My most dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
Thank you for your kind letter. You should do the Medicine Buddha retreat to purify your own negative karma and obscurations collected from beginningless rebirths, and not only that, but also for all the six realm sentient beings and in particular for all the animals in the animal realms. That includes any animals that have been killed or have died with you.

There is a text for the Medicine Buddha retreat, complete with a fire puja at the end. If you have received the great initiation of Medicine Buddha—not just the short blessing—you can do that. If you have not received the initiation, then you have to wait until you can receive it, or if you are able to, you can come to a place where I will do the Medicine Buddha great initiation. I am doing it soon in Malaysia, but I am not sure if you can go. If you are unable to come, then you can wait until I give it another time.

You can still recite the Medicine Buddha mantra now, to purify all the sentient beings’ negative karma and obscurations—particularly all those in the animal realm and any animal that has died with you—and also to purify your own negative karma.

Visualize the Medicine Buddha as a real, actual living Medicine Buddha, not just as a painting or statue, if that is what you are looking at. Visualize beams emitting like the sun shining to all the six realm sentient beings—especially to any animals that have died with you and also to yourself—purifying all the negative karma and obscurations collected since beginningless rebirth. Think that all those animals that died have purified all their negative karma and defilements, then recite the mantra.

As well as the short mantra, if you can, recite the long Medicine Buddha mantra. This is in the extensive Medicine Buddha puja called Wish-granting Sovereign. If you can, recite the longest mantra 100,000 times, sending light rays like the sun shining, as I explained above.

This is the longest mantra:

TADYATHA GHU ME GHU ME / I MI NI MI HI MA TI MA TI SAPTA TATHAGATA SA MA DHYA DHIGHITE / AH TE MA TE / PA LE PA PA SHODHANI / SARVA PAPAM NA SHA YA MA MA BUDDHA BUDDHOTTAME / U ME KU ME / BUDDHA KSHETRA PA SHODHANI DHA ME NI DHA ME / ME RU ME RU ME RU SHI GHARE / SARVVA AH KA LA MRITU / NI PARANI / BUDDHE SU BUDDHE BUDDHA ADHIKHTHANA / RAKHANTU ME / SARVVA DE WA SA ME AH SA ME SAMANTA HARANTU / SARVVA BUDDHA BODHISATTVA / SHAME SHAME PRASHAMANTU ME / SARVVA ITU PA DRA PRA BA DYA TA YA / PURANE PURANE PURAYAME / SARVA ASHAYA / BAIDURYA PRATI / BHA SE SARVVA PA PAKHA YADA RE SVAHA

Also, from time to time you can do the short Medicine Buddha puja, called The Wish-fulfilling Jewel, for the same reason.

Maybe you don’t know that Medicine Buddha is extremely powerful for success and even for you to achieve enlightenment, to be able to free the numberless sentient beings from the oceans of samsaric sufferings and bring them to enlightenment as quickly as possible. For that you need to be enlightened, therefore you need all the success for this purpose and then no question, you will achieve happiness and success in the next lives, and in this life it comes by the way.

I have some things to suggest to you on how to help the animals ultimately. [See Compassion Brings Us Closer to Enlightenment for these suggestions and further advice.]

Some people take care of animals because they are attached to one type of animal. It’s not that they have compassion for all animals, it’s not that; they just have a lot of attachment to one particular type. Then because of that attachment they help those animals with something which is needed, like giving food to help them and so forth. However, the most important thing is to take care of them with compassion, loving kindness and unconditional love, not with attachment. I hope you are doing that and if so, in that case, I appreciate it very much.

So I am representing all those animals and thanking you for taking care of us.

You have to take care of them according to how they need to be taken care of; sometimes people don’t know how to take care of them. For example, in the West to keep the dog small, so it won’t grow too big, some people give food only one time each day. Of course the dog gets used to it, but I don’t think it’s right. This is what people like to do, but it’s not comfortable for the dog, it’s not what the dog needs. In my view, at least give them food twice a day. I didn’t think it was right when I heard that dogs are not fed in order to keep their size small. Then it is like it’s forced; it’s not for the dog’s comfort.

Some people love to take care of a certain type of animal, and they have some kind of attachment to that type of animal. This means when they take care of those animals, it is from their own attachment, to fulfill their desire, attachment. This means they are actually working for themselves and the main aim is not the happiness of the animal.

Also, for instance, in some parts of the world, once they have a daughter, parents very much want their daughter to get married as quickly as possible, and they don’t even check the husband. They don’t know all the unbelievable suffering their daughter might have to go through after the marriage—so much suffering, having to suffer, not free, unbelievable, unbelievable suffering. The children also have unbelievable suffering. They don’t think about that; they just hurry up and make sure their daughter gets married, so that they can have grandchildren. That makes the parents happy, when their daughter is married and has a child. It makes the parents very happy. That is their main motivation, just for their own happiness, so that they will have grandchildren in their life. Then they can always talk about them, so it’s for their happiness, not for the happiness of their daughter. It is what the parents want, so it’s like that.

I did make prayers for all your animals, especially the ones who died.

Thank you very much.

With much love and prayers ...