Second flower bloom

Chapter 20
Homage to the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva!
Homage to the gracious Guru Dharma King Ruyibao!
More than ten years ago, when I was spreading the Dharma in China, a layman once asked me some questions about releasing life.The questions and answers at that time were later compiled into text and put on the Internet, but I have not paid attention to these words. This time, Layman Cheng Licuo helped to officially publish related articles and asked me to read the "Questions and Answers on Freeing Lives". After reading it, I found many problems. .Due to my limited ability to express Chinese at that time and the short time, the audience and the recorder also had a little misunderstanding in understanding. For various reasons, some content in the compiled question and answer record was unclear, and the questions raised were not well answered.Therefore, I made corrections and additions, and adjusted and deleted some questions. I hope that the revised "Questions and Answers on Freeing Lives" can better help you clarify the questions you encounter during the process of releasing animals.

Question: What is release?

Answer: Release, as the name suggests, is to rescue animals from under the knife or cage, let them live, and return them to freedom.Whether you are a Buddhist or not, and whether you have religious beliefs or not, you can release lives.For a Mahayana Buddhist, because he is not only concerned with helping other beings stay away from immediate dangers, but also hopes that all living beings can fundamentally get rid of death and suffering, so he is not satisfied with simply letting fish and shrimp swim in rivers and seas, Let the birds return to the forest.He wants to make full use of the precious opportunity of life release, through the Buddhist rituals of life release, make the released lives bond with the Dharma, and sow the seeds of future liberation in their continuation, so that these lives can obtain temporary and ultimate Interests.

Question: What is the meaning of releasing life?
Answer: From the perspective of the released person, it is temporarily far away from the fear and pain of death. If it is released according to Buddhist rituals, it can hear the names of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, mantras, and the teachings of Buddhas, and get in touch with nectar. It is even liberation, and through this cause and condition, you will finally be free from all suffering in the future.

From the perspective of life-releasers, we cultivate bodhichitta through releasing lives in a reasonable and lawful way, and quickly accumulate merit and wisdom. "Great Wisdom" states: "Among all other sins, killing is the most serious, and among all merits, life-releasing is the most important." Active life-releasing is also creating a special origin for good teachers to live in the world for a long time.

Question: Is there any difference between Hinayana and Mahayana in releasing animals?
Answer: Venerable Atisha once said that size is multiplied by aspiration.A Hinayana practitioner deeply understands the pain of samsara, and his greatest wish is to get rid of this pain, end life and death forever, and enter Nirvana. All his actions are centered on this purpose.It's not that a Hinayana practitioner lacks compassion, and it's not that he doesn't care about the suffering of other beings, but his compassion is not so deep and broad that he doesn't care whether he is liberated for the sake of all beings' suffering and happiness.Although a Mahayana practitioner also deeply understands the pain of samsara and has no attachment to everything in this samsara, he hopes that all sentient beings will eventually become Buddhas instead of being liberated alone.This difference in arousal between Hinayana and Hinayana is also reflected in the release of life.

Question: How can we use the same money to release animals in a more reasonable way?
Answer: There is no question of rationality or unreasonability, as long as one has a pure heart and tries his best to release animals.Don’t make offerings with a utilitarian mentality. For example, is it better to spend 2000 yuan to release a yak, or spend the same amount to release a hundred fish?Is it better to keep this kind of fish or that kind of fish?It’s really hard to say, the key is to put your heart in mind, to put helping sentient beings out of suffering first.In fact, when you are making comparisons like this, what you care about is not purely the well-being of yaks or fish, but also whether the release activities can satisfy your purpose to the maximum extent, for example, fulfilling the promised number of releases or obtaining more merit.When releasing animals, it is not advisable to blindly pursue quantity, to abandon the big and the expensive, and to choose the small and the cheap.The first level of compassion and bodhicitta is equality. If you only keep small and cheap animals and deliberately avoid those big and expensive ones, or only choose animals that are surviving and have strong vitality, you will be unequal and difficult to achieve perfection. The practice of the four immeasurable hearts and bodhicitta.

In short, when releasing animals, it is best not to choose in advance what kind of species to buy and what to meet, just buy what to release.

Question: There are as many sentient beings as the sands of the Ganges River, and what we release is only a small part of them. How meaningful is it?

Answer: First of all, even if we can only help one life to reduce suffering, our efforts will not be in vain and will be meaningful.Saving sentient beings requires karma.Although the Buddha is perfect with ten powers and four fearlessness, he can only save sentient beings who have karma, just like the sun shines all over the world but the blind cannot see it.The same is true for life release, even if you are as rich as Indra, it is impossible to buy all the lives to release lives.The boundless vow to save sentient beings, the important thing is that we have this determination, and then do our best to help sentient beings.

Question: What is the meaning of group cultivation and life release?
Answer: The merits of collective cultivation and life release are not shared equally by all participants, but everyone can get the merits of all. This is recorded in the scriptures. Everyone can get the merit of releasing [-] million lives.This kind of virtuous deed is inconceivable in itself, and if it is combined with the rational and lawful aspiration and devotion, the merit will be even more inconceivable. It will definitely allow us to quickly cleanse our karma and accumulate vast accumulation of merit.

Question: Due to limited conditions when releasing animals, can I ask someone else to release them for me?
Answer: If you have a pure heart, sincerely rejoice, pay others to release lives on your behalf, and release lives yourself, the merits and virtues should be the same, and doing so is also in accordance with the Dharma.However, if conditions permit, it is best to try to release animals yourself. The good karma of body, speech and mind has great benefits, so it should not be underestimated.

Question: When we release animals to buy animals, what should we pay attention to when dealing with traders?
Answer: Try not to express or hint to the vendors in advance that they will buy and release animals. In this way, they will not be able to inform their relatives and friends to bring fishing tools and rush to the release site in advance, and wait for the end of the release activity to kill the animals.

Question: Is there life in the roe in the belly of the female fish?
Answer: The birth of life requires the participation of spiritual consciousness.Some of the roes in the belly of the female fish are alive and some are not, but it is difficult for us ordinary people to distinguish.When releasing fish roe, many lives should be released, and destroying them may also harm life, which will be a great sin. The "Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's Vows Sutra" records that the mother of Guangmu girl especially likes to eat fish roe, turtle eggs and the like, and finally falls into the evil realm and receives retribution.

Question: How to observe the selected release environment?

Answer: Try to find a safe place to release the animals, and try to avoid the released animals from being hunted and killed again.For example, don’t deliberately put fish into fish ponds or fishing grounds. Fish and shrimps are specially raised in such places for people to hunt and kill. If we put animals in them, they will soon be caught and sent to vegetable farms and restaurants.A few days ago, I happened to meet a few American Buddhists carrying a few bags of fish just bought from the market and preparing to release them in the pool of a hotel lobby. The security guards of the hotel immediately came to stop them. According to my experience, even if the security guards do not stop the fish in Chengdu, those fish will be caught and eaten soon after they are put into the pool.Later, we drove these kind-hearted foreigners to a river and helped them release the fish smoothly.

We should also observe the environment in which species live. For example, it is very illegal to deliberately place hares in crowded places, water birds in mountains, and fish in polluted rivers where they cannot survive.

The environment for releasing life is best suitable for reciting the ritual of releasing life.As we said earlier, in the process of releasing animals, Dharma alms is very important.

Question: If an animal cannot live for a long time after it is released, should it be released?
Answer: After careful observation, it is better to put it away.Since we can't find a place where there is no death at all, the important thing is to keep them safe from the fear of death first, and then try to do other things.In addition, the release of life is not only a fearless gift to sentient beings, freeing them from the temporary fear of death and pain, but more importantly, it is a gift of Dharma to sentient beings, planting the seeds of liberation in their continuum, so that they will surely be free from reincarnation in the future pain of.

Question: Is it meaningful for us to give nectar to some animals that are going to be slaughtered in the vegetable market when we cannot save them?

Answer: Very good. It has great merit. Please rejoice in such behavior.It is best to chant the names of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and mantras for these animals while doing this.

Question: When we release fish, we often take care of some pregnant fish mothers (especially in spring). Is this a sense of discrimination?

Answer: It is the mind of discrimination, but this mind of discrimination is very meaningful.The more suffering sentient beings, the deeper the compassion of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

Question: Some of the released animals have been seriously injured, and they may not survive if they are released. Why waste money?
Answer: I have this kind of thinking because I don't really treat all sentient beings equally.If our loved ones are injured or sick, we will not just watch them suffer and wait to die.We will do our best to save them, even if it can prolong their lives by one day.Mahayana Buddhists should gradually extend this kind of compassion towards relatives and friends to all sentient beings.

Our problem is that we don't take life release seriously as a process of cultivation, but just regard it as a religious and collective activity, which is why we have various doubts.If we really do it with our hearts and cultivate our minds, many problems will not become problems.

Question: Everyone refrains from killing and releasing animals. Will there be too many animals in this world in the future, and it will become a world of beasts?

Answer: The survival of all things has its own karma and karma, and the common karma and individual karma are different, so the situation you mentioned will not happen.

Question: Wouldn't it be more practical to use the money from the life release for disaster relief?
Answer: Generally, the money should be earmarked for special use, and the money for releasing animals should be used for releasing animals, and should not be used for other purposes.

Question: It seems unreasonable to persuade people who kill animals to change their careers, but it hurts their livelihood. It seems unreasonable to love animals and not humans?
Answer: Killing is not a respectable and easy occupation.If you have ever been to a slaughterhouse or the aquatic livestock and poultry area of ​​a market, you will definitely be deeply impressed by the cruelty, blood, filth and stench there, and you will probably not be able to stand there for a while.Think about those who kill for a living, they live in that environment for years and months.The purpose of enduring such torture is to continue to do evil, and the result of doing evil is even more tragic pain.It's a distressing vicious circle.Wouldn't it be good to persuade people to get rid of this vicious circle?Not doing the occupation of killing living things has great benefits for this life and the next life.

Question: I want to liberate life, what should I do?
Answer: You can use a small amount of money to release sentient beings who need to be rescued at any time, or you can raise a certain amount and release more at a time.Those who are new to liberating lives can also join Buddhist liberating groups or entrust some eminent monks to liberate lives.

Question: When it comes to releasing animals, many people dismiss them. Why?
A: There are indeed some people in the society who do not understand Buddhists’ behavior of releasing animals. Maybe they have not realized that life is closely interlinked, and they also underestimate the potential of goodness in themselves.The last time we released animals near Tangshan, many of the participants were not Buddhists. Some of them had never released animals before. They said that they never felt pity when they saw crabs on the dining table. This kind of animal has so many legs but is tied up and unable to move an inch for a lifetime. They are tied up like this, they are tied up and steamed alive, and they can't move until they die.Everyone was very sad to think of this, and carefully untie the ropes from all the crabs before releasing them back into the sea.We spent a long time untying the crabs on the deck in the hot sun that day, and some people scratched their hands, but no one was impatient.Seeing the fish and crabs finally swimming freely in the sea, everyone was very happy, including those who participated in the release for the first time, and they were surprised to find that they could not suppress the compassion and joy in their hearts.So I always think that people who have prejudices against life release should personally participate in a life release activity, and then judge whether the release of life is meaningful.

There are also some Buddhists who are not very enthusiastic about releasing life, thinking that it is the work of foolish old men and women, and that smart Buddhists should study advanced methods such as emptiness.In fact, emptiness wisdom and great compassion are indistinguishable. It is impossible for practitioners to realize emptiness without great compassion, and releasing life is a good way to cultivate great compassion.

Question: Many believers like to release animals on the birthdays of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and on auspicious days. Is this okay?
Answer: This is good, and other times are also good, but you must observe your own motivation. If it is for the attachment of merit, it is of little significance.If the intention is to benefit all sentient beings on the auspicious day, that would be great!
Question: Do we need to pay special attention to whether the source of the nectar pills used for life release is clean?
Answer: It needs attention.Not all nectar pills are beneficial.Some nectar pills may come from impure sources, such as fake nectar pills, or real nectar pills will become unclean after passing through the hands of violators of tantric precepts, so you must be careful when using nectar pills.Eating impure nectar pills will hinder liberation.If you don’t know the source of the nectar pills when releasing animals, you don’t need to feed the nectar pills, and you can just recite rituals or use the system of liberation blessings.

Question: When leading disciples to release lives, some masters place the liberation on the head of the released life for blessing. What is the significance of this?
Answer: It is very important to place the liberation system on the head of the life to be blessed.Those beings who come into contact with liberation will soon be liberated. This is also an inconceivable convenience for the Buddha to save sentient beings.

Question: Since the Buddha has the convenience of liberation, why doesn't he use this convenience to save all sentient beings?

Answer: It is said in the continuation that only some sentient beings who have a special cause and condition of great merit can encounter this kind of dharma, not all sentient beings have this merit.

Question: Does releasing life have to be carried out according to rituals?

Answer: There are many rituals for releasing animals in Buddhism and they are all different, but in general they all share the Three Supremes.To practice and uphold all good methods should be held by the three supremes, so that the merit of doing good can increase day by day until becoming a Buddha will never be lost.The three victories refer to the victories of the motivation of adding actions, the victories of missing predestined actions, and the victories of devotion in the latter.

Specifically, in terms of releasing life, it is a supreme practice to release life for the sake of keeping all sentient beings away from the cause and effect of suffering, and finally attaining the supreme enlightenment and ultimate Buddhahood.Righteous action without predestined relationship refers to that the good roots will not be destroyed by external conditions during life release.Not to be destroyed by the outer edge, one must realize the base of the Madhyamaka, the Dao Mahamudra, and the fruit of Dzogchen.For beginners, it is too difficult to do this.If when releasing animals, the nature of the releaser, the released person, and the process of releasing animals are visualized as empty, appearing like dreams and illusions, and such insights can arise, it may also mean that beginners have missed the right practice.If you can't do this for the time being, you should try your best to let go of your attachments during the release, and keep your mind from wandering.For example, when chanting the Buddha's name and mantra, don't say it in your mouth, but think about food, rice, oil, salt, others and me.In short, we must always raise righteous thoughts and concentrate on the Fa.Afterwards, dedicating is supreme, that is, dedicating all merits and virtues to all sentient beings in the six realms of samsara after releasing life.

Question: Why is it necessary to grant refuge and recite the Buddha's name and mantra for life release?
Answer: When we release animals, we should show great compassion and recite the rituals of refuge, Buddha's name, and mantra for the released animals, hoping that they will not fall into the three evil paths in the future, and they will encounter the Dharma in the future and finally be liberated.

Question: Some animals died during the release process, what should I do?
A: The answer to many questions can be attributed to the motivation.Motivation is very important to practice. It not only determines the result of practice, but also largely affects our views and paths of practice.If our motivation is to save sentient beings from suffering and eventually become a Buddha, then we will have fewer doubts in doing good deeds and practicing.

Because of tools, karma, and various unfavorable factors, despite your best efforts, some animals still died during the release process. Some people worry that this will create killing karma and bear the retribution of killing.The issue of cause and effect is extremely complex, and only the Buddha can understand the entire cause and effect of an action.We only know that if the four branches of killing are fulfilled, that is, having a clear object of killing, having the intention of killing, taking the action of killing, and causing the result of death, the person concerned will fully experience the retribution of killing.You can judge your own behavior based on these four items.

If we use the Three Supremes to support the good deeds of releasing animals, we will know that these animals that died halfway will be the same as other released animals. Because of our motivation and dedication, we will form a special relationship with Buddhism and receive the blessings of the Three Jewels. Benefits of blessing and future liberation.Some animals with relatively large good roots will be reborn in a good place soon after hearing the Buddha's name or contacting the system of liberation and nectar.Therefore, some animals unfortunately die halfway. Instead of blaming ourselves and regretting unreasonably, we should chant mantras for them, dedicate the merit of life release to them, and pray for their early birth in a good place or a pure land.

The vitality of animals varies. For example, fish, some fish can withstand long-distance transport bumps, and will not die immediately if they lack oxygen, while some fish are not easy to survive. Nevertheless, we should rescue them equally , You can't choose between likes and dislikes.Isn't our motivation to reduce their pain?Think about it, everyone, even if a fish unfortunately dies in the process of being released, the pain it endures is far less than the pain of being left alive in the vegetable market and being skinned and cramped, and its heart and lungs ripped out.What's more, they also receive Dharma offerings to form the cause and condition for future liberation.

Question: In order to run out of time, I often run with the released animals while reciting rituals, but the bag is not opened, I am very worried that they will not hear, what should I do?
Answer: It is best for sentient beings to hear the sound of chanting, so that they can gain the merit of hearing the Buddha's name and mantra.But no matter whether the sentient beings released can hear the sound of chanting, they will all benefit if we dedicate ourselves properly.

Question: How to release animals to attain the six degrees of perfection?
Answer: All the actions of a Mahayana Bodhisattva can be classified into the six perfections, and doing a kind of good dharma can also have the six perfections at the same time.Take release as an example:

First, give alms.Mahayana Bodhisattvas have three kinds of giving: giving of fearlessness, giving of Dharma, and giving of wealth.The release of life itself is a kind of fearless charity; it is the charity of Dharma to allow sentient beings to be influenced by the Dharma through the Buddhist ritual of releasing lives, so that they can obtain temporary and ultimate benefits.Among these three kinds of giving, Dharma giving is the most important.

Second, keep the precepts.The release of life according to the Dharma is to allow sentient beings to obtain temporary and ultimate benefits, which is in line with the Mahayana precepts centered on benefiting sentient beings.In the process of transportation and releasing animals, try to handle them with care as much as possible to avoid hurting or frightening the animals, which is consistent with the precept of not harming sentient beings.

Third, endure humiliation.When you release the fish, you will encounter some unfavorable conditions. For example, just after you release the fish, someone comes to catch the fish with a fishing net and fishing rod after hearing the news, or someone deliberately creates trouble to prevent you from releasing the fish. In this case, don’t feel angry. , Arguing with others, you should persuade them with good words and actively seek solutions.In many cases, we need to endure fatigue, hunger, severe cold and heat, etc. when releasing life. These are all humiliations.

Fourth, be diligent.Effort is to generate joy in practicing the Dharma.If you are active in releasing animals and are full of joy and longing, you will have the level of refinement.

Fifth, meditation.In the process of releasing animals, whether it is moving animals or other labor, whether it is chanting, visualization, praying, or cultivating compassion and Bodhicitta, always be serious and not distracted. This is enough for meditation.

Sixth, wisdom.It is a kind of wisdom to understand the extraordinary merit of releasing life.Going a step further, having the view and realization of the emptiness of the three wheels is even more wisdom.

Question: Some people say that if a kind of life is released, it cannot be eaten later. Is this true?

Answer: It is very good to be vegetarian. I hope that everyone will try to be vegetarian if possible.Vegetarianism is mainly out of compassion, and releasing animals is also out of compassion. Both are out of compassion.It cannot be said that you do not eat the meat of a certain animal because you have released this animal, nor can you say that you have released a certain animal because you do not eat the meat of this animal. Regardless of whether you have released raw or not, you should try not to eat meat.

Question: The released animals ate other animals. Is this our fault?

Answer: Such a situation may happen, but if this person recreates bad karma after saving someone, will we not save them?There is nothing wrong with our determination to save lives, as each sentient being has its own karmic karma.Cause and effect are not false.

Question: How to release the artificially raised livestock and poultry in the market?

Answer: You can raise funds to build a release pond or animal joy garden, or ask reliable people to feed these animals until they die naturally.Every year at the turn of autumn and winter when yaks are massacred, we will buy a lot of yaks at the slaughterhouse, chant mantras for them, bless them with nectar water and tie liberation, and then transport them to Tibet and entrust them to honest and reliable herdsmen to raise them.The intention to be altruistic is the most important thing.

Question: What should I do if I meet someone who kills and releases animals?
Answer: When you meet such people during life release, you should persuade them with kind words and don’t feel angry towards them.They committed killing karma out of ignorance, in fact they are more pitiful.

Question: What is the relationship between vegetarianism and life release?

Answer: Being a vegetarian has the merit of self-benefit and others.Being a vegetarian is not only beneficial to oneself, but also indirectly plays the role of releasing and protecting life.Because fewer people eat meat, fewer animals will be killed for human consumption.I hope you all try to be vegetarian.

Question: What is the relationship between environmental protection and life protection?

Answer: Environmental protection has a very close relationship with life protection and release.A good environment provides animals with a suitable home for survival and also provides convenient conditions for release.If we are surrounded by green mountains and green waters, it will be much easier to release animals. We don't have to worry about animals being put into a heavily polluted environment and getting sick or dying soon.When the ecological environment is polluted and destroyed, not only animals suffer greatly, but also human beings themselves cannot escape the doom.Conversely, releasing and protecting animals is conducive to maintaining the balance of ecological species, thus contributing to the protection of the entire environment.Environmental protection and life release are mutually beneficial.

Chiarombo
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Festival on June 21st of the Iron Tiger Year in the Tibetan Calendar
Nov. 2010, 8

revision completed
(End of this chapter)