Take 2 Minutes to see something cool!
Dear friends,
I’m trying to share with you that all denizens form and formless, human and non-human have feelings. Everyone wishes to be free, safe and loved. Everyone would like to have their lives not taken away. I always blog about animals, their feelings, their plight, their lives, their difficulties, their fears, their loyalty, their importance, their pain and their gratitude to let you know please do not hurt them, beat them, kill them and eat them. Because they have feelings and fear and love just like humans.
We shouldn’t rob someone just because someone else robs people. That is all the more reason we should not rob people seeing the pain it gives. We shouldn’t say myself not eating meat won’t make a difference. It does make a difference and in your own heart, you know you are doing the right thing and that is the difference. Stop looking for excuses to eat meat because our bodies do not need it. We really do not need meat of any sort. We are independent of others in many choices we make in life, so we can apply it here for meat. It doesn’t matter what society and others think of us if we don’t eat meat. We do many things in our lives regardless of what other people think. So why not apply it to meat. Let’s not make our digestive systems a huge graveyard of dead and decomposing animal carcasses. That is not spiritual, nor is it humane and definitely not necessary.
I will continue to blog about animals and include articles from other people in the hopes I can spread the need for kindness towards animals because they can’t speak but they deserve happiness, freedom from fear and our exploitation of them.
Much respects to everyone,
Tsem Rinpoche
Posted by Jenny Zhang on September 24, 2014 at 8:08am
Heartwarming Video of a Lioness Excitedly Hugging the Man Who Rescued Her
On a recent visit to the Modisa Wildlife Project near Maun, Botswana, traveller John Hawkins captured this heartwarming footage that shows the incredible bond between a lioness and her rescuer. In the video, Sirga can be seen eagerly pacing back and forth behind a fence as the man, Valentin Gruener, unlocks the gate. Once the gate is opened, the 110-pound lioness jumps onto Gruener—for a cuddly, full-body embrace! Sirga clearly displays her affection for the man, rubbing noses with him during the hug and even laying across his lap on the ground. What an amazing friendship!
After Sirga was driven out of her pride as a cub, she was rescued by Gruener and Mikkel Legarth, who couldn’t stand by and watch her die. The two conservationists took her in, raised her, and even taught her how to hunt on her own. Throughout the years, Sirga has never forgotten her bond with the men who helped her. She now serves as a beacon of success for the Modisa Wildlife Project, which Gruener and Legarth started with the hope of finding long-term solutions for saving the lion population in Botswana, Africa.
Watch the touching video below:
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/lions2014.mp4
Photos by Nicolai Frederik Bonnin Rossen
Source: http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/valentin-gruener-sirga-lioness
Please support us so that we can continue to bring you more Dharma:
If you are in the United States, please note that your offerings and contributions are tax deductible. ~ the tsemrinpoche.com blog team
This story is an example that we are not their superior and that we can be friends and family to each other instead of looking at them like “animals” as if it was an insult because they cannot speak to say differently.
Through this it shows very clearly that animals do have emotions as well and they would remember things that are being displayed to them.Thank you very much for the inspiring article.
It’s is really heartwarming to see how excited Sirga hug Gruener. It’s a lioness who a predator hugging humans with love and care. This really shows that even a predator if we give our care, love and compassion, it will tame them down. This is a very touching video to tell everyone that we have to be compassionate to all beings.
“Compassion conquer all.”
It’s so heartwarming to watch the short video. The bond between Sirga and Valentine are so strong, like meeting an old friend. This video reminds me that animals is just like human and have feelings, therefore treat all of them with respect and care.
Oh my! Watch the way how the big cat jumped and threw herself at her human friend, so completely. I can imagine it must have taken a lot of trusts to do so, on both sides. This is a really inspiring sharing, to let us know that man and animal can be friends, all sentient beings can live harmoniously together. Thank you, Rinpoche for this sharing.
wow.. beautiful relationship between animals and people.. lions and are the most dangerous animals but from love and care can change anyone and relation can be made forever…
A bond that arose from compassion lasts forever…..
The genuine relationship as above really touch our heart while looking the photo above.
This powerful quote really make us to contemplate more:
“When a person is eaten by an animal it’s a murder but when people eat animals it mean nothing? It’s hypocrisy at its finest.”
On what Rinpoche has posted on this blog is about animals, their feelings,plight,sufferings etc.,etc……which makes anyone thinks of compassion. Real compassion is said to come from seeing the sufferings of others; you feel a sense of responsibility and wants to do something for them. Compassion as shown by Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of compassion in Tibetan “iconography as having a thousand eyes that see the pain in all corners of the Universe and a thousand arms to reach out to all corners of the Universe to extend his help.” For us as taught, to arouse compassion for a suffering being who is in pain, is to imagine one of your dearest “someone” that you really love in that your help is inspired more naturally and that you can direct it more easily and compassionately! If we continue to meditate our compassion on anyone’s sufferings be it human or otherwise, our first response will thus not become mere pity, but true compassion, and will open up our heart to him, her or it with more insight to help. As H.H. The Dalai Lama has said, “I believe that in every level of society, the key to a happier and more successful world is the growth of Compassion. We do not need to become religious, nor do we need to believe in an ideology. All that is necessary is for each of us to develop our good HUMAN QUALITIES”. Om mani padme hung.
Such beautiful friendship.
The bond between such a ferocious animal and her rescuer really spells GRATITUDE and LOVE in capital letters!
This is really beautiful. The kind of love that the lioness has showed for her rescuer really means a million words.
The kind of genuine love and gratefulness that she has towards him is really pure. I believe that this cannot be found within human beings as we are constantly trying to cover our true emotions, showing the people around us another type of emotion that we may not even be experiencing.
Through this it shows very clearly that animals do have emotions as well and they would remember things that are being displayed to them. It we hurt them, they would remember and attack us in the future. But, if we display love and care for them, they would always remember and show gratitude in the future.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this beautiful video with us.
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing. It is so amazing that Lion can also have gratitude and feeling like human. We should treat them well as they have feeling, pain and wish to be free, safe and loved, just like us.
Thank you Rinpoche for continuously blogging about animals and to spread the need for kindness towards animals.
I am grateful and really appreciate this article. One of my great learnings to become a better person and Buddhist.
This is so beautiful! It’s a gentle reminder of what can happen if we give. Thank you for sharing this with us.
I remember reading somewhere that the behavioural patterns of a lion are extremely similar to domestic cats. The video shows this to be true. The video also shows that man and animal can live in mutual harmony where no one kills the other (altho in the event the lion would be hungry and the man doesn’t protect himself, it is very likely the man will die).
I really like this quote from above: “We shouldn’t rob someone just because someone else robs people. That is all the more reason we should not rob people seeing the pain it gives. ” This quote represents a lot of things in many issues whether it is vegetarianism, racism, sexism, feminism. We shouldn’t hurt others just because they have hurt others. If we care for them, wouldn’t they understand love and care for others?
Anyway, thank you so much for sharing this video and article, Rinpoche it was interesting and eye opening.
It’s a very touching and genuine relationship they have here, things like this do not just happen on everyone, I consider these people very lucky perhaps, because I’m dying to have such a special bond with the animals, I envy it very much. People often say that, why can’t we kill them or eat them while they are doing the same thing to us. Well I think that the answer is pretty obvious, we have a very intelligent human brain that allows us to think and contemplate, and I agreed to what Rinpoche has written above: you don’t rob someone because someone else did. We are given brains to contemplate on things we do in our daily lives, to differenciate what is the right thing to do and what is not. So when we know killing them and eating them is also consider killing, then we don’t do it because its very true that our body does not need this particular type of vitamin or protein in them, we can obtain it from vegetables as well. People must stop practising this “double standard” thinking/attitude, when they hurt us unintentionally, it doesn’t mean we have to hurt them back. Just like when someone accidentally hit your car, it doesn’t mean you have to hit his back right? Its not making any sense, just because they are animals, just because they cant talk, just because sometimes they don’t fight back, it doesn’t mean that they don’t feel pain or anger, they do! But they often chose to let it go, but humans will always be humans, we’ll not stop until the other party pays the price.Then what’s the difference between us and the “animals” people often refer to?
Dear Rinpoche, I’ve been trying to convince my friends to become vegetarians. But none of them are interested in it and not just that. I hate it the most when I’m trying to convince my friends, they would always say that we need meat to be healthy, we have to eat meat to be more energetic. We need to eat meat so that we don’t get easily sick and etc. I really don’t like it, I’m trying to convince my friends to become vegetarians in one hand and on the other hand, they are trying to tell to stop being a vegetarian and we will always end up arguing with each other. I really need a way to turn them into vegetarians.
Okay back to the topic. I really love how they can get in touch with the lion passionately with the lion becoming aggressive at them. Because the lion is still carnivorous, so I’m afraid that one day if the lion gets hungry it might try to prey on them. But If I have my own lion, I would trained it to eat dog food so that they will not harm any living beings exactly like how the Thailand monks trained their tigers.
This is such a beautiful relationship between animals and people, i love this because it reminds me that animals are living creatures and have feelings and can express them in many different ways like love for another being. This story is an example that we are not their superior and that we can be friends and family to each other instead of looking at them like “animals” as if it was an insult because they cannot speak to say differently.
I love animals and I would love to have a lion for a friend, it would be so cool to have a cat that is super-sized even though I am a dog person but that doesn’t mean that I am not an animal person too! Just because it is a lion and it is special to have a lion friend, you can have a relationship like that too with a dog or cat, even a hamster it doesn’t matter. What I am trying to say is that it doesn’t have to be a lion for it to be special because all animals can express emotion too.
I love how the lion appreciated the rescuer so much like a father because that is so cool and I have seen many videos of lion-human friendships and they have always interested me because it shows that animals do their part in their kingdom for their needs but that fierce lion outside is just clouding what could be a cute kitten on the inside. And of course it was very cute.
Soooo sweet…
When we give without agenda, this is what will happen 🙂
I wish I can cuddle those big cats myself. So adorable and tame. Animals are friends too if we only know how to treat them.
This is just simply amazing and proves to us more and more that animals have feelings, they can remember and are intelligent enough to know what is love, kindness and compassion. So if they can know this, then they will also definitely know pain and suffering, hence don’t they have just as much right to live a happy life as much as we humans do? Why then must we hunt, demand and ignore these beings who doesn’t speak our language? They can’t communicate with us, but they still can show us when they are happy, sad, or scared… yet we still choose to ignore them. Some even claim it is their God given right to eat meat since Jesus went out fishing twice. So education of how these animals are also sensitive beings with feelings could help open up or wake us up to take note and perhaps re-evaluate our carnivorous lifestyle. Definitely will keep on sharing such touching stories.
謝謝仁波切分享。在這影片中體现出美好的見證，愛是沒有界限的，動物和人之間的美好關係。這也表明動物有感情的，都拥有感受的能力及感恩之心，停止伤害、殴打、杀害和食用它们吧！
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing on this wonderful story. The love and kindness shown by the lioness towards her rescuers is so warm and sincere. This lioness’ loving bond with Gruener and Mikkel Legarth is very pure until both of these gentlemen become part of her life. I am feeling very happy to see both animal and human can stay close together with much love and care.
Its really beautiful! The relationship between the cat and her rescuer is something out of this world! It is very wrong to think that animals do not have any feelings or memories.
The cat knew and remembered the kindness that was showered upon her from the time she was rescued. Even after she is an adult, she still jump on her rescuer for hugs and kisses.
All beings are beautiful, although we may not be able to hug and kiss them like above but that doesnt mean we should hurt them in any way.
Thank you Rinpoche for such a beautiful post, as always.
Incredible relationship between Sirga and Grueber and Legarth.
It’s really touching and this 110 lioness is so affectionate. She can remember kindness and can feel love too. If we show care and sincerity they will able to tame down and how can we hurt them brutally and just for our pleasure?
The want to live just like anyone of and if we can’t take care of them but very minimal we should not harm them.
I like the say below very much:
“When a person is eaten by an animal it’s a murder but when people eat animals it mean nothing? It’s hypocrisy at its finest.”
My heart was deeply touched by this beautiful and incredible bond between the lioness and her two rescuers.
Human beings can learn a lot from animals.Thank you Rinpoche, for sharing this amazing story.
It’s really touching! This shows that animals have feeling and they are gratitude to love and care. There are articles show that animals rescue and take care of other animal species too. We should co-exist on Earth.
There must be a lot of trust between Sirga and Gruener and Legarth to interact without suspicion and fear of each other, after all Sirga is a lioness kept in captivity. But this shows animals know and can sense loving kindness.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this wonderful video so heart warming after watching the video. Animals do feel love and care even a lion so how can we human so cruel to eat them hurt them ang abuse them I think us very wrong I hope whoever read this article please do consider to become a vegetarian .
Really touching, the lion just like a small cat and hug the young man. How strong the trust and faith among them. Only true care and kindness can melt the wild heart.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this beautiful testimony to a love that knows no boundaries.
So heartwarming indeed. As tame as a pet dog that has been trained and loved and cared for. So you give what you get. Give love and love will be given back to you.
It’s just so incredible, but real, that the 110 pound lionness, Sirga, could just hug and hold her rescuer, Valentin Gruener, in warm embrace, then sit on his lap! Incredibly lovely and heartwarming!
That made me go “Awwww….” Thank you for sharing this post of special friendship, love and gratitude.
A beautiful relationship between animals and man. A display of true love without boundaries and appreciation from within the heart. It also shows animals have feelings to love and to appreciate . Love this very much Rinpoche. Thank you for sharing.