Buddhism and keeping Pets

sinweiy SG

What's your comment?

i think not advicable. i used to long time ago, but no more. Too troublesome and you need to have responsibility. And there are people who mistreat their pets. i can't handle myself let along handle them. Confused

why not spend times on cultivation instead.

imho,
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798 SG

last time me used to have a dog. my mum (a devotee buddhist) think the dog was a burden.

my dog was treated well in the house, my mum think we owned it due to its past life and she felt the dog got a lot of 'fu bao'. Laughing

An Eternal Now SG

it is not very advisable. because owning pets = creating ignorant affinity. perhaps some day they might become ur sons and daughters. some people even love their pets more than their parents, not so good... u can shower and bathe ur pets when its sick... when ur parents get old and sick will u do the same?

nevertheless i am personally not against pets and animals. lama zopa rinpoche recommend that we rename our pets to a buddhist name, e.g Om Mani Padme Hum. this will make the pet create karmic seeds of dharma. next life might become Buddhist who knows.

winbob SG

Hi. I am working at home. As I lived with my mother & younger brother. My brother & his gf bought a dog home one day. But they were both working. So, me & my big mouth told them I could help out in taking care during day time. I feel that I owe this dog in one way or another. I did not buy the dog but some how I got to take care of it. Maybe its my karma I got to return to the doggie

An Eternal Now SG

I think that is your karmic affinity with your dog. And also your dog has his good karma to be living with a good owner Smile

vamjok SG

as long you treat the dog kindly it should be ok. no wrong or right actually.

LazerLordz SG

OT: Hey is that a cocker spaniel?Cute.. Very Happy

Wanda SG

So, creating ignorant affinity is bad? Why? What about getting married, which also creates affinity?

I'm asking bec. I am truly ignorant, and reading the existing posts kinds of reminded me of some questions which I have often wondered about. Confused

An Eternal Now SG

No la, because as you see, in Buddhism there are six realms, the 3 lower realms are hell, ghost, animals, higher realms are asuras, humans, devas (heaven). So if you have pets, it creates "ignorant affinity", which I quote from my master. Animals belong to the ignorant catergory, which is quite obvious why, that is why I said that.

When you marry, it creates the affinity that binds u and her under samsaric rebirth together. In chinese its called "chan yuan" but i dunno the english name. Best is to have "Fa yuan", like now you and i have "fa yuan", or "dharmic affinity".

Wanda SG

Hmm...so maybe I'm married to my husband in this life due to previous "chan yuan"?

This reminds me of something I read from a book by the Dalai Lama. It seems that animals are regarded differently in Tibetan Buddhism. I remember a para in the book which says something like: a lama can be reborn to fulfill a certain purpose, and to fulfill that purpose, he could be reborn either as a human being or as an animal, if being an animal could better serve that purpose. Hence, it seems to imply that animals aren't regarded as from the lower realm, which sometimes kind of makes sense when you see some lucky pets which are being treated like bao bei in the family and leading a very good life. Smile Any view on this?

An Eternal Now SG

I think a more logical answer to this is that the Tibetans live in high altitudes and sometimes there are hardly any vegetation. The tibetans depend on their animals for a lot of things. Whether they are lama reborn or not I am not so sure, but most animals, and your pets, most likely are not lama or some enlightened sages reborn one Laughing

As for Bodhisattvas, it is not only in Tibetan Buddhism that bodhisattvas can manifest in various forms. In Chinese Mahayana it is also noted that Bodhisattvas can appear/reborn in all kinds of forms (if you read lotus sutra chapter on Guan Yin it gives detailed examples) to help save sentient beings.

An Eternal Now SG

Hmm...so maybe I'm married to my husband in this life due to previous "chan yuan"?

Very likely...