Giving Dharma Names to Animals

Most people give their pet animals names they think are cute or sound cool or perhaps reflect the animals’ personality. As Buddhists, we are missing a huge opportunity if we do this and doing our animals a disservice. As Lama Zopa Rinpoche says:

“If you have a pet it is very good to give it a Dharma name rather than giving it a useless name that has no benefit for the animal. If you give your pet a Dharma name, such as names of the path to enlightenment (renunciation, bodhicitta, emptiness – they can be in English, Tibetan or Sanskrit) it leaves a positive imprint on the mind of the animal.”

Rinpoche explains by giving an example of his dog at Aptos:

“So we called the dog in Kachoe Dechen Ling ‘Om mani padme hung’. Each time she hears her name it plants the seed for the whole path to enlightenment, it leaves a positive imprint on her mind. Also, it creates the cause for her to understand all the 84,000 teachings of Buddha because they are contained in om mani padme hung: the two truths, the path of method and wisdom and the goal, dharmakaya and rupakaya. Each time we call her name it leaves a positive imprint for her to be able to hear the whole sutra and tantra, the complete extensive teachings of Buddha. This is incredible; definitely each time she hears her name it brings her closer to enlightenment. This is such an easy way to benefit animals and to bring them closer to enlightenment so we must do it, we must attempt every single way to benefit them. We must do it for others, to quickly liberate them from samsara, which is only in the nature of suffering and which has no beginning, which is continuous.

Understanding the incredible benefits just of naming your pets, it is very silly and foolish if you don’t do even this. It’s such an easy way to benefit them, even if you don’t do bigger things like building a stupa to benefit the sentient beings living with you. What you can easily do is take them around holy objects, chant mantras, read lam rim prayers that contain the whole path, the Heart Sutra, Diamond Cutter Sutra, Sutra of Golden Light, Arya Sangatasutra, and chant powerful mantras as much as possible. There are so many practices you can recite next to them as well as many other things you can do, but if you can’t do these then an easy one is giving them a Dharma name that will benefit them very much.

During Choden Rinpoche’s teachings at Vajrapani a few years ago Rinpoche said that Lama Atisha called animals ‘sangpo’, which means “good-hearted.” Probably he is not saying: I am good-hearted, but as Lama Atisha has bodhichitta maybe he is saying that his bodhichitta came from them. Lama Atisha gave teachings to numberless sentient beings, liberating them from the oceans of samsaric suffering and bringing them to enlightenment. As all this was received from these animals, from their kind heart, the reason Lama Atisha calls them sangpo is that he is naming the result on the cause. Sometimes he may have called them triche, which means “kind one.” This is maybe to benefit one’s own mind, referring to all animals as “kind one”, remembering how all one’s happiness comes from them”. ^[5]

Suggested Dharma Names

Below are some examples of beneficial names you can give your pets (or children!). We have listed only single word names rather than double as single words are easier when calling for your pet. But you can combine some of the words as Tibetans do, for example: Samten Chodron (female) means ‘Truth Light of Meditation’ or Jinpa Phuntsok (male) means ‘Generous One Full of Qualities’.