Animal Liberation and Long-life Practices Before Ordination

Animal Liberation and Long-life Practices Before Ordination

Date of Advice:
June 2017
Date Posted:
July 2022

A student wrote asking to take ordination. Rinpoche observed that they had life obstacles and recommended several practices including animal liberation.

My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
I am sorry for the long delay in replying to your email. Regarding your request, it seems that you have some life obstacles. This is what came out for you to do:

Amitayus Long Life Sutra: 1,500 times. You need to mainly read it by yourself. You can ask your friends to read some, but mostly you should do it. If others help you by reading it, then it will help their long life as well.

You need to take a long-life initiation five times. This can be done during one long-life initiation when the torma, generated as the deity, is put on your head. The lama recites JAH HUM BAM HOH, so with the mantra, then visualize White Tara absorbing into you five times. That is like taking the initiation five times. It can be done like this, but also after some time you should try and take a long-life initiation again, so take the complete initiation a minimum of twice. You can take the long-life initiation from the geshe at your center or if there is another of your lamas around you can request it from them.

Liberate two thousand animals. This means to liberate two thousand animals or insects that were otherwise going to be killed, so you are actually saving them. Please follow my instructions on how to do animal liberation. Maybe someone at the center is familiar with the practice or you can follow the book. [Visit the FPMT Catalogue to find links to Liberating Animals from the Danger of Death.]

You can get a bag of insects that are used to feed the other animals. For example, if you get  crickets or worms, there may be one thousand crickets in each bag. First take the plastic bag with the crickets around the statues, Buddhist texts, tsatsas and stupas—as many holy objects as you can set up on a table outside. So you can take the animals around those holy objects. Also, you have a stupa and a prayer wheel at your center, so you can take them around the stupa. Inside there are many tsatsas, which is good. You can do that with crickets or worms that are used for bait, so you can liberate two thousand animals like this. If you liberate large animals like cows or goats, then you have to look after them or make sure they are looked after. The important thing is to buy animals which are going to be killed. 

Vajra Cutter Sutra: Recite this sutra two thousand times for purification. 

You also need to do prostrations by reciting the names of the Thirty-five Buddhas [Confession of a Bodhisattva's Downfalls to the Thirty-Five Buddhas.] There isn’t a number but if you can do some every day, that would be very good.

So you need to do these things first, before you become ordained. Let me know after you have done these things, then we can check again about ordination.

As much as possible, live your life with the thought of bodhicitta, day and night and in every action that you do. Do every practice with bodhicitta motivation.

With much love and prayers ...