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Benefiting Animals: Practices and Advice
Lama Zopa Rinpoche recommends animal liberation as a specific practice done for animals who would otherwise be killed, such as livestock, bait worms, and live feeder insects. The practice involves taking the endangered animals around holy objects, reciting mantras for them, blessing water to sprinkle onto their bodies, and then releasing them. Rinpoche teaches that the practice benefits animal spiritually and is an incredible practice for anyone who is ill or experiencing life obstacles. Animal blessings, on the other hand, involve blessing animals with mantras or holy objects, even if they are not in danger.
Ven. Sangpo and Dharma students blessing a spider, Ganden Tendar Ling, Moscow, Russia, May 2017. Photo by Renat Alyaudinov.
- Benefiting Animals advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
- Helping Stray Dogs: A Thank You Letter from Rinpoche
(posted February 20, 2017) - How to Benefit Animals: A Collection of Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche (2004)
- How to Benefit Insects and Other Small Beings
(posted January 4, 2017) - Liberation Tools to Help the Dying and Deceased | PDF
- Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving (updated November 2021)
- Sign ‘Please Don’t Hunt’ (November 2010)
- Stop Animal Sacrifice in Nepal (November 2009)
Vegetarianism and Veganism
In the 2011 FPMT Annual Review: Cherishing Life, Lama Zopa Rinpoche included advice about becoming vegetarian:
When I was in the hospital I saw a program about animals that were sold to be killed in Indonesia and other countries (live export). I don’t know how long this has been going on, must be already for a long time.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blesses horse at an animal sanctuary, June 2019. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
On the TV I saw the goats waiting in line, between wooden fences. It didn’t show how they were killed, but it showed one cow that was on the platform, with the head tied, being pulled down to be killed. The cow didn’t want to go and the man was pulling it. I thought, “I don’t have power to stop all this killing, but what I can do is to try to inspire people to become vegetarian,” and since then whatever teaching I am giving, even if it is tantra, I am trying to talk to people about becoming vegetarian, to avoid eating meat or to eat less meat so that there are less animals getting killed. I am trying like that.
Then just to mention that one person in Vietnam became vegetarian because he heard I was sick and one student from Amitabha Buddhist Center in Singapore took lifetime Mahayana precepts after she heard I was sick and one prisoner in USA also stopped eating meat. So they are really, really amazing!
- We Cannot Live Without Harming Others by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
- On Becoming Vegan: When Vegetarian Is Not Enough by Nicholas Ribush
- Vegetarianism: A Healthy Debate by Vens. Sangye Khadro and Robina Courtin
- Nine Questions About Vegetarianism by Geshe Thubten Soepa (teachings on vegetarianism in Spanish)
Vegetable art at flower show, Paro, Bhutan, June 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.
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