Medicine Buddha

After the Medicine Buddha empowerment given by Akong Rinpoche in Edinburgh, healing has come to the forefront of my mind again. Within the Tibetan tradition, all medicine is created and viewed spiritually as well as physically. All sickness and disease begins with disharmony in the elements of the body, which is generated through physical or mental imbalance within the mind and/or outer environment. The greatest physicians in Tibet are usually "khenpos"; these are people who have very high levels of scholastic ability and accomplishment, often completing up to 15 years of study in Buddhist philosophy before such a title is conferred. Training in Tibetan medicine is additional to this.

The karmic causes and conditions for disease and sickness are impossible for the ordinary mind to know, but a highly realised Master will see not just the "display" of the sickness itself very clearly, but what has given rise to it in the first place. Any medicine prescribed will often be a combination of physical substances and treatments (herbs, acupuncture, certain exercises) and spiritual practices. Dorje Sempa, for example, for the purification of negative karma and its associated obscurations; Medicine Buddha for healing; Tara for fear; White Tara for long life. Any practice that works directly on the mind and how the mind is contributing to or causing imbalance will be advised. Occasionally spiritually blessed medicine, known as "dutsi", will be given. Dutsi consists of over 100 herbs ground into tiny grains over the course of 7-days when prayers are recited by one or more realised masters 24 hours a day. The positive benefit of taking dutsi is said to be very great indeed.

I am staying at Samye Ling now, where by good fortune both Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe are in residence at the same time. Yesterday was Medicine Buddha day and the monthly puja was held in the recently consecrated Medicine Buddha shrine room at the top of the temple. I'd not been there before and doing the practice in a room dedicated to the Medicine Buddha was a happy experience. Someone had put my name down on the list of people to pray for, and it was something of a shock to hear my name being read out! So there i was, having been invited to sit up with the senior sangha, falling off this illustrious perch into the humbling and strange experience of praying for myself as a sick person!!!

The Medicine Buddha has also "empowered" my healing work and development, and this year is no exception. Many ideas and insights are arising, both in terms of working with the healing energies of Tara in particular, and in terms of developing the healing channels through Reiki. It's time to do Reiki III.

Meanwhile, the work with the next Tara - Tara protecting from sickness and inner disturbance - has started....... more next time!