Executive Summary: Karma of Animal Cruelty (Cockfighting and Fishing)
A case study from the Dream in Dream Kindergarten emphasizing the agonizing consequences of torturing animals for sport or entertainment. Even if the primary intent isn’t to kill, the resulting karma is severe enough to bring immense physical pain and disease to the perpetrator.
1. Entertainment Built on Agony
In a past life, this man was deeply addicted to cockfighting. He frequently forced roosters to fight until they were severely bloodied, blinded, or crippled. Additionally, on weekends, he enjoyed fishing for sport, piercing the mouths of fish with hooks and watching them thrash in agony. Deriving pleasure from the prolonged suffering of animals forged a deep karmic debt waiting to be repaid.
2. The Retribution of Karma
- Severe Illness and Physical Pain: Towards the end of his current life, the residual karma of fishing manifested as aggressive oral cancer. He suffered from severe mouth ulcers, experiencing a constant, agonizing pain as if a fishing hook were tearing his mouth apart. Meanwhile, the karma from cockfighting caused severe joint pain and paralysis, leaving him bedridden and suffering for years.
- Minor Hells (Ussada Naraka): Upon death, his inner body was sucked into the minor hells. Hell wardens with the heads of roosters used razor-sharp spurs to stab his body, blinding and crippling him. He was then dragged to the netherworld, where massive, red-hot iron hooks were pierced through his mouth, suspending him upside down.
- Rebirth in the Animal Realm: After eventually escaping hell, he is destined to be reborn as a rooster, forced to fight in the ring, and later as a fish, repeatedly caught and tortured by anglers. He will suffer this cycle until the karmic debt is fully exhausted.
3. Spiritual Solutions
Luang Por Dhammajayo teaches that harming animals for entertainment—whether cockfighting, fish fighting, or recreational fishing—creates endless cycles of vengeance and suffering. Anyone who has engaged in these activities must stop immediately. They must actively release animals (like fish and cattle) to grant them life, strictly observe the 5 precepts, and constantly radiate loving-kindness, dedicating all merit to the animals they tortured to ask for forgiveness (Ahosi Kamma) and mitigate the heavy karmic effects.
