Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Then everybody blesses the buckets of water by reciting different mantras, beginning with
OM MANI PADME HUM of course and many other different mantras, and then blowing
on the water. They then sprinkle it over all the animals and birds, or, with the sacks
containing the shellfish, they pour the water over them. That way the animals get a higher
rebirth, and possibly, hopefully, meet the Dharma. The third thing is to recite the mantras to
those beings who can hear, to plant the seed of enlightenment in their minds. So at least we
should try to do those three things to benefit them as much as possible.
I tell people who have cancer to dedicate and donate some money to those doing animal
liberation and sometimes it is able to cure that cancer. Cancer causes a shortening of life so
by liberating animals we are causing them to have a long life and that in turn causes us to
have a long life. By giving others a long life, we can have a long life. And it affects our life
for hundreds and thousands of future lifetimes.
This is how it is done in Singapore, not just buying and releasing them but trying to help
them as much as possible. We also do that in Hong Kong and from time to time in Taiwan.
Later I’m hoping we can do it in China and Malaysia as well.
I thought if we do that with animals, why not also save human beings? If the big earthquake
is going to happen, why not try to help the human beings there? I wanted to do something
before it happened because once it has happened so many people will have died. Places that
have been developed over hundreds of years at a cost of billions, zillions or trillions of
dollars can be destroyed in an hour by something like an earthquake.
A few years ago in Dharamsala I asked Khadro-la about preventing the Californian
earthquake and she predicted so quickly, like a waterfall, what stupas we needed to build,
how and where we should build them and so forth. I marked where she said on a map but
the map was very small. At first, the American Embassy in Delhi rejected her visa, even
when we tried a second time. She even had a letter from His Holiness’s Private Office but
they didn’t want to read it. They probably do this to other people as well.
Then she tried to go to Canada but they rejected her there as well. We spent about ten
thousand dollars in America applying many, many times to the government before she finally
got a visa.
When she flew to California and was landing in San Francisco, she felt this was the place to
build a stupa. She stayed at the Aptos house. One day, as we went across the Golden Gate
Bridge she saw that the nearer of the two mountains close to the bridge was the better
location for a stupa. So at the moment we are looking for the place to build it. One time,
when we were in a Zen restaurant, I thought maybe we could build it inside the restaurant so
many people could see it. One of the places is a government park called The Presidio.
Venerable Roger has appointed an ex-director of Tse Chen Ling, our San Francisco center,
to look for a suitable place.
After the place has been found, Khadro-la has to come to purify the land, to bless it before
building the stupa. Hopefully, this will prevent that huge earthquake and save hundreds of
thousands or even millions of people’s lives.
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