A very heartwarming story!
Dear friends,
This is a must read very short but heartarming story. It is incredible that beings we didn’t think can show gratitude are very capable of doing so. Beautiful story to share with kids and everyone. Enjoy this.
Tsem Rinpoche
A female humpback whale had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.
This is her story of giving gratitude.
A fisherman spotted her just east of the Faralon Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so badly off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her… a very dangerous proposition.
One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer.
They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her.
When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, nudged them, and pushed gently, thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.
The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.
May you be so fortunate …
To be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you.
And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude.
SHARE to let everyone know about this story!!
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Thanks for the wonderful heartwarming story of a whale, it is difficult to imagine the tragedy of a mammals life struggle in a crab trap.
From this we could understand that animal’s emotional similar to us and there are kind hearted people are still there to help around and being considerate. I’ve always been touched by their bonds. In fact, those who work closest with animals are most convinced that they do contain a wide range of emotions and feelings.
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This is a beautiful story. Animals do know how to appreciate. They also have felt just like us. We can feel worried, scared just like the whale when it got trapped with the netting. Fortunate enough the fisherman came to help and the whale one at a time nudged them, and pushed gently, thanking them. This shows how animals can show us their gratitude and should see them just like any other beings that we can share our love and care and never hurt them. They are beings that can’t express themselves in our way but doesn’t mean they do not know how to show, just their expression limit to their ability and in their own form of ways.
It’s a great article and thank you very much Rinpoche for the sharing.
I love this story because of the moments when all the manmade divide between man and beast fell away.
A diver-rescuer recalled that while he was working to cut the rope out of her mouth, “her eye was following him all the time”, and he said that after that experience, “he will never be the same again”.
The beautiful and most heartwarming moment was when she danced her dance of joy around her rescuers who had saved her from certain and terribly anguishing death. She even went to each and nudged them with gratitude.
She had the good fortune to be untangled from such a tangle. Yes, may we have even greater merit “to be surrounded by people who will untangle us from the things that are binding us” especially to this life.
“May we always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude”.
It is good and joyous to know that there are still many good-hearted and decent people out there in this world. So good to see that there are candles of hope in this darkness that surrounds and threatens us. :’) May everyone encounter scenarios like this that can change their hearts for the better. 🙂
This did definitely be a beautiful moment to witness. Gratitude seemed to be a natural courtesy between animals ans not to mention human beings. So much have been reported how a lion shows his gratitude by hugging his saviour or how a dog would protects the family that have shown him love and kindness. We as human beings has just simply forgotten the simple gesture of saying words of appreciation or showing…gratitude towards those who has helped us or shown us kindness. We just simply being too occupied with work and especially being very attached to the idea of “There’s always next time”. Gratitude and kindness has to be shown on time and always spontaneously.
Foot note, don’t be afraid to give help and don’t be forgetful of showing gratitude even if it’s a simple “Thanks” will make the day for others.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this wonderful account of a grateful whale.
谢谢仁波切分享这动物与人类情的感人故事。在地球上人类被称为万物之灵，主宰了整个地球的生物。人类也往往为了自己的利益而伤害其他动物，可是我们也要知道其实动物们都有灵性。它们都有自已自由的生活， 但它们往往会掉入人类的陷进而失去生命。对它们来说，是很可悲的。在这里我们可看到连动物都会对人类有感恩之心，何况是我们被称为万物之灵的人类呢？
人类呀！我们要好好反省！
很感人的一篇报道，谢谢那渔夫的通知，不然这鲸鱼必死无疑。当然也要谢谢拯救队的协助。那鲸鱼感人的动作真是让人心头一暖。
i would like to share more and more about our buddism being for all over the world people which is being buddism is most important for everyone thanks lot om mane pad hum
What an amazing story, man must stop killing these lovely and intelligent souls,pls people stop killing the whales and the lovely dolphins.
Thank You Rinpoche for sharing this wonderful and touching story with us. It seems like every creature has feeling and thinking no matter they are big or small. We always ignore this.
i am now aware that animals are capable of returning love if we give them a chance.
This is a very touching story and it really did touch me very much.
Thank You for sharing this wonderful article.
It is so heartwarming to see the whale was saved by kind hearted people.I wish more people can show the same kindness and compassion to all living especially animals,they deserved to live,love and care.Please be kind to animals !!
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this touching story,it is wonderful story for us to comtemplate and share with our friends !!
Thank you Rinpoche sharing this touching story . They are brave and take risk to rescue this female humpback whale . Amazing thing is animal remember who save it life and will thanks to them. If we are to be kind to animals and sure animals are did the same things to us, don’t abuse animals , they have feeling too .
Receiving the love from an animal is the most beautiful thing, because you’ll know they are not fake or plotting something being good to you, they are absolutely genuine as they appreciate what we have done to them.
Animals are very simple, when you good to them, they will give you their everything…
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing such a great and wonderful story to increase our compassion and care towards the animals that need our help. This story really makes us to think deeply that we should never pass by and ignore those animals which really need our help in their dying hours. Animals also have feelings, sadness, joy and able to show their gratitude to anyone who has free them from suffering whether in physically or emotionally state.
This is really a heartwarming story. This has proven that animals have feelings just like us humans. So we should always treat them well. They CAN feel it. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this wonderful story.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this heart warming story. It is amazing that the divers risk their lives to save the female humpback whale. When the whale is free she show gratitude and thanks to its savers. It is so touching. This show that animals have feeling too. Wish there were no more traps and nets and harm to animals.
I wonder when will humans live up to their name and be humane? All fishery should stop… we should just eat what we can grow and stop harming these beings. What right do we have to take their lives away?!
Lucky there are a few kind humans out there who knows what it means to be humans and helped this humpback whale who are very intelligent beings. Sometimes I think more intelligent, kind and appreciative than humans! How many of us remembers and show gratitude to those that help us? Think….
Thank you kind sailor and I hope for this good deed, it helps you to collect some good karma to change your fishing career.
this is soooooo touching, people can always help animals and do not think that they forget because they remember and are very smart. i am so happy that the divers saved this poor whale and i hope the whalae has a long happy life from then. 😀
The entangled female humpback whale is very fortunate to have been spotted by a kind fisherman who radioed for help, when the rescued team arrived the brave divers risked their lives in order to save her. When she was untangled from the spider web she swam in joyous circles and then went to each and every diver to nudged them and pushed them gently as if to say thank you to them. This shows that all animals and creatures have feelings too. They can show their gratitude by their warm and gentle actions even though they are unable to speak. Therefore we must treat all animals with loving kindness and never harm them. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this beautiful and heartwarming story on the blog.
Wow! Its just beautiful and heartwarming to read stories like this everytime. And I believe that the whale sensed that the rescuers were there to help her and that is why she did not react violently. Those rescuers are really brave to risk their life to help the whale but they did it out of compassion for the distressed whale. They are inspiring examples of compassion and love….
Yes… May we all be always surrounded by people that will help untangle us from our attachments…
What an inredible experience, wished i was part of the crew who helped rescue her. Must be truly an unforgettable experience receiving gratitude from a whale 50x the size of you. Its a real shame what humans do to fish for monry, in turn it is not only destroying the environment but also hurt innocent whales in the process. These humungous glorious creatures are something to admire, being their peaceful nature they do not deserve this sort of treatment of being hunted down by whalers. These mystical creatures are capable of thinking, compassion and show gratitude, I think that says that they too deserve the same rights as human beings. I really wish people would not support whalers or fish mongers trawling the sea. They are not only damaging the environment but they are also commiting a crime. Thanks for sharing this wonderful story Rinpoche. I hope you are well.
Yes, this is really a beautiful tale and also one that is ominous of man’s slow but steady destruction of our world with our waste and wanton exploitation of animals and the environment. It is beautiful because there are a lot of people out there who still would care for animals with only a little small sign of gratitude.
In other words, there’s really no returns for helping animals except the thought that we have done something good for the day. This is a good story to share with others because people and society today glorify self-gain and rampant expectation of taking and receiving benefit from others. It is stories like these that are slowly and quietly forming a revolution in people’s minds of the virtues of giving and especially giving without expectation. I love that message and I think that is what we all need to be reminded that we are such a person so that when our moment comes, we would take the selfless or less selfish step to benefit others.
这故事太感人了。巨人的温柔，庞硕的鲸鱼，给你温柔的触碰，感谢救命之恩，很难想象……
就像上师的温柔和贴心，对上师可以比你的伴侣更了解你，比父母更了解你，在适当的时候给你恰如其分的解药救你于病痛，拉你一把不让你掉入深渊，一巴掌把你打醒不至于继续沉溺下去……
每天提醒自己：不要身在福中福中不知福，不要把关怀你的人推走……生命中，许许许多多人就像上师、父母、朋友和伴侣，特别是上师和法，把你从纠缠不清的牵绊中解脱，而不是捆住你……
Dear Rinpoche,
WOW!!! I am totally lost for words…. not just because this is such an amazing story but yet it also teaches people something.
I am very grateful that the fisherman radioed for help rather than like a lot of people out there who would see something suffering and yet not care about it.
The day these kind divers saved this wonderful and innocent creature from death it is also another sign that no matter where we are we should stop littering in to not just the oceans but also everywhere we go.
Littering is one of those subjects that many many countries have been trying to curb and yet a lot of people still take the Earth for granted and just keep on littering.
All the ropes and stuff that got tangled is 100% all of our human rubbish that we throw in to the ocean.
Every day there are so many people or fishermen to be precise who would just go fishing and not bother to take their rubbish home and just throw it in to the seas.
It is very sad to know that a lot of birds and fishes die because of our human rubbish everyday but at the same time a one in a million compassionate fisherman and a group of divers managed to save a Humpback Whale…. that last part is heartwarming.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing the news!
With Much Love
Jutika
Dear Rinpoche,
what a heartwarming story!
It is very surprising that other people at sea did not want to harm the whale,but instead they cared about it and tried to save the whale. They were taking the risk of being killed by the slap of the tail of the whale when the rescuers took hours to free the whale from entangled traps and lines.I am glad to know that finally the whale was freed.
It is very touching to note that the whale expressed her gratitude to all rescuers one by one after she was saved.
Seeing this post makes me think twice about eating meat.
All the divers were really kind to risk their lives to save the whale.
It is very heart warming to see this. Kudos to the divers/rescuers who despite potential danger braved themselves to help free the poor whale. Moreover it is very beautiful that the whale have the sense of gratitude to give a thank you nudge gesture to every single rescuers when some of us so called human would not know the meaning of gratitude.
Who said that animals dont have a sense of gratitude and wisdom!!! A female humpback whale was entangled in a spiderweb and fishing lines; weighed down by hundreds of pounds of traps, though still stayed afloat. Spotted by a kind fisherman who radioed for help at Faralon islands. Everyone(divers) worked desperately and managed to free her. The whale was seen by divers swimming thereafter in joyous circles and then came back to each and every diver, nudged them as if thanking them! Could you imagine that!!!!!!!!
Wow, I am trying to imagine such a large animal as a whale coming to me and giving me a friendly tap on the back from saving her life…. That must be such an incredible experience…
Nothing feels better than helping others, taking trouble and worry away from them, giving them solace… That is probably all what we need…
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing and glad that the whale was saved.It is true that we must always be gratitude toward people who have help us.We also have to do our best to help people when they are in need .
Thank you for the sharing Rinpoche.It is a truly heart warming story.May all those who assist in freeing the whale receive blessing for their good deed 100 fold as they did it out of compassion and without any agender. I could imagine the feelings, the divers felt when the huge whale came back to show appreciation towards them being so mindful and gentle as they never expected this from the largest mammal on earth.
May we be the one with the merit ,receiving the joy of making the choice of giving and not be the one demanding or receiving .
This shows us that animals can response to human kindness. If you love animals, they will love you back (except the ones which have rabies). I will share this touching article on my facebook status and ask my friends to share it out too. I love animals very very much. My ambition is to become a veterinarian.
Thank you for sharing this heartwarming story. It really did touch me very much but also saddened me that this incident happened in the first place because of man’s greed. These commercial fishing nets cause so much harm to other fish in the sea, with many dolphins killed because of tuna fishing. Dolphins and whales are popular to highlight because people like them a lot (thank Disney for that!) but plenty of other non-commercial fish are also entrapped and just thrown away back into the sea – literally they died for nothing.
If we can stop the demand for fish, the fishing industry will stop. Will they starve? Like every industry which evolves, perhaps they will suffer for awhile to change occupations but in the long run, karmically, they would be much better off because they would stop killing.
I am happy that the rescuers did help the whale at a risk to their lives though. And the whale’s gratitude is touching because it shows that the whale understood what was going on. These creatures are much more intelligent than we give them credit for. This should make us even more conscious of not hurting them.
Lastly, i just wanted to say that the Guru is our ultimate rescuer from samsara, but because often we don’t even know that we are entangled, we fight against being freed. Like this whale, we should be grateful to our rescuer – but although we are supposed to be smarter, often we are not.
Thanks again for this article and i will share it
This is a touching and heartwarming story. The rescuers were very brave to risk their lives saving this humpback whale. On the other hand, the whale is able to show gratitude and thank each and everyone of the rescuers. This shows that animals have feelings too and we should treat animals with love and care. They are not for us to abuse or killed for human consumption. Be kind to animals.
Humpback whales are not social creatures, so when this one was saved it went to every diver to express her thanks. I guess you do not need words to express thanks.
Yes, more and more, through this blog, we get to see that every living being is precious, has feelings and fear death; and many seemingly ‘mute and dumb’ beings can actually express gratitude and thanks.
Man is cruel, when he sets such vicious types of traps to ensnare the poor fish and whales. But man too has a kind side. I am glad that the heroic divers of the rescue team chose to disregard the risk of being killed by a flick of the whale’s tail. What they received, in turn, was a lovely show of gratitude by the whale after her rescue.
Would that we will always remember the karmic debt we owe all beings, who have been our mothers before.Then ,we will care for one another and in return be cared for by others.
Thank you for the lovely lines that ended this post and for your great compassion in always making such loving aspirations for us.
It is really sad that many of these magnificent creatures in the sea… whales and dolphins often fall in the trap of a fishermen’s net. Lucky they noticed this poor whale and released her before she drowned.
When we think of others more than ourselves, we will do many things for the benefit of others. And usually, it will be something big! Just like this fisherman, not thinking about his own welfare and went over to rescue the trapped whale.
We do need more selfless people in the world… that will lend a helping hand whenever others are in need, be it animals or people.
All sentient beings deserve kindness and compassion. The funny thing about nature is that we all seem to have an unspoken understanding towards one another.
Not only this whale, i believe all animals can feel the compassion from humans if and when we are trying to help them. I read so many other amazing stories about how wild animals cooperated with humans while being rescued and how they do not attack anyone after they were helped. I guess this could be one of the ways they ‘thank’ us.
I love stories like this! When people go out of their way to help another sentient being.. Warms my heart right away! Makes my faith in humanity restored!
Thank you for sharing, Rinpoche!
what a great story if only there were more people kike this.
This is a wonderful read with a double bonus. The first is how human beings came to the aid of another being and without much expectations of a reward at all. All too often we hear stories of how Man, being at the top of the food chain (for now anyway) abuse animals but in the last 20-30 years we see a slow but sure transformation in Man, learning to be a preserver of its environment and changing its attitude towards other species as co-inheritors of this planet we all live in. Even though so much damage has already being done, it is still not too late for human beings to intervene and stop further abuse and I hope to see the kindness shown in this story extended to all animals.
The second is how the whale is able to show gratitude to its savers and in such a way that the people knew that the whale was thanking them. I hope this story spreads far and wide but this is yet another account which proves quite convincingly that animals do have that consciousness and feel emotions such as gratitude. That being the case, they can also feel pain and distress. Animals are not what we thought them to be decades ago, ie commodities for humans to use and eat. Unfortunately for every whale that is being rescued, thousands of other fishes of the sea and animals on land are being hunted, harmed, caged, abused and slaughtered. The awareness campaign has to pick up momentum.
I like what Rinpoche wrote in the last part of the post, which is a wish for all to be surrounded by those who would come to our rescue when we become entangled in samsara. And that is the very purpose Tsem Rinpoche’s Kecharians foster and treasure fellowship so much. The reality is, we are already entangled in our own web seeing that we are in samsara. Strangely most people carry on as usual because they are not aware of their own entanglements. Ours may not be nets and weights such as the ones that trapped the whale. Ours are the delusions and wrong views we reinforce each and every day that binds our natural mind. If you are reading posts of this blog, you are lucky and have been spotted by rescuers and now you need to follow the blog all the way back to its source, which is Rinpoche himself, for real liberation.
It’s truly heartwarming. The divers were so kind that they wiling to take the risk to save the female humpback. They were also very lucky to be able to receive gratitude from the whale, it must be the most amazing thing in the world. I feel so happy for the whale, she is so fortunate to be able to meet the divers who willing to risk their own lives to save hers.
Thank You for sharing this wonderful article Rinpoche.
Love, beatrix.
This is a very touching story. When we are entangled in our own delusion that causes bad karma to result, how much we hopes that someone could save us from drowning. But, when we see other people weakness, or their bad points or attitude, check carefully our own behavior, people we dislike or we are afraid of we will just run away. Don’t even have the thought to save the person.
This story reminded me that i have many lifetimes, thus many people might have been kind to me in previous life. And, in future, if we wanted people to be kind to us, we should be kind to people now.
This is so cool. To have the chance to be with a whale and for the whale to say thank you to you like this. But about the story, its so nice that the people who saved the whale put their lives at risk just to save this animal. That is what really matters in this story. I wish that more people would show the same level of kindess to all animals.
Beautiful!!!