Why release animals?
What are the merits of releasing animals?
Releasing animals is a donation of wealth, Dharma, and fearlessness. It is a combination of the three and has immeasurable merits. The biggest benefit of releasing animals is that it can help us avoid disasters and prolong our lives. However, if we encounter a major event and pray to Guanyin Bodhisattva for protection, it will be more effective if we release animals while reciting sutras. Releasing animals is not just about saving a fish. The most important thing is to cultivate our compassion. Everyone, regardless of gender, age, or whether they study Buddhism or recite sutras, should release animals for themselves and their families.
Released animals
It is best to choose animals that are easily eaten by humans, such as fish, shrimp, crabs, clams, etc. Other animals that are to be killed or eaten by humans can also be released. Chanting sutras is necessary when releasing animals. Releasing animals helps to eliminate disasters and prolong life, while chanting sutras helps to protect oneself. Doing both together will have the best effect.
Time of release
You can release animals all year round. In addition, it is very good to release animals on your birthday, at the end of the year, or on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month, or on the Buddha’s birthday. It is best to choose a sunny day when the Yang energy is the strongest and the effect is the best. Try to avoid releasing animals at night. You can also release animals on rainy days.
The consequences of killing
“Among all other sins, killing is the heaviest, and among all merits, not killing is the best.”
——Great Wisdom Treatise
The opposite of releasing life is killing life, and the consequences of killing life are very serious. When killing, animals will have a sense of resistance, and these consciousnesses will erode the aura of the person who kills, thus causing a bad influence. When we eat live seafood, although we did not kill it ourselves, it is indeed because of us that the animals died, so it is also killing karma. The killing karma that we modern people often create includes: abortion, eating live seafood, and fishing. Among them, abortion can easily lead to marital discord, obstetrics and gynecology diseases, and even infertility. Eating live seafood and killing a large number of small spirits can easily lead to skin diseases, blood diseases, rhinitis, asthma, joint pain, and insomnia. At the same time, heavy killing karma, such as hunting, running a farm, and multiple abortions, can lead to major physical diseases, career obstacles, infertility, retribution for children and grandchildren, reduced blessings and shortened life, etc. Therefore, while Buddhists abstain from killing and protect life, they should also eliminate the various killing karmas they have planted in the past by chanting sutras and releasing life.
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