After a day of seeing what horrible things humans are capable of doing to each other, we had the chance to visit a Buddhist Temple that serves as a tiger sanctuary.
There is a practice in Thailand of bringing wounded animals to monks to be cared for. The Abbot-Pra Achan Phusit (Chan), who is now a famous monk, took in an orphaned tiger cub that the villagers had found. Now there are 10 tigers at the Tiger Temple, and they are allowed to roam freely. We were taken one at a time into the area where the tigers were lounging around. The saffron robed monk sat in the middle of them and we could cuddle them for photos. He even put one of the tiger's head in my lap for me to pet him better. He was heavy! There were no fences in the area and the tigers seemed extremely content, but I was ecstatic!
Here's the monk's simple teaching:
May the loving kindness extended to all beings under the same sufferings bring peace and serenity to our world eternally.
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