Ven. Sogan Rinpoche's 2013 animal release
Below is a letter from Sogan Rinpoche written at the successful conclusion of the animal release and further details about the release
June 15, 2018
Through the kindness of altruistic, devoted, generous, and virtuous dharma friends, each year I’m able to save and free animals that are living in misery and close to the butcher’s knife.
This year, 2018, we raised more than 850,000 Nepalese Rupees (8070$). During the first half of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, the most auspicious time for Tibetan Buddhists, more than 850 chickens were bought from butchers, battery farms, and slaughterhouses throughout Kathmandu and saved from a premature and brutal death. They were released in a sanctuary owned by some Tibetan traders, which lies close to the sacred Buddhist site of Namo Buddha, just outside of Kathmandu, Nepal. Here they will be cared for and able to live out their natural lives without fear of untimely death.
I invite you all to rejoice in this genuinely virtuous act, and let us with one voice dedicate the accumulated merit to the continued activities and longevity of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, great teachers of all sects, and all sentient beings who have, at one time or another, been our kind parents. May there be peace in the world and may all enjoy long, healthy lives.
In conclusion:
From the highest peaks of the upper worlds
To the deepest pit of the infernal realms
There is not one being who does not hanker after happiness,
And wish to escape pain and death.
This is obvious, yet still many rush to kill their fellow beings
And devour their warm flesh.
How is this possible?
Alas! Will there ever be a time in this human realm of ours
When helpless animals will be free of being desired only for flesh and skin?
I pray this day will arrive soon!
May the supreme thought of awakening, bodhicitta, arise in the hearts of all beings.
May all be free from danger and fear and possessed of happiness,
Longevity, and well being.
Passing away in peace may we all progress toward true liberation.
Sogan Rinpoche, 2018/6/15