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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.
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Liberating Animals and Other Ways to Benefit Them – PDF | Audio | Print (order this title in English through Amazon’s print-on-demand service. Click here for Amazon in Australia, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan)
Lama Zopa Rinpoche leading an animal liberation during a Vajrayogini retreat, Institut Vajra Yogini, Marzens, France, May 2019. Photo by Tsanka Petkova.
- Liberating Animals Short Version – English | Spanish
- Animal Liberation Tools – PDF
- Charity to Ants – PDF
- Arya Maitreya’s Promise Dharani (mantra) – PDF | Audio
- A Short Practice of Mitrugpa, The Immovable Buddha – PDF
- Mitrugpa Mantra – PDF | Audio
- Namgyalma Mantras – PDF | Audio
- Mantras to Benefit Animals – PDF | Explanation of the benefits of the mantras
- “Considerations for Animal Blessings and Animal Liberations” (Mandala January-March 2014)
- Animal liberation articles.
- Practices to Benefit Animals contains practice suggestions from Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
- Ideas for blessing the oceans, seas, lakes, and other bodies of water.
You can also make a donation to the FPMT Animal Liberation Fund, a charitable project of FPMT International Office that supports animal liberation at Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s residences and other animal liberations worldwide:
Ven. Sangpo and Dharma students blessing a spider, Ganden Tendar Ling, Moscow, Russia, May 2017. Photo by Renat Alyaudinov.
- 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) - Stop Animal Sacrifice in Nepal (November 2009)
- Sign ‘Please Don’t Hunt’ (November 2010)
- Prayers and Practices to Do for Turkeys at Thanksgiving (updated November 2021)
- Benefiting Animals advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche in the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive
- Animal Liberation Sanctuary (ALS), a project of Kopan Monastery, Nepal
- MAITRI Animal Care Programme, a project of MAITRI Charitable Trust, India
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Large-scale animal liberations at Amitabha Buddhist Centre, Singapore
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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