A special vegetarian temple kitty.

[remm]

In South Korea, there is a very special cat that only eats vegetarian food and gazes at the Buddha's images all day. The only time it gets up is to go eat its vegetarian meal and then come back and assume the same prayer posture with its paws together and gaze at the images of the Buddhas & Bodhisattvas. It even cries as if it knows in the past it has done wrong and repents through the entire day. Please have a look.

Yesterday there was a story in the papers about a special temple cat in South Korea, which spend hours everyday gazing and praying to the Buddha. This cat was found as a kitten 4 yrs ago by the abbot with burn injuries. The abbot saved it and gave it the Dharma name of "Liberation". She also gave the kitten 3 precepts for staying in the monastery, which was to 1) refrain from making noise in the Vihara, 2) refrain from eating meat and 3) refrain from killing. Amazingly the kitten could understand her instructions and have never broken them for the past 4 years.

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In addition to that, the cat spends hours everyday in the Vihara "venerating" the Buddha images, reluctantly leaving only for its meals. This display of devotion by the little animal puts even the humans to shame. Clearly, this cat was a Dharma practitioner in its past life, but due to thoughts of delusion in its final moments, its consciousness descended into an animal womb during the process of rebirth. It has a good store of worldly merit, but has not developed any insight leading to the end of suffering. This is how the cat managed to find its way back to a sanctuary of Buddhism and gets well taken care of by the nuns in the monastery. I believe it prays everyday in repentance for its past delusion, hoping to leave this animal form soon and achieve a higher realm of existence. This is a warning for us all, not to care only about making merit and neglect cultivating the mind to develop insight. Without true wisdom penetrating into the nature of sankharas (mental formations), all the merit in the universe cannot save us from suffering in the endless rounds of rebirth. May this cat live up to the name given to it and may its wish be fulfilled, sadhu.

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[Huseng]

That cat is more devoted than most human Buddhists...

That the cat refrains from meat and humbly receives rice from the bowl of a nun also speaks greatly about its character.

No killing too. It sits there in prayer facing the Buddha statues everyday.

I'm honestly amazed by this.

This is another bit that demonstrates just how real rebirth is. That a cat would behave like this in a monastery is unheard of.

All the best for the cat.

[ronnewmexico]

Well I hope they are serving the cat special designer vegetarian food available only in high end supermarkets, as cats, not like dogs, require a protein normally found only in meat to be healthy.

Imagine the cat too weak due to protein deficiency to do anything else than what it does.

Some think rebirth in a four legged kind of animal such as cats and dogs are result of suicide as choice of death, as a aside.

[kirtu]

Well I hope they are serving the cat special designer vegetarian food available only in high end supermarkets, as cats, not like dogs, require a protein normally found only in meat to be healthy.

This is true. The cat's behavior is very meritorious but actually cat's need to eat meat.

Kirt

[Luke]

What a sweet cat! Buddhism aside, I'd just love to pet him/her!

I'd like to know the story of how the nuns got the cat. It looked like it was explained in the video, but I can't understand Korean.

I'm no cat expert, but the cat looks pretty fat. I'm sure the nuns can't resist always feeding him treats, but it's bad for the cat's health if he/she eats too much and gets too little exercise. Perhaps a bit of walking meditation is in order... or perhaps a Buddhist dog could compassionately chase this cat around periodically.

Also, they could set up a little mani wheel so the cat could spin it with his/her paw.

"Does a cat have Buddha-nature?"
"Meow!!"