Dr B and Siddhartha discuss the mantra and meditation process for invoking The Medicine Buddha in seeking personal and universal freedom from pain, disease and suffering.
Hello Doc, I see you are having a glass of wine or two these days, is that wise?
Hi Sid, it’s OK, I had no wine from September a month before my operation, then none until Christmas Day when I was feeling so much better. I’ve had one glass every other day or so since then with no ill effects. I’m still off the spiced food though so Dr C is having to spice her own food up separately!
Ha! She’ll get over it, but I’m sure she’s just happy to see you recovering.
Sure Sid, but I wanted to discuss something with you about that, specifically about Medicine Buddha.
Go on.
Well, I do my best to practice my meditation each day. I know it’s helped me, more than that, I think it has made a major contribution to calming my mind when I had pain, diverting my thoughts from “negative waves”, and of course increasing my general mindfulness each day. But I came across a reference a few days back to Medicine Buddha, can you tell me about him?
What do you want to know Doc?
Do you know him, have you met him, ……
Come on B, you know these are not relevant questions, you can do better, have another drink of wine. Tell me what you think you know.
OK, I know there are thousands of Buddhas so therefore you are not the only one who has attained enlightenment. The main “other one” I know about is Manjushree from Vajrayana Buddhism with his raised flaming sword representing transcendent wisdom. In Nepal he is recognised as the creator of the Kathmandu Valley and the discovery of Swayambhu after he cut a path for the flood waters to exit through Chobar Gorge. We have known about him for a long time because of all of our time spent in Nepal and have quite a few statues of him in our home.
But I think the so called medicine Buddha is named Bhaisajya who was originally a king …….. unlike yourself Sid who was only a prince of course ….
OK no need for that! Keep going.
Right, so when he attained enlightenment and joined the Buddhahood he made 12 vows and I think it was the 6th in which he said: “I vow that all beings who are physically disabled or sick in all aspects be blessed with good health, both physically and mentally. All who pay homage to Buddha faithfully will be blessed”.
Yes, you got it. So next question?
It’s about meditation, right. In my normal practice I use the first lines from the Dhammapada as my mantra, they are your words in fact: “All states of being are determined by mind, it is mind that leads the way …..”
This focuses my thoughts, and generally increases my mindfulness, but I can’t work out a mantra related to Medicine Buddha except those written in Sanskrit or Tibetan!
Ah, so you mean this one:
“Tayata, Om Bekadze Bekadze
Maha Bekadze Bekadze,
Radza Samungate,
Soha.”
Yes that’s it, no good to me because my brain or mind doesn’t associate any meaning to those sounds.
Try this then:
First visualise Medicine Buddha, Bhaisajya, sitting in front of you. So you need to know what he looks like and preferably to have a painting of figurine of him in your room. Then mentally say this; “May I and all mankind, be free from pain, disease, and suffering”. Just keep it simple, maybe time each saying in time with each intake of breath.
OK, got it, thanks. I’ll try it out for a few days and let you know how it went.
Oh, I’ll know all right!
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Dr B a great post namaste 🙏
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Thank you so much, the problem is WordPress has gone haywire and has published two of my posts today, this one was scheduled for tomorrow! Still, two for the price of one I suppose! Namaste 🙏🙏
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