488kg of Fishes
This MMS was sent to me yesterday:
Dearest Rinpoche…
Fishes have all been released:
- 300 kg of catfish dedicated to Ladrang – requested by Rinpoche (this is for every Ladrang members long life, happiness and spiritual growth)
- 88kg dedicated to Kechara Care & Kechara House by Su Ming
- 100kg dedicated to Rinpoche’s long life and all sponsors and members supporting Rinpoche’s work by Nicholas
Much love,
Andrew
Yesterday, Nicholas Yu, Phng Wee Liang, James Long and Andrew Boon went to Kepong Metropolitan Park to release 488kg of catfishes! These catfishes are those that were meant to be sold at the markets the next day…so by buying them we stop the fishes from landing onto people’s plates.
It is good to release fishes. Whenever we have a bad habit, like always taking from others…to stop that habit we should do the opposite i.e. give continuously. In this case, it’s a bad habit/deed to take a living being’s life away for your personal consumption. So by releasing/freeing animals we can slowly cultivate compassion towards all beings.
The Chinese believe in the practice of releasing animals, especially during Chinese New Year. On the first day (which is on 3rd February!), the Chinese would usually release birds or fishes. They believe that it’s good to give animals a second chance to live, and hence they will have a year of good luck and prosperity.
Animal liberation is a good activity to participate in. In Kechara, animal liberation activities are conducted every month by Kechara Care. Many of the participants are families, where the parents want their kids to learn to care for all beings.
Our friends arranged 488kg fishes for us at the very very last minute! Nicholas thanked them by giving them ang pows, which are red packets filled with money. Part of the Chinese tradition during Chinese New year is to give ang pows to those younger than yourself, or to those that help you.
It was raining yesterday, but that didn’t stop them from releasing the fishes….apparently for the very first time the fishes were very active. Maybe they were happy to go back to the lake for Chinese New Year! Hehe
Tsem Rinpoche
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Wow, That’s a huge quantity of fish saved in a day. As we know it is a long tradition for believers to release fish to equalize the karma they received knowingly or unknowingly. The Art of giving away a small part of your earnings in exchange of lives of another living thing.
Thank you for the sharing, I do believe in this culture and customs and have started to practice to release fishes and frogs. Hope more will participate to learn to take care of all living beings.
https://bit.ly/39TCXSk
能为上师放生祝愿上师长寿是无比殊胜,希望大家多放生不管是为了上师也好为众生也好都是一个很好的动机。
Wow, these are a lot of fish! I wish i could have been there to help with the releasing of the fish. They are now in a better place and they can yet again be free and not waiting to be eaten, i feel so happy for them.
Wow 488Kg of fishes are released at Kepong Metropolitan Park! 488kg is about 10 times of my weight and can you imagine the weight. There must couple hundreds of fishes. Thank you Rinpoche for saving these fishes lives from ending up in people’s stomach. A lot of people think that animals don’t have sufferings because they can’t think like us. But that is a very wrong thinking, just because animals can’t think like us doesn’t meant that they can’t feel pain. I wish that one day every sentient beings can live in harmony and peace. Thank you for reading
I think I might start this tradition here since I live 4 houses away from Lake Ponchartrain, I can purchase the fishes and release into the beautiful huge lake.
I really want to sponsor the next fish release.
I love saving animal lives and having them live happily. Even if it is for one more day I can have them live happily, it is worth it…