Buddha Dharma for Animals: What the Buddhist Teachers Say About Doggy and Kitty Dharma
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- With insights from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Venerable Zasep Rinpoche and Venerable Thubten Choden. Ends with Healing Medicine Buddha Mantras (Recommended by teachers to play for your animal companions!) chanted by the amazing Yoko Dharma with beautiful animal videos
Partial Transcript: "What do the Buddhist teachers say about doggie and kitty Buddha Dharma? Did Buddha teach that Dogs and cats have Buddha Nature, just like humans? How can you help your companion meet the Dharma in daily life? How can we help when our companions are passing from this life?
Many Mahayana meditations, sadhanas and prayers use language such as “all beings have been our mothers…” - a constant reminder that every being, even the insect we step on by accident, is our family. Ultimately, Mahayana Buddhists accept that humans and animals are interconnected as a single family - in the Oneness of the Universe.
Clearly, your doggie, kitty, hamster, budgie and extended animal companions all have both Buddha Nature and karma. In what ways does this change our relationship to our beloved companions?
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, in a teaching on “animals in everyday life” said, “There is a story when Buddha gave teachings to 500 swans in the field and the next life they were born as human beings, became monks, and they all became Arya beings, able to achieve the cessation of suffering and the true path. So the result is unbelievable, just by hearing Dharma words.” This teaching illustrates that all animals have Buddha Nature. The swans, in just one life cycle, became humans, monks, and ultimately Aryas.
Most Buddhists are familiar with these stories. Yet, in real life, do we really treat our animal companions as fellow journeyers on the path to Enlightenment? If we did, we’d bring our pets meditation rooms and retreats. We’d acknowledge our companions are subject to Karma, just like us.
This means that, as their friends, we need to be mindful of their actions, as much as our own, because they, too, have Buddha Nature. They, like the swans, can become Aryas (Enlightened Beings). When your doggy chases and kills a squirrel, you have to help him mitigate his unfortunate karma. When you kitty kills a blue jay, you have to take a measure of responsibility.
MANTRAS FOR PETS!
Venerable Zasep Rinpoche, Spiritual Director of Gaden for the West, believes its important to practice with your animal companions and chant mantras for them.
At the Tibetan Buddhist Centre in Redding, they arrange events where they “recite mantras and pray for the animals.”
As they chant mantras and prayers, they plant “a kind of seed that grows in the minds of animals to give them good health and a better life.”
#SpreadTheDharma #BuddhaWeekly #Buddhism @BuddhaWeekly #BuddhaDharma
This example is meant to be a daily practice for Dharma companions of animals - reciting mantras every day.
This example is meant to be a daily practice for Dharma companions of animals - reciting mantras every day.
Animals are like humans with emotions.
Animals can be sad, afraid, worried, wish to be happy…
As they chant mantras and prayers, they plant “a kind of seed that grows in the minds of animals to give them good health and a better life.”
Medicine Buddha for Animals
Medicine Buddha is well known as a practice for animals. It is taught that Medicine Buddha’s mantra when spoken in a dying animal’s ear, will help release it from lower rebirth, ensuring birth as a human.
Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche also advises these mantras or practices as beneficial for animals, throughout their lives to help bless their mind streams:
Medicine Buddha: Om Bekhandze Bekhandze Maha Bekhandze Bekhandze Randza Samundgate Soha
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May Buddhas & Boddishattas send healing energy to the sickly or injured animals around the world and give them salvation from human cruelty an nature's brutaility. May people have compassion and treat animals with loving kindness
May Buddha bless all beings
Thank you for this video, it has so touched my heart. May the animals continue to inspire peace and feelings of love.
🙏 Thank you
Very very, good, beautiful and useful presentation and singing!!!
Thank you everybody 😊💓💙🧡💚💛🙏
Thank you very much! May all beings - including our beloved animal companions - benefit!
we love it :) Shadow and i :)
Thank you for this video. We need more video of Dharma for Animals❤️
Thank you for watching ! And totally agree!
May all being be healthy and happy ❤
Thanks, lovely and helpful
Thanks for watching! Glad it was helpful!
Gracious ❤️🙏 information
🙏🙏🙏❤❤❤🙏🙏🙏
❤️❤️❤️❤️
Estou no Brasil e fico muito grata por esse video!Muito obrigada!
Obrigado🙏🙏🙏
Wow, this is amazing
💜
Can you pls upload video only with this mantra? Please! I will play this mantra to my furbabes every day! Please ❤️🙏
That's a lovely practice for our beloved pets. We do have Yoko Dharma's mantra as a stand-alone video here: ua-cam.com/video/bkWpvmjWpZc/v-deo.html
By the way, as a "tease" announcement we do have the longer Sanskrit Dharani and the mantra in Sanskrit (slightly different from Tibetan) coming soon (probably 2 weeks until the video is complete.)
The Brahmajala Sutra includes a precept that discourages bodhisattvas from raising animals such as cats and dogs because they are flesh-eating creatures. Just to share another perspective, but we can still care them in other ways and offer Buddhist practices on their behalf.
Thanks for your comment. While there is no question about compassion for animals and "not killing" as messages in the Brahmajala, I think this might be a too liberal interpretation of the precepts in that sutra -- and worth pointing out the Brahmajala precepts apply more to monastics, not lay people, in terms of all ten precepts (lay people have five). The Brahmajala also has a lot more stringent and restrictive precepts than even the prātimokṣa vows (which are the main precepts Buddhists recognize.)
The main ten precepts in the Brahmajala are:
Not to kill or encourage others to kill.
Not to steal or encourage others to steal.
Not to engage in licentious acts or encourage others to do so. A monk is expected to abstain from sexual conduct entirely.
Not to use false words and speech, or encourage others to do so.
Not to trade or sell alcoholic beverages or encourage others to do so.
Not to broadcast the misdeeds or faults of the Buddhist assembly, nor encourage others to do so.
Not to praise oneself and speak ill of others, or encourage others to do so.
Not to be stingy, or encourage others to do so.
Not to harbor anger or encourage others to be angry.
Not to speak ill of the Buddha, the Dharma or the Sangha (lit. the Triple Jewel) or encourage others to do so.
Personally, I believe it is too liberal an interpretation to extend "not to kill" to include no having animal companions.
The precepts, generally, apply stringently to monastics and the Brahmajala is far more restrictive on monastics than ordinary vows. For Lay people there are only the five precepts and they are not as tightly interpreted.
Of course, we all follow our own interpretations of Dharma. There is no "right" and "wrong" interpretation -- only what is right for you and your current karma.
In kindness, BW.
@@BuddhaWeekly I was referring to the 32nd minor precept. The Upasaka Precepts Sutra is more telling with numbers 15 and 16 of the minor precepts. Of course, this would probably only apply to those who actually receive the precepts. Best. 🙏