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Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a buffalo that he named Bodhichitta, Kopan Monastery, August 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Benefiting animals is a high priority for FPMT and one of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the organization. Rinpoche recently liberated and blessed a water buffalo, which are often butchered for meat in Nepal. Rinpoche, who appeared to have a strong connection with the buffalo, tells the moving story of the blessing, calling his account the “BBC News” from Kopan Monastery:
Three monks recently got sick at Kopan and this buffalo was bought for His Holiness the Dalai Lama and all the Kopan monks and nuns, for their safety. This time I asked Tenpa Choden to buy a buffalo. He bought a small one, so that the cow of Kopan Monastery and the buffalo will not fight.
There is one monk, who got sick again. I have been doing pujas for him. He did not ask me to, but for many years he has been taking care of many young men in Nepal who had gotten involved in drugs and alcohol. He helps them to stop and then to find jobs. The project he is doing has been so difficult, and he has 300 children he helps—those who don’t have parents, who are very poor. He has been soooo busy giving food to sooooo many poor Nepalis, as well as Sherpas and Tibetans, because of the virus. So I also liberated the buffalo for him.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Ven. Sherab, and Bodhichitta the buffalo, Kopan Monastery, August 2021. Photo by Ven. Thubten Tendar.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a buffalo that he named Bodhichitta, Kopan Monastery, August 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
Now the story of the buffalo is this: it took some hours for me to come down to recite mantras and prayers to bless the buffalo. I also recited several different very precious mantras and The Three Principal Aspects of the Path by Lama Tsongkhapa. During all that time, he was in the garden, eating in the corner, but when he was brought to me, he sat down by himself, then looked directly at me. The worker who brought the buffalo said the buffalo missed his home, from where he came. I looked at the buffalo, and he was looking at Tendar and Sherab. Sherab thought he was looking at a spider that was on the cement. Then from the buffalo’s eyes tears came out—out of both eyes, one by one.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing a buffalo that he named Bodhichitta, Kopan Monastery, August 2021. Photo by Ven. Thubten Tendar.
Bodhichitta the buffalo, Kopan Monastery, August 2021. Photo by Ven. Lobsang Sherab.
I went to see him again and recite mantras. He was not standing. It took time. The man brought something for him to eat. Then slowly we took the buffalo around Geshe Lama Konchog’s stupa. He had gone around before, quite a few times, before I came down.
This is “BBC News” from a Kopan room, middle room, the smaller one.
Most of the time when I recited the prayers, he sat with his head stretched towards me.
I gave him the name Bodhichitta, for a good imprint.
—From Lama Zopa Rinpoche, about Bodhichitta the Buffalo, Kopan Monastery, Nepal, August 15, 2021
For more from Lama Zopa Rinpoche about the buffalo, please watch this touching video:
https://youtu.be/9sbZm1Xk_5M
Support the Animal Liberation Fund, which supports ongoing animal liberations:
https://fpmt.org/projects/fpmt/alf/
Learn more about benefiting animals, including advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche and links to practices and materials:
https://fpmt.org/education/prayers-and-practice-materials/benefiting-animals-practices-and-advice/
Lama Zopa Rinpoche is the spiritual director of the Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), a Tibetan Buddhist organization dedicated to the transmission of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and values worldwide through teaching, meditation and community service.