Great karma is waiting for one Buddhist monk who spent years rescuing homeless dogs in Shanghai, China. He brings all the stray dogs he finds to his monastery, where he gives them a place to live in peace and comfort or find them a new home.

Zhi Xiang has rescued more than 8,000 stray pups from the streets of China’s megacity and has cared for them since 1994. The highest goal in Buddhism is to reach the 4th stage of consciousness, whereby all the trappings of reality fall away, realizing life is merely an illusion. This translates to the “consciousness” of death, where a Buddhist monk strips away his life to reach the 4th stage.

However, many of the holiest monks, known as the Bodhisattvas, tend to stay away from this path. Instead, like 51-year-old Xiang, he chooses to remain in the mortal world to help others, even animals.

With the aid of volunteers and his Bao’en Temple followers, Xiang cares for hundreds of homeless dogs and cats. This endeavor costs nearly $2.5 million every year in supplies and labor costs, but Xiang is determined to continue his calling. He tries to get as many of the stray cats and dogs into forever homes overseas with the help of social media to reach out to possible forever families.

So far, Xiang has successfully sent 300 dogs to Canada, Germany, and the United States to their new loving families. Though not a trained vet, Xiang loves to care for the animals that he saves. According to Xiang, he has a dream that one day, when he has free time, he will go abroad to visit all the dogs that he has rescued and take pictures with them so that when he can no longer walk due to old age, he will still have the pictures to look at.

Source AFP News Agency via Twitter

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