Why should we advocate release?

The code name of "Shi" originated from Mahayana Buddhist Sutra, which is popular in China, Tibet, Japan, neighboring Korea and Vietnam. Release activities are based on the spirit of compassion and the concept of cause and effect of reincarnation. The so-called "eat half a catty and return eight Liang"; If you can stop killing and release, of course, your merits will double. These examples are all effective. Never forget a book.

For example, 1974, after Vietnam fell to the property regime of * * *, waves of refugees went into exile, and they were both lucky and unfortunate. Some did not escape from Vietnam and were arrested again; Some drifted at sea and were buried in the belly of fish; Although some people fled Vietnam, they had no shelter and were even repatriated. However, according to the experience of refugees who have successfully fled, if they cannot achieve the goal of fleeing Vietnam, they can ask foreign relatives or refugees to buy birds or fish themselves and then release them. It only takes one or two times to get the result. Have a good trip.

In the fourth volume of Zabao Jing, it is recorded that a novice monk's master saw that his life would end in seven days and asked him to return to the laity and come back after seven days, but he did not explain why. On his way home, he saw a gap in the pond, water poured into the ant nest by the pond, and the ants fled in panic. But can ants escape as fast as a pond without a dike? Seeing that countless ants were about to drown, Misha wrapped the soil in cassock, blocked the gap in the pond and saved all the ants. After seven days, the novice monk got bored with the laity and returned to the master. When the master saw it, he was surprised and asked him what had happened these days. Shami thought that Master said that he had broken the precepts and done something bad, and he was very scared. He replied that he had done nothing. Master is an arhat, that is, observing with his eyes, he knows that he has done a small good deed, that is, saved the flooded ants. Later, the novice monk changed his life and lived a long life.

Buddhists are most familiar with two scriptures. One is the Brahma Sutra of the Bodhisattva, in which it is mentioned: "If the Buddha leaves his profession with compassion, the men will be my father and the women will be my mother, and I will be born from this. So all six sentient beings are my parents, and the people who killed me killed my parents and killed me. All the earth and water are my predecessors, and all the fire and wind are my noumenon, so I often release them and live again. If the world sees animals killed, it should be convenient to rescue them, solve their suffering, educate them regularly and talk about the precepts of Bodhisattva, so as to save all sentient beings. 」

Another book, The Son of the Running Old Man, the fourth volume of the Golden Classic, also mentioned a record about the Buddha's path to Bodhisattva: At that time, the name of the Buddha was the running old man. One day, he passed a big pond, which was dry every day. Moreover, some people blocked the water source for fishing at the cliff upstream, resulting in a rapid drop in the water level in the pond. Seeing that thousands of fish were dying, the eldest son could not break the dam to draw water from its upstream, so in order to save the fish, he had to ask the king at that time to send 20 elephants to the pool for water in leather bags until the water in the pool was satisfied and food was fed, and the fish were saved.

Brahma Sutra is the theoretical basis for releasing turtles, and Jinguangming Sutra is the basis for setting up release ponds. Other Mahayana scriptures, such as the third volume of Six Degrees Collection, recorded the release of turtles, while the ninth volume of Genjyo Sanzo's The Tale of the Western Regions of Datang also told the story of the Wild Goose Pagoda. For example, it is said that there is a Hinayana temple in Mugatuo, India, where there are several Hinayana monks. They couldn't help eating three kinds of clean meat. The so-called Sanjing meat refers to the meat that is not killed for oneself, is not killed for oneself, and is not suspected of being killed for oneself. One day, a monk didn't get any meat. Just as a flock of geese were flying over the sky, he prayed to the geese and said, "Today, the demand for monks is in short supply. You have to know the time, Buddha. " "Goose automatically fell to the ground and died. Monks didn't believe in Mahayana or that geese were bodhisattvas, so they teased Mahayana with jokes. I didn't expect a flock of geese to be influenced by bodhisattva. Hinayana monks shamefully told each other, "This is a bodhisattva. Who dares to eat? From now on, we should rely on Mahayana and not eat Sanjin meat. "Build a tower camp to bury these geese.

It can be seen that liberation comes from abstaining from killing, and it can also be said that the further abstinence from killing is bound to be liberation. Abstaining from killing is only to stop evil, it is a negative good deed, and releasing is a positive good deed; It is not the spirit of Mahayana Buddhism to stop evil without doing good. Therefore, in China, starting from Liang Xiao in the Northern Qi Dynasty, it was advocated not to kill the meat; And since then, the culture of releasing animals has gradually spread. From the imperial court to the people, from monks to laymen, vegetarianism is the most important thing. In order to show benevolent governance, successive governments regularly prohibit slaughter for several days every year; From the central government to the local government, or in order to pray for rain and eliminate disasters, there are also acts of releasing animals and prohibiting slaughter. For example, Liang Wudi once banned the slaughter of life to worship ancestral temples; During Liang's visit, he gathered monks, set himself on fire, traveled around the world, and redeemed his life with the proceeds of begging. Master Zhikai from Sui Tiantai initiated the construction of a releasing pond, taught the released fish the Golden Classic and Hokkekyo, and bought various foods to feed the fish and turtles. Chen Shi, Xu Xiaoke wrote an inscription for the release of Zen master Zhikai in Tiantai Mountain, which set a record for the release pool and release meeting in China. Since then, from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, it has been popular. As written by Yan Zhenqing in Tang Suzong's "The Secretariat of History", the inscription of Shi Chi has a sequence in the world. The two masters of the Song Dynasty, Zunshi and Zhi Li, also strongly advocated the release.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, master lianchi Yun Qi Zhu Hong was the most active advocate of release among the eminent monks in the past dynasties. Among his essays on bamboo windows, there are articles such as Tathagata can't save karma, carnivores and vegetarianism. There are articles such as "clothes and silks eat meat", "stop killing and prolong life", "release the pool", "stop killing by medicine" and "eat meat because of illness" in the two strokes of bamboo window. There are also some articles in "Three strokes on a bamboo window", such as "Killing is a great evil", "Killing is inhuman" and "People should not eat the flesh of all beings", which encourages people to abstain from killing and set free. In addition to the plain words, he also wrote "release instrument" and "release without killing" so that people can follow the rituals used when releasing. Among modern people, there are six volumes of Master Hongyi's books and a book on nursing students painted by Feng Zikai. Cai Nian, another layman, advocated banning killing and releasing people all his life. He compiled the stories about animal spirituality and induction in the past dynasties into a book called "Things are human beings".

However, with the development of science and technology in modern society, the population density is expanding and the living space is shrinking, so it is quite difficult to find an absolutely safe and reliable release pool and release area. The difficulty is not only the net catching, shooting and salvage of fishing and hunting, but also the limitation of natural environment. For example, in today's Taiwan Province Province and the United States, there are only wildlife reserves. In addition, from the standpoint of caring for or protecting the natural environment, some people advise the public not to catch and kill indiscriminately, so as not to destroy the natural harmony between creatures, and also to save the endangered crisis of rare animals, which is different from the original intention of Buddhism. If only the creatures to be released are exiled to natural landscape animal reserves indefinitely, and when they are saturated, some people will adjust their living space by controlling reproduction and appropriate killing.

So, where shall we put them? If it's a fish, some people catch it with hooks and nets; If it is a bird, someone shoots it with a gun and catches it with a net. In addition, today's fish markets and bird shops rarely sell wild goods, mostly from artificially propagated fish ponds and bird gardens. Those animals simply don't have the ability to adapt to the natural environment and survive on their own. If they are released, they will kill people. Put the small ones and be eaten by the big ones; If you zoom in, it will enter the kitchen range of the restaurant. Moreover, birds, especially fish, have their living habits. Some fish must live in a certain water quality, depth and current environment; Buying freshwater fish to put in the sea and buying marine fish to put in fresh water are big problems. If birds are kept in aviaries, they may not even know about grass, trees, fruits and so on. It can also be used as food in bushes and Woods; If you put it in vilen, you will either starve to death or be killed by other animals or birds. Do we still need to release them in this case? Should I still play it?

This is indeed a very unfortunate fact. The restriction of natural environment makes it more and more difficult to fly. But the essence of release lies in the concept of release at present, such as the hope that released creatures can prolong their life; As for how long it can be extended? We must do our duty of research, consideration and care. For example, to release birds, we must first consider what birds to release, where to release them, and when to release them, which is safer and more effective; When releasing fish, turtles and aquatic animals, we should first study and observe their ecology, habits and sources, and then choose the most suitable time and put them in the safest and most suitable place. If 100% is not reliable, 50% is not bad. Even if you release them today and catch them tomorrow, there is nothing you can do.

Our purpose is to inspire the compassion of the released and the liberation of all beings. As for the released sentient beings, they also have their own cause and effect. If, when released, you don't deliberately fall into the net and suffer a knife wound, show it to the released sentient beings and say three conversions and Buddhism for them; If they want to return, they can also be reincarnated as human beings, ascend to heaven, go to the pure land, develop bodhicitta, and spread all beings, and become Buddhists and Taoists as soon as possible. We just want to do our best, do our best.