By Dongyun Kwon
An animal blessing will be held at Queens Park in Healesville on Saturday 18 November.
The ceremony will be dedicated to the well-being of all animals in the past, present and future inspired by World Animal Day.
Nalandra Buddhist Institute’s spiritual director His Eminence Zimo’G Rinpoche said the idea of Animal Blessing came up from one of his fellows.
“In 2009, I was looking at doing some events and it was really close to World Animal Day. One of our fellows shared the idea of hosting a Buddhist version of Animal Day.”
Rinpoche is looking forward to the upcoming 12th Animal Blessing, hoping more animals come over.
“The previous events went well, but only a few people showed up,” Rinpoche said.
“Although it has fallen very late [from World Animal Day which was on 4 October], I think late is not late because it is always good to have a distance between World Animal Day and Animal Blessing to remind people of World Animal Day once again.”
People are encouraged to bring their own pets as ambassadors of other animals in the world.
Even animals unable to attend or who are deceased will be also remembered in the blessings through pictures of them.
“This is not only for animals in the present, but for animals in the past and future because the animals in the past are still in the intermediate state,” Rinpoche said.
“We will cut through all the suffering, dilemmas and illusions which may not be necessary for them [animals in the past] and they will be reborn in the future.”
The event will start with the recital of a special Sutra by Rinpoche.
Rinpoche said he would read the Sutra because each one of those syllables would bear a huge amount of blessings.
“After that, the blessing Mantra also blesses the water in the vase. Then, animals will come up to me one by one to receive the blessing code,” he said.
“These blessing codes are always with me and around me when I’m doing my own practices and meditations every morning.
“The individual animals will be fed with water on my palm and also get a treat and a benediction prayer.”
The Animal Blessing is a free event, but there will be a table for donations, with proceeds going to Animal Aid.
“Any amount of donation will be well received,” Rinpoche said.
“It will be given to one of the animal charities. We switch animal charities every year.”
The Rinpoche is inviting everyone who supports vegetarianism or environmentalism to the ceremony.
“It sounds much like the Buddhism religion, but it’s not. It is about the animals surrounding us and the environment we are living in. So everyone is welcome to come and support us,” he said.
Anyone wishes to know more about the Animal Blessing, please visit www.nalandra.org/animal-blessing.
