Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing rabbits at Osel Labrang, Sera Je Monastery, India, January 2016. Photo by Ven. Roger Kunsang.

A student who had tried to commit suicide several times and was very depressed wrote to Lama Zopa Rinpoche about being mistreated as a child and that her only friends are animals. Rinpoche responded to her with a long letter in September 2016 with stories about his own family and advice on karma and reincarnation, and he advised some ways of benefiting animals, such as charity for ants and animal liberation. Here’s an excerpt from Rinpoche’s advice to her:

In general, we have no idea of our father and mother. We lived nine months in our mother’s womb and then came out, and also our father, those who took care of us, we only remember a little, then the rest someone told us, like telling us, “This is your mother and this is your father.” It is usually up to what people say, then we believe what people say. Please don’t worry at all about these points, whether he is actually your father or not.

Please come to know that the Buddha, the Omniscient One, has so much compassion for you, for me, and for all sentient beings, like a hundred thousand times more than a mother has for her only cherished child. The Buddha has said that all sentient beings have been our own father and our own mother.

Even this life’s mother, it is not the first time she has been our mother. This life’s mother has been our mother numberless times from beginningless rebirth. This life’s father, it is not the first time he has been our father. He has been our father numberless times from beginningless rebirths. Not only as a human being but as many different living beings, such as those who get reborn from the womb, all the different kinds of animals, pretas (hungry ghosts) and many living beings. Like that he has been our father. Even when we were born in the animal realm, he was our father. Also all other sentient beings have been our mother and father numberless times.

Buddha said that he has been our father numberless times from beginningless samsaric rebirths. Everyone has been our father from beginningless samsaric rebirths—every animal in the ocean, large like a mountain and so small that we can’t see it with our own eyes but only through a machine. All the fish, turtles, sharks, all the numberless beings in the ocean have all been our own mother numberless times from beginningless rebirths, as well as being our own father. Every human being has been our mother numberless times, as well as being our father numberless times.

Like that they have also been our own brother and sister numberless times. They have also been extremely kind to us. By being our own father, mother, sister or brother, they have also supported us, given us food and saved us from harm and from death. They have supported us.

In addition there are numberless universes, not only this world, but numberless universes and numberless realms. That means numberless worldly gods, numberless human beings, numberless hungry ghosts, numberless animals, all those beings in the different universes, of which there are numberless universes, they have all been our mother and father numberless times and we have been their mother and father numberless times. …

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing dogs and other animals as part of an animal blessing day, organized by Ganden Tendar Ling, Moscow, Russia, May 2017. Photo by Renat Alyaudinov.

When we are born from the womb, we have to have a mother, however, we have been born in all different ways and other sentient beings have all been our mother numberless times and have been kind to us numberless times.

Therefore, please enjoy your life and be happy; this is what the kind Omniscient One, the Compassion Buddha, explained. Through meditation, remembering the kindness of all beings and thinking about beginningless rebirths, you can realize this more and more, and you can remember hundreds and thousands of your past lives more and more. Then more and more you can realize how sentient beings have been your mother numberless times and have been kind to you.

I like you very much, also when you said you love animals; you said animals are like your life. I am smiling when I say this. It makes me very happy.

You see many people in the world do not know that even the animals have been their mother, father, brother and sister numberless times. They don’t know this and also they don’t understand karma and they don’t know about reincarnation, so they keep snakes, lizards and so forth as pets, and then they feed those animals with other animals like worms, crickets and live mice. That is mainly about one’s own attachment—not love, but attachment to just one type of animal. They have other animals like worms and so on to feed alive to their pet, but they don’t think that the other animals or insects also want happiness and don’t want suffering and don’t want to die. They don’t think of that and only think of the animals that they keep as pets. It is only those animals that they have attachment for. However, we must not be partial and we must have compassion for all beings, loving kindness for all, not just for one type of animal or just one person. That is not loving kindness or compassion; that is attachment.

Read the complete advice “You Are a Beautiful Human Being,” posted in July 2017 by Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive on “Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Online Advice Book”:
https://www.lamayeshe.com/advice/you-are-beautiful-human-being

More information, photos and updates about FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopdeata Rinpoche can be found on Rinpoche’s webpage on FPMT.org. If you’d like to receive news of Lama Zopa Rinpoche and FPMT via email, sign up to FPMT News.