Maitreya Teachings

Animals and Karma

I am often asked, "Master, do animals have souls and do they incur karma?" This is indeed so. Every living thing has a soul, from the tree in the park, to the dog in the kennel. Of course, their souls are not as advanced as those of humans, but nevertheless, they have a soul. For each action, there is a reaction. With the tree, there can be little karma for a tree is immobile and cannot move. The patterns of its cycles through the years usually stay stable. However, it lives and breathes, moving, growing each year. A tree “dies” many times in one human lifetime. It dies in winter, shedding its leaves, and in spring it is revived, growing new shoots, perhaps growing fruit or flowers. Then again dying and again being re-born. Year in, year out, this cycle continues. This is so with all the plant kingdom. They do not die, they just move on again, sometimes improving themselves, sometimes not. For these species there is little or no karma, just a cycle of life.

For the animals too, there is a cycle of life. However, their cycle is not as long as the tree, plant or flower. They incarnate just as humans do. They have souls, just as humans do. Animals have a survival instinct just as humans do. Just as in the human kingdom there is reaction for action, so there is too with animals. It may surprise many souls to know that certain animals incarnate to be companions to certain souls. They come for that specific purpose. What is given out, must come back; it is the law of the Universe.

Animals do incur karma. For instance, my channel had a cat, a very beautiful Persian breed that she and her ex-husband saved from the sleep needle at the local animal shelter. This animal came to be a companion to them. In one house they lived in, this cat had a habit of visiting the neighbor — who also had a cat — and raiding the other cat’s food bowl. When they moved to another home, he became the cat whose food bowl was raided. A local cat decided to visit the house and steal his food, just as he had done in the previous home. As you give out, so you get back, reaction against action!

This cycle of karmic energy will not be ended until both cats realize the energy they are putting into the action. It may not end until they both evolve into the human kingdom, for that is where animals move on to. How many times have you said to yourself, "That dog is human" on seeing an animal so intelligent it defies belief? That animal will probably evolve in its next incarnation into a human. These souls evolve as very basic humans, but nevertheless, their souls take on human form and then start the climb onward to more and more intelligence, understanding, and spirituality. Animals create karma, just as humans do. There is no difference.

Maitreya.