May-June 2000

By Dr. Yeshi Dhonden

Buddhist medicine is not like non-Buddhist medicine, for it utilizes three levels of potency: the entities of medicinal ingredients, the power of mantra, and the power of meditative stabilization. The ingredients basically may be the same, but in the Buddhist system various medicines are activated through the practice of specific deities. There are many types of meditative activation of medicines relative to various deities; for instance, the deity Hayagriva is used for medicines counteracting contagious diseases.

First, the physician gathers all the ingredients to manufacture the medicine; a ritual is done before the ingredients are made into the medicine and then again after the pills have been made. In these rituals, the physician, or a lama, meditatively imagines himself or herself to be Hayagriva and also imagines the pills to be Hayagrivas. The two, oneself as Hayagriva and the pills as Hayagriva, are considered to be fused as one undifferentiable entity. Because the deities and mantras used in the rituals differ depending on the purpose, the potentializing effects on the medicines differ.

With regard to the general structure of the ritual, whether the pills are put in a begging bowl or not, they are imagined to be so by the lama, who first takes refuge in the Buddha, the Doctrine, and the Spiritual Community and then generates an altruistic intention to become enlightened. After that, the lama/physician dissolves into the emptiness of inherent existence, reemerging as Hayagriva or Bhaishajyaguru, the King of Physicians [the Medicine Buddha], with a complete mandala, if done extensively, and otherwise alone.

[The Medicine Buddha] is blue in color like the sky; his body is clear when looking from the outside and clear when looking outward from inside. His right hand makes the gesture of meditative equipoise; his left hand holds a begging bowl filled with ambrosia. A similar [Medicine Buddha] is meditated also in front of yourself. Then, you – as [Medicine Buddha] – invite in all the buddhas of the ten directions as [the Medicine Buddha] who dissolve into yourself and the deity in front. At this point, you think that you have become the actual entity of [the Medicine Buddha]. Rays of light are emitted from the [Medicine Buddha] in front, gathering medicinal and nutritional essences from the ten directions and withdrawing them into the medicine in the begging bowl, into which they dissolve. Then, mantra is repeated.

While repeating mantra, you keep your body in the seven-featured posture of Vairochana. Your feet are in the adamantine cross-legged posture; your hands are as indicated above, or both hands are arranged in the gesture of meditative equipoise with the right hand on top of the left and the two thumbs touching; your eyes are aimed at the point of the nose; your backbone is straight like an arrow; your neck is slightly bent like that of a peacock; your shoulders are level, not leaning to one side or the other; your tongue touches the ridge behind the upper teeth. Once your body is set this way, you imagine that at your heart is a flat moon disc with an om standing on top of it. The syllable om emits light rays filling the ten directions; from these rays of light goddesses of offering emerge, making offerings to all the buddhas. After that, the goddesses, together with the buddhas’ qualities of exalted body, speech, and mind dissolve into the rays of light which are withdrawn into your own heart and dissolve into your own continuum. The qualities of exalted body return as white light rays that dissolve into the crown of your own head; the qualities of exalted speech return as red light rays that dissolve into your neck, and the qualities of exalted mind return as blue light rays that dissolve into your heart.

Again, light rays are emitted from your heart; these strike all six types of sentient beings – hell-beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, demigods, and gods – entering their bodies and minds, thereby relieving them of their particular sufferings. In general, gods suffer from extreme grief when they are about to die, from the realization that they will be reborn in a lower state; demigods suffer from jealousy and consequent fighting with the gods; humans suffer from birth, aging, sickness and being used for others’ purposes; hungry ghosts suffer from hunger and thirst; and hell-beings suffer from heat and cold. The rays of light relieve each of these beings in appropriate form.

Similarly, you imagine that light rays spread out from the heart of [the Medicine Buddha] in front of you, radiating in the ten directions, entering into the four elements, and turning them into highly potentialized medicines. These light rays return and dissolve into the medicines in [the Medicine Buddha’s] begging bowl. This is how the power of mantra and meditative stabilization affects the potencies of medicines.

The King of Physicians [Medicine Buddha] is also called the Supreme Physician; “medicine” has the sense of helping, and “lama” means that of which there is nothing higher. Ordinary doctors are indeed physicians, but they are not Supreme Physicians –omniscient physicians – whereas [the Medicine Buddha] is. Bhaishajyaguru has eradicated all desire, hatred, and ignorance in his continuum as well as their fruits – wind, bile, and phlegm – and can assist others in doing the same; hence, he is a King of Physicians.

Since he knows the dispositions and interests of each and every sentient being, he can speak doctrine that accords with their situation; therefore, it is said that through only hearing his name, the sufferings of bad transmigrations are cleared away. If that is the case, then it need not be mentioned that repeating his mantra is very beneficial. Even great heaps of gold and silver cannot keep beings from being reborn in bad transmigrations; thus it is very worthwhile to assume the meditative posture, imagine yourself as the actual [Medicine Buddha], and with one-pointed concentration recite his mantra. Otherwise, you can imagine the [Medicine Buddha] in front of yourself. In either case, look carefully at the blue color of his body, how he is sitting, the shape of his eyes, the gesture that his hands are displaying, and so forth. Also, think about his qualities and altruistic activities, and within such reflection repeat his mantra:

[Om namo bhagavate bekandze / guru bendurya prabha randzaya / tathagataya / arhate samyaksam buddhaya / tayathaombekandze bekandze / maha bekandze randze / samungate soha]

From Health Through Balance, Snow Lion Publications; reproduced by the kind permission of the publisher.