Pets blessed at Buddhist festival

Singapore's Thekchen Choling temple has thrown open its doors to pets in honour of the holy day of Vesak, a festival of great significance in the Buddhist faith. It commemorates Buddha's birth, enlightenment and his passing.

According to the temple's spiritual director, Singha Rinproche, welcoming the animals and having them blessed is a reflection of Buddha's compassion for all Earth's creatures.

Singha Rinpoche: "I want to stress the importance of actual love for all beings to be equal, whether they are animals or whether they are human beings. you know Buddha taught equanimity, and then we should really try to love and respect all life in all forms. So the blessing is not just for humans, the blessing also for animals."

Since reincarnation, one of Buddhism's key tenets, relates to animals and people alike, one's pet might be reincarnated in human form. What's particularly valuable to Dennis Yee, owner of cat Blackie, is the concept of gaining 'merits' for positive behaviour.

Dennis Yee: "I am a Buddhist. So we always likes to accumulate merits for our current life and also for the future life. And also we, we, we see our animals as a family and also as - in our, in our animal realm. So we like to accumulate merit for, for my pets, so that in future he may be, he may be, become a human just like us and not be an animal."

Furry animals of the feline and canine variety weren't the only guests, with rabbits and guinea pigs also in attendance, alongside an assortment of crustaceans and reptiles. Eng Jui Goy, owner of Shelly the turtle, was positively bursting with pride.

Eng Jui Goy: "But when I first adopted her, she's a, a, a pet that was given up. She was very shy. It took us quite a while, for, for us to get close to her. And now that she has warm up to us, we feel that adopting to being blessed together with us in a Vesak Day even will bring all of us closer."

Devotees grabbed opportunities for photographic mementos with their beloved pets, with some going so far as creating pawprints to record the occasion, while worshippers also seized the chance to make candle offerings in the temple - light is symbolic of hope and offerings can be auspicious for a pet.

The priest highlights the gravity of Vesak for pet lovers.

Singha Rinpoche: "We pray to plant a seed of enlightenment for the pet. Because in - we believe that even a pet will become a Buddha one day."

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