight auspicious signs at the center office, for success and to eliminate inauspiciousness.

Read more on this topic in Advice on Benefiting Animals, and Mantras to Benefit Animals by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.  See also Appendix 3 from the book Teachings from the Vajrasattva Retreat.  A book of practices and mantras, Liberating Animals From the Danger of Death,  is available for purchase from FPMT Foundation Store.

Animal Liberation Practice
I started this particular tradition of liberating animals. The way we practice animal liberation causes the person who liberates them to have a long life, but that alone doesn’t ultimately help the animals, so the best thing to do is to circumambulate the animals around holy objects and bless them with mantras and prayers. You can carry animals around a table in the middle of a room with many holy objects on it, like tsa-tsas, pictures of buddhas, and texts.

If there are 1,000 statues and holy objects on a table, then if you take the animals and insects around the table once, it creates 1,000 causes to achieve enlightenment, liberation from samsara, a good rebirth, and happiness in future lives. Each time you carry or lead the animals around the table it creates that many causes for their happiness and long lives. So, if you carry a billion insects around holy objects, you are offering enlightenment each time you circumambulate to that many sentient beings. This is really fantastic, the most amazing benefit that you can offer to other beings.

Also, it is extremely good to save beings from being killed to be eaten as food. Lobsters are boiled alive in hot water. Can you imagine if that was you, how immense the suffering would be? We would try every single way to get out, but they are trapped, and not only that, they can’t communicate or express themselves. Like you, all beings want happiness and do not want suffering, problems, or discomfort.

The Benefit of the Four Powerful Mantras
When you carry or lead animals around holy objects, vast amounts of benefit are created for the animals if the holy objects contain the four powerful mantras:

1. The most precious heart mantra of stainless beam
2. The most precious mantra of secret relic
3. The most precious mantra of ornament of enlightenment
4. The very precious root mantra of stainless beam

Just by circumambulating a holy object once, such as a stupa, that contains one of these mantras, like the dharmakaya secret relic mantra [click here for a pdf file with these mantras] you purify the negative karmas you have collected to be born in the eight hot hells.

If the holy object contains the stainless beam mantra, then just one circumambulation purifies the five unending negative karmas (killing your mother, killing your father, killing an Arhat, drawing blood from a Buddha, and causing a schism in the sangha).

If you offer a bell to a stupa that contains these mantras, then any animal or person who hears the sound of that bell is purified of the five unending negative karmas. So, you can see the unbelievable power these mantras have.

In this way, any holy objects that contain these four powerful mantras create unbelievable benefit for the animals who circumambulate them and for the people who carry the animals, as they also receive all these benefits. Both the animal and the person are saved from the lower realms and from samsara and are brought to enlightenment.

As you perform animal liberation, circumambulating the holy objects with the animals, you should also chant mantras and then bless buckets or jugs of water by chanting mantras and blowing into the jugs. You can chant Medicine Buddha mantra, Chenrezig mantra, the five powerful mantras: Namgyalma mantra, Kunrig mantra, Stainless Beam mantra, etc. Chant one mala or more and then after each mala, blow over the water. Then you sprinkle some of the water on the animals, birds, and insects, and you can pour it over animals who live in water. Think that it purifies their negative karma, liberates them from the lower realms, blesses them, and causes them to have a good rebirth. This is your greatest gift to these pitiful, suffering beings.

Also, you can chant lamrim prayers so that the animals can hear them, and this plants the seeds of the whole path to enlightenment, so that they can meet the Dharma, be able to understand it, and actualize the path to enlightenment. Animal liberation is not just a practice of buying animals and releasing them. You need to perform practices to benefit the animals. Also, if you own an animal, this is what you must do for in order for it to have a good rebirth and quick liberation from samsara.

When an Animal Has Died or Is Dying
Recite Chenrezig mantra and other mantras such as Milarepa mantra and Namgyalma mantra and then blow over the body of the animal. Blow strongly on the animal after each mantra or you can blow on water, visualizing each deity absorbed into the water; each drop has the power to purify negative karmas. Then, you can pour the water on the animal and think that all its negative karma is purified.

If the animal is dying, you can perform Medicine Buddha practice, visualizing the seven Medicine Buddhas on the crown of the animal, absorbing into the animal. You can also perform the 35 Buddhas practice, visualizing nectar coming into the animal’s crown purifying its negative karma while you take strong refuge in the 35 Buddhas to protect and guide the animal.

What You Can Do for Animals in Everyday Life
It’s not enough that you look after animals and they give you comfort. You must do something of practical benefit for them. This is what you can do every day:

• Circumambulate with them around holy objects, chanting mantras.
• Recite prayers in their ears to plant the seed of all the realizations of the path to enlightenment. This makes a huge difference. It has incredible results, enabling them to have a good rebirth in their next life, to be born as a human being, and meet the Dharma.

There is a story about when the Buddha gave teachings to 500 swans in a field and in their next lives they were born as humans, became monks, and all became arya beings, able to achieve the cessation of suffering and the true path. So, the result was incredible, just from hearing Dharma words. Also, Vasubhandu (Lo.pon Yig.nyen) used to recite a text called the Abhidharmakosa, and a pigeon on the roof heard this every day. One day the pigeon died and Lo.pon Yig.nyen checked to see where it had been reborn. It was born to a family who lived down below in the valley. He went down and visited the child and asked if he could look after him, and the family let the child go with him. The child became a monk named Lo.pon Lo.den and became an expert on the text that he had heard when he was a pigeon. He wrote four commentaries on that text. Therefore, it’s extremely important to recite lamrim prayers and mantras—at least mantras—to animals.

It’s also extremely good to bless food before you give it to animals. If you can’t do it for every meal, then you can bless all the food at the same time. Recite the five powerful mantras or OM MANI PADME HUM, Medicine Buddha, and Milarepa mantras. All of these have power and help anyone who eats this food to not be reborn in the lower realms; it blesses their mind and purifies negative karma. If you can, do it every time you feed them—recite the mantras and blow on the food. This is the biggest gift you can offer them: it causes a good rebirth, so they can escape samsara, achieve liberation, and acquire the positive imprints of the Mahayana teachings and mantras that lead to enlightenment.

I asked the people who take care of our dogs at Tushita Centre in Dharamsala to recite the Maitreya Buddha prayer and mantra, the Lama Tsongkhapa praise to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha—Having Found the Realization of Dependent Arising—and other prayers and mantras to the dogs, while holding a biscuit in their hand, so all the dogs wait patiently. It looks like they are respectfully listening to the teachings, with their eyes looking at the biscuit, all sitting humbly. We gave some of the dogs away to people, and along with the dog the owner had a commitment to recite a lamrim prayer or mantras for it. Some people did this for years. One lady, who wasn’t a Buddhist, did the lamrim prayer, The Foundation of All Good Qualities, every day for years. She was very sincere.

There is a story about an 80-year-old man. After he entered the Mahayana path, when the time ripened, he became enlightened, and performed perfect works for sentient beings, bringing them to enlightenment. All that perfect work—enlightening all those beings—came from his being enlightened, and that resulted from having entered the Mahayana path. Before that he was an Arhat and actualized the path to liberation, which resulted from being a monk. He was able to become a monk because eons ago, he was a fly following some cow dung around a stupa in a circle, which became a circumambulation of the stupa. So all these benefits—being an Arhat, being enlightened, and enlightening sentient beings—depended on the small merit of following the smell of cow dung around a stupa. We should always keep in mind how precious even one circumambulation is, how precious it is to take animals around holy objects. When human beings intentionally circumambulate it has incredible benefit. Since karma is expandable, we shouldn’t be careless, even with a small amount of merit. Each holy object is so powerful and can liberate so many beings from suffering and bring them to enlightenment, causing you to actualize the path. Even if you can’t build a big stupa, a small one is incredibly precious—bringing benefit to you and other beings.

If you have many ants in your house, for example, then if you’re careless you will kill them. If you are careful, you can pick them up with a soft tissue paper, cotton, a broom, or a feather, and put them in a plastic bag with some food in it. Put some food in that they like, and then close the bag and take it around a stupa or holy objects as many times as you can, to liberate them from a lower rebirth and help them to achieve liberation and enlightenment. Then you put them outside, releasing them by opening the plastic bag, or shaking it on the ground with the food. The only way you can help ants and other insects is if they come into your house. Otherwise, there’s no way to benefit them in this way. This is a very good way, an excellent opportunity, to benefit ants, in addition to offering them charity by giving them food. If you take them around the stupa or holy objects, then that is also the charity of offering Dharma, and the charity of fearlessness, which means saving others from fear and danger. By purifying their minds, you’re saving them from suffering. Also, for dogs and cats, blessing the food with mantras becomes the charity of offering Dharma, the charity of fearlessness and the charity of loving kindness, because you have the intention to cause them happiness. So, you are practicing all four types of charity.

Why Holy Objects Are Beneficial
Holy objects help other beings easily to purify immense amounts of negative karma and create the causes of happiness and merit, which definitely brings them to enlightenment quickly. Because it helps them create a lot of merit, allowing them quickly to realize the path, it also helps them to improve their lives swiftly, from having a difficult life, with many problems—business problems, relationship problems, and many other things—to an easy life, with outer and inner prosperity, realizations of the path, and a happy, peaceful, inspiring death.

If you teach Dharma, not everyone comes to listen; some are not interested, some are too young, and some are too old and cannot come. If you make holy objects, not only inside but outside in public places, then everyone can see them, Buddhists and non-Buddhists. Everybody benefits so much. Because of the power of the holy object, it doesn’t require deep devotion or faith to gain these benefits.

If you find it hard to understand this, think how an atom has the power to destroy the world and yet can benefit so many people. For example, by creating electric power, millions of people can have comfort and an easier life. A seed has power in a similar way—its own purpose and function. If you plant a juniper seed, a huge tree grows from it, with many branches and leaves, intricate designs, and shapes. Every tiny detail comes from the seed.

If you build holy objects, then not only in this life but after this life, wherever you are in the six realms, for however many years this holy object lasts, it will liberate beings from the lower realms and samsara every day, by planting the seeds of liberation and enlightenment and purifying their minds, helping them to create merit.

Peace and happiness for yourself and the world are not independent, they do not exist from their own side, they are dependent-arisings, depending on causes and conditions. The causes are the great virtuous thoughts, non-ignorance, non-anger, non-attachment, a good heart, compassion, loving kindness, a non-self-centered mind, and so forth. Actions motivated by these pure attitudes become virtuous and the cause of happiness. Holy objects such as statues, stupas, and Buddhist scriptures become supports for those conditions, for peace and happiness for yourself, others, and the world.

The moment holy objects such as statues of buddhas are painted on a rock, on paper, photographed, etc., the moment a holy object materializes, it becomes a field of merit for sentient beings, becoming a cause for them to achieve happiness. If you plant chili seeds, you will get chilis, you won’t get raisins. Each fruit comes from its own cause; in the same way, only merit is the cause of worldly and ultimate happiness.

Generally, for an action to become virtuous and the cause of happiness, the action needs to be motivated by a virtuous mind, unstained by ignorance, anger, or attachment—only then does the action become virtuous. First, you need to put a lot of effort into making your attitude pure, so that your actions in daily life, such as working, eating, sitting, walking, and sleeping, etc. become virtuous.

With holy objects such as statues, stupas, and scriptures, you do not have to have a mind unstained by anger, ignorance, or attachment to create merit. For human beings and animals, simply seeing the holy object becomes the cause to achieve awakening and enlightenment through purifying so many defilements. The special advantage is that just by their existence these holy objects make it easy for ordinary beings to create merit.

The existence of holy objects in the world makes it so easy for beings in this world and those from other universes who will be born in this world to purify the obstacles to happiness, peace, and realizations on the path, and to achieve liberation and enlightenment. Only then can we change our distracted, negative emotional thoughts, the ignorant nature of our mind that harms us and the world.

By having a happy, contented, and satisfied mind, we can develop the wisdom to eliminate suffering for ourselves and others; by having a peaceful mind, patience, and a loving heart toward everyone, we stop harming ourselves and others and can benefit everyone, bringing peace, happiness, and compassion, the whole path to enlightenment.

So, now you can see the importance of holy objects, how they illuminate the world and bring so much peace and happiness, and how building these holy objects prevents destruction, of which so much is happening in the world, including war.

The following are some examples of the power of holy objects:

A leaf had seven insects on it. It was blown three times around a statue of Vairochana by the wind. Then the insects died. They were reborn to a poor family as seven girls, then, in their next lives, they were reborn as daughters of a king. They made offerings to Kasyapa Buddha and received predictions of their enlightenment. This shows how karma works.

Another example: A pig was being chased by a dog. Somehow they circumambulated a stupa, then the pig died and was reborn in Tushita Pure Land. Many animals cannot hear mantras but all they have to do to liberate themselves is circumambulate a holy object, even without the motivation to do so—that is all.

We have many insects inside the retreat house in Washington (Buddha Amitabha Pure Land), so every day we catch as many as possible in large jars that have ventilation and space. We separate the various kinds of insects into different jars so they do not fight or frighten each other. We have a large altar that is full of holy objects. We circumambulate these, running as fast as possible, so that we perform as many circumambulations as we can, with the jars full of insects. Then we release them outside.

It is incredible how fast this will purify these insects; even their present life will improve. It directs their life toward enlightenment and gives them the opportunity to practice Dharma in their next life, to have a better rebirth, to be able to accomplish the path, eliminate their defilements, and achieve enlightenment.

This is an incredible gift to them from us, and repays their kindness to us. They have been our mother countless times, and because of their kindness we have been able to practice Dharma. As our mothers, they protected our lives from dangers every day and bore so many hardships for us. All our present happiness, as well as all our previous and future happiness, all the realizations of the path up to enlightenment—these insects are the source of that.

For these reasons, I asked for a stupa to be built in my house in California (Kachoe Dechen Ling). Now we have an extremely beautiful stupa there that is filled with tsa-tsas and the four dharmakaya relic mantras. These give the most power to purify and collect the most extensive merit.

Giving Animals Dharma Names
It is very good to give your pet a Dharma name rather than a useless name that has no benefit for the animal. If you give your pet a Dharma name, it leaves a positive imprint on the mind of the animal.

Venerable Roger wanted a dog, so we got one from someone who could no longer look after her. We called the dog Om Mani Padme Hum. Each time she hears her name it plants the seed for the whole path to enlightenment in her mind, leaving a positive imprint. Also, it creates the cause for her to understand all the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha because they are contained in the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum: the two truths, the path of method and wisdom, and the goal: dharmakaya and rupakaya. Each time she hears her name it brings her closer to enlightenment. This is such an easy way to benefit animals.

The stupa that we built at my house in California was mainly for Om Mani Padme Hum. I thought, if we have a dog, then we need a stupa so that the dog can circumambulate it every day.

We also looked after a dog, who was lost, for a week. A student mentioned that this dog, which I named Jangsem, must have been very lucky. Jangsem was a small Lhasa Apso dog, who was lost in the local Wal-Mart parking lot. We rang all the pounds, dog shelters, the radio station, and even the police to try to find his owner. A week later, the owner contacted us. The day Jangsem was due to leave we took him around the stupas, relics of the Buddha, and relics of other great lamas, as well as the Kangyur, Tengyur, and Prajnaparamita texts. We circumambulated with Jangsem many, many times, and I said Jangsem is probably the luckiest dog in the whole of Washington.

When Jangsem first arrived in the house I recited many mantras and practices for him to meet Lama Tsongkhapa’s teachings; also, I recited Maitreya Buddha mantra, which has the power to cause one not to be reborn in the lower realms and to receive a perfect rebirth.

One student said that even to be an insect that gets carried around a stupa would depend on having previously created good karma. I replied that even a virtuous action depends on having created the karma, it is the ripening of a virtuous imprint.

Now we have three or four animal liberation practices every month. We buy worms and insects and circumambulate them around the stupa as many times as possible; we chant mantras and blow on water, which we then sprinkle on them, and then we liberate them into water or the earth, according to the kinds of creatures they are. Not only does this liberate them from the lower realms, but it also creates the cause for their enlightenment.

It is the same when people follow you around the stupa: you are liberating human beings. Every day, anybody who sees, touches, remembers, talks, or dreams about a stupa plants the seed of enlightenment in his or her mind and purifies him or herself. When the wind touches a stupa (especially if the stupa contains the four dharmakaya relic mantras), the wind becomes blessed, and then, wherever it blows and whoever it touches it liberates from the lower realms by purifying their negative karma. When the rain falls on the stupa, that running water liberates any being it touches, like all the worms in the ground, from the lower realms. It is similar with dust.

If you build stupas or statues to inspire people, for however many billions of years the holy object lasts, it continues to liberate beings every day, freeing them from the lower realms, causing them to actualize the path, liberating them from samsara, and bringing them to enlightenment. Even if you are in another realm after you die, wherever you are, the stupa or statue that you built is continually benefiting beings.

(Note: Rinpoche had a stupa built at his home to benefit the dog “OM MANI PADME HUM.”)