Question asked by Maxime
Dear Pastor, as a Dharma practitionner i never eat meat.
Also around my house a cat is wandering and starving for food. So by compassion, I served this cat some cat food (ready-to-eat dish) from supermaket with meat in it, and afterwise fell very guilty and sorry for the sentient beings (beef chicken salmon) that were killed in order to make this Friskies cat food.
I mean they were not especially killed for this but I do care so much about other sentient beings lifes, but the cat was starving. Now this cat comes back every day and i fed and petted him.
Did I broke a samaya ?
Should I continue to feed this cat ? What should I do now ? i'm a bit confused…
Thank you for your answer.
Dear Maxime,
You have asked a very good question. First, let me thank you for practicing compassion, first to the cat who needed your help and then for feeling sorry for the sentient beings that died to make the cat food.
In regards to samaya, there is nothing to worry about. You have not broken anything. You would only have broken samaya if you have taken a vow to be vegetarian and then ate meat yourself. If you would like to take the Vegetarian Vow, you can email Care@Kechara.com and ask to arrange one of the Pastors to give you the vow. This doesn’t have to be done in person, it can also be done online. This is depending on how serious you are in regards to being vegetarian.
In regards to the cat, unfortunately the rebirth it has taken means that it needs to eat meat. Cats are a type of animal that cannot survive on a vegetarian diet, they can get quite ill and even die if they don’t eat meat, due to how their bodies function. So, by feeding the cat, you really helped it. It was an act of compassion. If the cat keeps coming back and is in a similar state, it compassionate to continue.
Unfortunately, the food contains meat. There are some things that can you do. The first is to recite mantras and blow on the food before giving it to the cat. Through the power of the mantras, the mindstreams of the animals that died to make the food are blessed. Wherever they have taken rebirth, the Buddhas will bless them. Second, when the cat approaches you, you should recite mantras and blow on the cat to bless it also. The mantra should be recited out loud, so the cat can hear it. But gently.
Tsem Rinpoche used to bless animals like this all the time. There were three common mantras Rinpoche used for this. I have provided them below:
Medicine Buddha Mantra:
TAYATHA OM BEKANZE BEKANZE MAHA BEKANZE BEKANZE RANDZA SAMUGATHE SOHA
Manjushri Mantra:
OM AH RA BA TSA NA DHI
Dorje Shugden Mantra:
OM BENZA WIKI BITANA SOHA
Either of these will be very good. I hope this helps.