Stories for pets
6 Buddhist wisdom stories for pets from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- A dog called ChemoStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A doctor friend in Melbourne has a big Labrador she named 'Chemo'. She was training it to visit hospital wards, because stroking a gentle animal helps very sick people recover —…
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there's one of my friends over in Melbourne, now that's Priya Mendes [?] and she’s got this big dog and it was Labrador wasn’t it, and when I saw it, I said “what's its name” and she gave it the name, she's a doctor, she gave it the name “Chemo”. Chemo the dog, that's a really weird name, why do you name it Chemo? She said “because I'm training this dog to be one of these dogs who goes into wards with people who are very, very sick, because we all know that if you take a little dog or a cat or a rabbit into a ward where people are very sick, just being able to pet that dog, to stroke it, have this beautiful soft animal in there, the compassion which a small animal or even a big animal generates amongst human beings has a very strong positive effect on people's recovery. They actually get better. Having a beautiful dog to play with in the ward, it makes you sort of, gets up all your, what's it called, the, not serotonin, all these endomorphines, all this beautiful health things in your body, you all know better than I do... but you know it really works. So that's why she called her dog Chemo because it was short for chemotherapy, that was a little joke, she's a good student of mine, has got a stupid sense of humor just like me. [laughter] So Chemo, Chemo the dog, and of course that dog went into so many wards in its life, healing people, helping people, that dog must have made huge amounts of good karma just by generating compassion in other beings.
- Milk for the vegan catStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Years ago, while vegetarian, Ajahn Brahm stays in a house whose owners are trying to make their cat vegan, feeding it soy milk. When they aren't looking, he slips the cat some…
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I had this when I was a vegetarian many years ago. I was staying in a house with a vegan cat. At least the owners tried to make get their cat to be vegan and they feed it soy milk. I was a vegetarian at the time. So when the owners weren't looking, I slipped the cat some milk. Oh, the cat really loved me for that. You know, some cow's milk instead of soy milk. That poor old cat.
- Sanctuary — the temple cat on the monk's lapStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Kitten brought into the meditation hall chooses an adopter; later another cat, seeing its owner arrive to collect it, jumps onto Brahm's lap as if claiming sanctuary.
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gave me this kitten and I brought it into this room here and when I was meditating I let it just go loose and it went on people's laps rubbed past them and the cat chose its new owner actually it was almost a fight because two or three people saw that little kid and said can I I have it please they got any more and they said no it's already chosen you and so they took it back and they adopted it especially Buddhists I must admit you're all such kind loving people so if a cat comes here they really enjoy themselves we do have a another cat who comes here I haven't seen it this weekend but it comes here and imagine a little cat it lives around the back here somewhere it's got an owner but the little cat comes and plays with you and never gets chased away and sometimes you get special food and that little kitten or cat it really likes we found I tried to give it some milk he didn't like the milk he really likes chicken and as soon as I say that people find find some chicken somewhere or other to feed the little kitten and so the kitten comes and if you're too busy to give it a nice stroke of a pat it goes to so many other people it gets patted so much much more than it will ever get patted in its own home that's why little kittens or cats they love this place even here I remember once there was another cat years ago used to come here every Saturday afternoon because Saturday after afternoon after the meditation it would actually play in a reception area here crawl all over people get stroked here stroked there get give him some special treats I remember that little cat because then one day know the secretary in there got a call and it was from the owner of the cat she said she was moving today is my cat there I said yeah it's here he playing with the monks I said well I'm moving today I've got to come and collect it and so I remember her coming in and walking into the reception area and the cat was actually just playing in front of me and as soon as the cat saw the owner to come and collect it you know what that cat did I'm not exaggerating it jumped right onto my lap you could read its little cat mind Sanctuary Sanctuary Sanctuary
- The cat that went to heavenStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: From a little book over 100 years old by a Western lady living in Japan (as he recalls): a destitute painter is commissioned to paint the Buddha's parinibbāna with the animals…
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that book about the cat that went to heaven book. It's one of my favorite little books and I did get the library to purchase a few of them but they all tend to disappear because it's inspiring books. All it is is a story. It's over 100 years old now that book. It says western lady living in Japan about this painter who was really destitute and there was a a competition to actually to do a painting of the Lord Buddha's uh paranana and all the animals who came to worship at the Buddha's feet just before he passed away. That was in the Japanese Buddhist tradition. And this painter got given the contract. It was just a wonderful thing for him. So every day he would meditate and then he would paint. First the Buddha and then an elephant and a horse and a lion. All these animals mentioned in the suitors. But there was also a little cat who would every day sit next to the painter. And every day the cat seemed to get more sad because the cat would never see himself in that painting. And when the pager had finished the very last animal in there, that little cat looked so incredibly sad. He looked at the cat and the cat looked at him. He said, "If I paint you in that painting, you will never be accepted. cat never visited the Buddha. But then he looked at the cat. Oh, what the heck? And he painted the cat in bed. And as soon as the housekeeper saw that he'd broken the tradition and put a cat, you know, in this picture, his housekeeper thought, "We're ruined. You spoiled it all those weeks." But anyway, it was finished. So one of the monks came from the temple, took one look at it. Very well done. What have you done putting a cat in this picture? So the monk said, "We will take it to the temple, but we'll burn it tomorrow morning. We can't use it. It's untraditional." And so the whole little family there. Oh, I should have mentioned as soon as soon as the cat saw its image, the very last um animal on the the line, the cat saw its image on the the painting. It got so happy its heart burst with joy. It died out of happiness, sheer bliss. So they lost the cat. But anyway, the following morning that the the priest and said, "Come to the temple now. You got to come now." When he went to the temple, a huge throng of people there, monks from all the temples in town were there who saw his painting and been burnt. and he saw where he painted the the cat. The cat had vanished. There's no cat at the end of the painting. He followed the line of animals in front of the elephant. The first animal there was the cat and the hand on top of the cat.
- The cats and the building sandStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Bodhinyana is covered in gravel, so the monastery's cats treat any pile of sand as a luxury loo, burying their business in it. The day before this talk, mixing mortar, Ajahn…
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I remember the cats in our monastery. We got a couple of cats, and where they like pooing is in sand because if you come to our monastery, the Bodhinyana monastery, down in Serpentine, you know, in there there's gravel. Imagine the cat trying to sort of dig a hole in there, in gravel, to sort of, to do its business. So if it finds any sands somewhere, of course, that's marvellous, that's like a luxury loo for a cat. So it digs under the sand, and does it its stuff and buries afterwards. And the next day when I was mixing cement with that sand, (laughter) you get all the cat poo. You have to take it out. That's happened yesterday. So... but you can't blame the cat. That's just cats being cats. So, yeah, it's suffering having to take out bits of cat poo from the sand before you make mortar. But, you can blame the cat, that just adds mental arrow of suffering, getting angry at somebody.
- Two monks argue about the fish tankStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Waiting for lunch: one monk says fish tanks are prisons; the other says tanks protect fish from hooks and alien-abduction fishing — same tank, opposite morals.
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two monks who were in somebody's house waiting for lunch and they were sitting in the room and they had a fish tank I know you may have a fish tank in your house and one of them Mark said that is crol what did the fish do to have to be put inside his prison in somebody's house you know it's bad to keep fish in a tank in your house just for your own amusement the fish should be free to swim in the lakes and the rivers to go where they wanted to it is bad to imprison fish in a tank in your house so be honest how many of you have got fish tanks in your house very good because the other monks said you don't understand he said it's good to put fish in a tank in your house why he said because imagine that you were a fish if you were swimming in the lakes and the rivers you know that people would be fishing for you trying to kill you and eat you and I often thought what it must be like being a fish in the rivers you swimming around riding your own business you see this nice juicy little worm and you wonder has it got a hook in it or is it a real worm because you've seen many of your friends know they see a worm they take it and suddenly they''re yanked out of your existence never to be seen again it's like being abducted by aliens