A Blessing of the Animals

Karen Johns for SooNews.ca
Friday, August 22, 2008, 12:47PM

Yogi Lama Gursam, a master of Tibetan Buddhist meditation, conducted a blessing of the animals last evening at Bellvue Park.

A small group of animal lovers brought their pets,and/ or photos of their pets for the ceremony. Lama Gursam blessed each animal individually, answering questions and talking to the pet owners in his soft, charasmatic voice.

Unlike most other religions or philosophies, Buddhism considers all life to be evolving toward higher consciousnesss.

The following statement was taken from a Buddhist website and it explains the Buddhist view on other life forms besides human.

"To the Buddhist, any practice by which man sustains himself at the expense of other sentient beings is considered wrong. Buddhism considers non-human life to be Divine just as is human life. Animals are seen to be an evolving kingdom of living creatures destined in time to attain perfect enlightenment. All of life is seen to be one. According to this conviction, to harm any living thing is to do injury to the One Eternal and Divine Life. Since animals are considered to be traveling towards enlightenment just as man is, neither are they to be harmed, discouraged or hampered in their progress.

Buddhists were the first to build hospitals for the care of sick and injured animals. Their purpose is to ease pain and suffering be it man's or beast's, for the same life is seen to dwell in each.

Animals are works of art more wondrous than anything man is capable of creating. How can we be gentle in the way we handle our material possessions and careless with the precious life of an animal? Animals long to have faith and trust in us, and often do have faith loyalty that far surpass anything in the human realm.

To accept the Buddhist point of view is to have a new spirit of compassion for any form of life that is weak, helpless or hurt. The Buddhist is fully aware that life itself cannot be destroyed, but to him this does not justify destroying or harming the forms through which life is presently expressing. It is believed that we have no right to injure for any reason.

Yogi Lama Gursam has been in the Sault for this past week and has been holding different workshops and classes.

On Saturday August 23, he will be hosting a Meditation Instruction at the Public Library on East St. from 9 a.m. until 12 noon.

On Sunday August 24 he will offer "White Tara Empowerment" at the Art Gallery of Algoma on East St. from 10 a.m.until 5 p.m.

Tuesday at 7 p.m. Yogi Lama Gursam will give a public talk on peace at Arcadia Coffee House at 823 Queen St. E.

Admission is by suggested donation.

Above Lama Gursam shares a moment with Luna, a baby crow.
At right The animals receive thier blessings.

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