DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE

By Nhat Quan

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Medicine Buddha Meditation is a meditative practice found in various schools of Mahayana Buddhism. From a Buddhist perspective, to determine which spiritual practice is most appropriate for healing a specific individual, it is essential to first identify that person's unique karmic condition. Regardless of the specific method employed, one's personal practice remains of paramount importance. As a practitioner of the Medicine Buddha tradition, you have chosen the Medicine Buddha as your spiritual guide on the path to enlightenment and as your revered Physician; therefore, you should make a solemn vow to cultivate His teachings. Included in this vow-taking ceremony is the transmission of the oral lineage for the recitation of the sacred mantra. The purpose of this transmission is to receive the blessings and empowerment of an authentic lineage master, thereby enhancing the efficacy of one's meditation and mantra recitation practice.

Practicing Medicine Buddha Meditation involves the simultaneous cultivation of both meditative absorption and mantra recitation. The primary force for healing in this context is rooted in your own altruistic motivation, compassion, and Bodhicitta (the awakened mind); the recitation of mantras and other supplementary practices are considered secondary in nature. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that these supplementary elements, such as the visualization of sacred objects and the recitation of mantras, do indeed serve to amplify the healing power inherent in this practice. For patients who have successfully recovered from serious or incurable illnesses, spiritual masters often advise them not only to engage in meditation and mantra recitation but also to cultivate a benevolent and altruistic motivation. Indeed, there appear to be instances where individuals have recovered from severe ailments solely through the visualization of white light, sustained by an unwavering faith that this practice was the source of their healing.

At times, patients experience recovery through their own personal practice of meditation; at other times, they are healed through the meditative practice performed on their behalf by others. Ideally, however, it is more beneficial for the patient to engage in the meditative practice themselves. If one practices meditation to facilitate healing for others, the process may take longer, yet it remains effective. A Buddhist practitioner recounted that, after learning the Medicine Buddha Dharma method and vowing to practice it, she worked in the oncology ward of a hospital. One of her patients suffered from breast cancer; consequently, whenever she sat beside this patient, she would visualize herself as a source of energy, radiating healing light directly onto the cancerous area of the patient's body. After she had maintained this practice for three months, the patient's tumor had shrunk to half its original size.

You can practice meditation to assist those who are unable to meditate on their own, such as young children or the elderly who struggle to focus their minds during meditation, or those who find the concepts of visualization and mantra recitation difficult to grasp or accept. You can help such individuals by meditating on their behalf, or by consecrating water, infusing it with the power of mantras dedicated to the Medicine Buddha, Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, or another Buddha, and then offering it to them to drink.

To facilitate healing for others, you should focus your spiritual practice on the specific Medicine Buddha with whom you share a strong karmic affinity, as a close bond with the Medicine Buddha will help yield results more swiftly. However, the power to heal stems more from the depth of your faith than from the clarity of your visualization of the Medicine Buddha's form or the precise accuracy of your mantra recitation. The most critical point is that you must genuinely perceive the Healing Buddha as possessing omniscient wisdom and boundless compassion both toward yourself and all other sentient beings, while simultaneously possessing the perfect capacity to guide you. This constitutes the very core of this spiritual practice. While the ability to visualize the Medicine Buddha's form with perfect clarity does not make a significant difference in itself, you absolutely must not overlook the aforementioned core principle. Cultivating a strong conviction that you have completely purified both the illness and its underlying causes is truly essential, for this very conviction constitutes the authentic healing power. While wisdom and compassion are vital in other spiritual practices, within practices involving meditation and mantra recitation, the act of healing is inextricably linked to the cultivation of a firm belief that you have been purified. This trusting mind is the true agent of healing.

Before utilizing mantras to heal others, you must first engage in the practice of Medicine Buddha meditation, accompanied by the recitation of numerous mantras, as this serves to generate healing energy. Furthermore, within your daily spiritual regimen, the more mantras you recite, the greater the healing power you will cultivate.

Before reciting the mantra, cultivate within your mind the motivation to practice it and recognize its profound significance for healing. This mantra encapsulates the entire path to swift enlightenment and benefits all sentient beings. As you recite this mantra, simultaneously frame your practice within the context of Medicine Buddha meditation.

Medicine Buddha meditation is a specific meditative practice found within the various schools of Mahayana Buddhism. From a Buddhist perspective, determining which healing method is most appropriate for any given individual requires identifying that person's unique karmic conditions. Nevertheless, regardless of the specific method employed, one's own personal practice remains of paramount importance. As a practitioner of the Medicine Buddha Dharma, you take refuge in the Medicine Buddha, and his mantra, and you make the following vows:

- May I possess the ability to cure illnesses, as well as all other forms of suffering and instability, for the benefit of all sentient beings.

- May anyone who hears this mantra be instantly cured of their ailments.

- May they be immediately liberated from all suffering, the causes of suffering, and may all their karmic obstacles be purified.

- May they be enabled to practice the entire path to enlightenment that is encapsulated within this mantra.

Such an offering of all goodness to sentient beings generates a healing power within the mind. Consequently, your body, speech, and mind become imbued with the capacity to heal others, liberating them not only from physical ailments and other forms of distress but also from the very causes of such suffering. Thus, your pure Bodhicitta motivation, your altruistic aspiration for enlightenment, is, in truth, the single most critical factor in the process of healing. Although to the patient, it may appear that meditation, mantra recitation, or medication are the primary agents of healing, it is your own benevolent intention while reciting the mantra that truly empowers the practice with its potent healing efficacy. Although mantras and medicinal remedies possess the capacity to heal, the greatest benefit a healer can bestow is the cultivation of a virtuous mind. This constitutes the most crucial attribute of a healer, for it ensures that one’s meditation and mantra recitation remain pure Dharma and serve as the very cause of enlightenment. A fully enlightened mind possesses the capacity of omniscience, that is, the ability to perceive and comprehend all phenomena across the past, present, and future. When one cultivates boundless great compassion toward all sentient beings, one acquires the perfect power to guide them all to the shores of enlightenment. And because the pure wisdom of the omniscient mind is inextricably intertwined with boundless great compassion for all beings, one manifests in a myriad of forms, including the forms of the Seven Medicine Buddhas, to dispel every obstacle that sentient beings endure and to bestow upon them both temporary and ultimate happiness. Most notably, the incomparable bliss of complete enlightenment.

The reason the practice of the Medicine Buddha possesses such potent efficacy is that, in the distant past, when the Medicine Buddhas were still Bodhisattvas, they vowed to fulfill magnificent aspirations for the sake of sentient beings. They pledged that during the Age of Dharma Decline, when the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha had begun to wane, they would ensure that every prayer and aspiration of sentient beings would be brought to fruition. They ignited within themselves an intense resolve to attain enlightenment; these aspirations served as the driving force behind their meditative practice and the very realization of their path to enlightenment. Currently, you are living in an era characterized by five forms of degeneration:

- Degeneration of the Mind,

- Degeneration of Lifespan,

- Degeneration of Sentient Beings,

- Degeneration of the Era, and

- Degeneration of Views.

All of these forms of degeneration are currently intensifying:

1- Degeneration of the Mind:

The mind is considered to be in a state of degeneration when human beings are rife with greed, anger, and various other delusional conditions that are on the rise because sentient beings fail to engage in spiritual cultivation. Fundamentally, the degeneration of the mind serves as the root cause leading to all other forms of degeneration.

2- Decline in Lifespan:

This decline stems from a deterioration of consciousness, specifically, the fact that human beings are rife with greed, anger, and delusion. This leads to a degradation of vitality, causing the average human lifespan to become progressively shorter. A few thousand years ago, the majority of people lived to be one hundred years old, and prior to that, people lived for much longer still. The earliest humans lived for many thousands of years within an environment of relative peace and happiness. Today, however, most people live only to the age of sixty or seventy, occasionally reaching one hundred.

3- The Degeneration of Sentient Beings:

The degeneration of the mind has also led to the degeneration of sentient beings. The minds of sentient beings have become extremely stubborn and difficult to tame. They find it very arduous to cultivate virtues such as patience, benevolence, compassion, and so forth. Even when they receive the necessary teachings, they lack the capacity to practice the Dharma, or they perceive the practice as exceedingly difficult. Because their minds are restless and untamed, even when they listen to teachings, they are unable to comprehend the True Dharma.

4- The Degeneration of the Era:

The degeneration of the era is clearly evident in the increasing frequency of wars and conflicts between nations, alongside natural disasters such as earthquakes, droughts, famines, and epidemics. A prime example is seen in our present day, as we frequently read news reports online: major world powers are racing against one another to manufacture state of the art weaponry. While such advancements may offer intellectual, technical, and scientific gratification, they serve as signs of decline if the human mind fails to restrain its anger and hostility.

5- The Degeneration of Perception:

The degeneration of the mind also gives rise to a degeneration in perception and worldview. Fewer and fewer people place their faith in the truth, while an increasing number put their trust in falsehoods and erroneous teachings. When someone speaks the truth sincerely from the heart, others find it difficult to comprehend or believe; yet, when someone tells a lie, others find it remarkably easy to accept. Here, I am referring to relative truth, not absolute truth. People also cling to erroneous views, for instance, the belief that morality is not the cause of happiness and that immorality is not the cause of suffering. They are readily willing to accept flawed explanations regarding the origins of happiness and suffering, yet they find it difficult to grasp or simply refuse to believe authentic and truthful teachings. Furthermore, human beings also struggle to comprehend absolute truth. Due to the pervasive decline spreading everywhere, many novel diseases have emerged, and their symptoms have also undergone changes. Physicians face difficulties in diagnosing these new ailments and often lack the knowledge to treat them. As the minds of sentient beings increasingly deteriorate, all phenomena in the world likewise fall into decay. The efficacy of food and medicine is gradually diminishing, and even the power of sacred mantras is waning. This is why, when engaging in the meditation practice of the Medicine Buddha, one often finds it necessary to recite the mantra far more frequently than in the past. Nevertheless, by virtue of the vows of great resolve that the Medicine Buddhas made in ages past, the mantra of the Medicine Buddha actually becomes increasingly potent as this era of decline deepens. This serves as a primary reason explaining why the recitation of the Medicine Buddha mantra is of such profound importance.

In times long past, the Medicine Buddhas made solemn vows that the supplications of sentient beings living in this era of decline would undoubtedly be fulfilled. Each Medicine Buddha possesses a multitude of great vows designed to address the diverse afflictions and challenges faced by sentient beings. As recounted in the *Sutra of the Medicine Buddha, Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata*, Shakyamuni Buddha once asked his attendant:

"Ananda, do you place your faith in the words I speak regarding the meritorious deeds and virtues of the Medicine Buddha?"

Ananda replied:

"I harbor no doubt whatsoever regarding the teachings of the Enlightened One."

The Buddha further inquired: "Upon what grounds do you rest such unwavering faith?"

Ananda responded:

"The meritorious deeds of a Buddha are truly inconceivable. The Buddha’s perfectly enlightened mind possesses the capacity to directly perceive and comprehend the true nature of all existing phenomena, including the precise mental states and karmic imprints of every single sentient being. It is for this reason that I harbor no doubt regarding the teachings expounded by the Buddha." Then the Buddha advised:

"O Ananda, even if one merely hears the sacred name of the Medicine Buddha or His mantra, it is sufficient to ensure that one will not be reborn in the lower realms."

Thus, it is certain that if you extol the sacred name of the Medicine Buddha or recite His mantra daily, you will never be reborn in the realms of Hell, Hungry Ghosts, or Animals. Furthermore, offering prayers to the Medicine Buddha possesses a potent power that swiftly brings about success not only in the healing of ailments but also in facilitating one's progress on the path to enlightenment, as well as ensuring success in spiritual practice and other endeavors.

Thanks to the powerful energy of the compassionate and selfless hearts of the Medicine Buddhas who wish to benefit all sentient beings, you will achieve enlightenment if you practice chanting and meditating on the Medicine Buddha and pray for their protection. On their part, they have made many great vows for sentient beings. They have promised to make your prayers come true, especially during times of decline. If you pray to the Medicine Buddhas, you will quickly be able to achieve everything you desire. The ultimate benefit they can bring you is enlightenment.

As you know, practicing the Medicine Buddha Dharma, besides eliminating karmic obstacles and progressing on the path to enlightenment, also purifies the karmic obstacles of the deceased. If you want to purify someone about to die, activate Bodhicitta (enlightenment mind), then lean into the ear of the dying person or animal and praise the sacred name while chanting the Medicine Buddha's mantra. This would be wonderful because it would help prevent the person or animal from being reborn into lower realms. If the dying person can no longer hear, you can recite the Medicine Buddha mantra and blow on their body, or on finely powdered stone mixed with fragrance, or on perfume bottles, and then sprinkle the powder or perfume on their body.

For someone nearing death, you can use the practice of the Medicine Buddha to transfer consciousness. The method is as follows:

- Visualize the Medicine Buddha above the head of the dying person:

* A cylindrical ray of light emanates from the heart of the Medicine Buddha, forming a conduit inside the body of the dying person. This conduit is shaped like an umbrella handle, hollow inside but sealed at the end, and extends down to just below the navel of the dying person. Visualize the consciousness of the dying person as a small white speck of light, about the size of a mustard seed, located at the heart. It is not solid and is very light.

* Red, hook-shaped rays of light emanate from the heart of the Medicine Buddha, attaching to the luminous consciousness of the dying person, then traveling along a cylindrical conduit to the heart of the Medicine Buddha. After being drawn into the heart of the Medicine Buddha, the consciousness will emerge from a lotus flower in the Pure Land of the Medicine Buddha. Then, the person will hear the Dharma from the Medicine Buddha and receive a prophecy of their enlightenment.

If you possess intense compassion and high concentration while practicing such meditation, you can help the dying avoid rebirth into negative realms. You can also use relics of the Buddha Shakyamuni when the dying person shows signs of ceasing to breathe. Place the relic on the top of their head for a moment. The energy of the relic will influence the consciousness of the dying person and enable them to have a good rebirth. When a corpse is about to be carried away, pull the hair at the crown of the head forcefully to help the consciousness exit the central channel and exit through the crown of the head. If the consciousness exists through the crown of the head, they will usually be reborn into the Formless Realm or Pure Lands.

The practice of Medicine Buddha Meditation can purify the karma of a being even after death and can help them escape suffering. It is also very beneficial to recite the Medicine Buddha mantra and blow on the food you eat, or on the body of the deceased, or on old bones, as this helps purify karmic obstacles and helps that being be reborn into higher realms or Pure Lands. If lay practitioners are not yet completely vegetarian and still consume meat or fish, they should benefit the animal that was slaughtered by reciting this powerful karmic purification mantra before eating the meat. They should also sincerely and earnestly pray that the animal will be immediately reborn from an animal realm into a pure land or a higher realm, and never fall back into lower realms.

- OM BEKANDZE BEKANDZE MAHA BEKANDZE RANDZE SAMUNGATE SOHA.

* Mẫu tự OM được biểu thị trọn vẹn: Thân thiêng liêng, khẩu thiêng liêng và tâm thiêng liêng của Đức Phật Dược Sư. Hiện thực hóa toàn bộ con đường đưa tới giác ngộ sẽ tịnh hóa thân bất tịnh, khẩu bất tịnh và tâm bất tịnh của bạn và chuyển hóa thân, khẩu và tâm đó thành ra thân thiêng liêng, khẩu thiêng liêng và tâm thiêng liêng của Đức Phật Dược Sư. Rồi bạn có thể trở thành người dẫn đường hoàn hảo cho chúng sinh hữu tình. Với tâm toàn giác, bạn có thể thấy biết một cách trực tiếp không cần dụng công và không lỗi lầm về mức độ tâm của mỗi chúng sinh hữu tình, đồng thời thấy biết toàn bộ các phương pháp nào phù hợp với họ để đưa họ từ hạnh phúc này đến hạnh phúc khác, và cuối cùng là hạnh phúc vô thượng của giác ngộ viên mãn.

* BEKANDZE có nghĩa là loại trừ sự đau đớn,

Có một giải thích rằng mẫu tự BEKANDZE đầu tiên ám chỉ loại bỏ sự đau đớn của khổ đau thực sự, không phải riêng khổ đau về bệnh tật mà còn cả khổ đau đến từ tất cả các vấn đề của thân và tâm. Nó cũng loại bỏ sự đau đớn của cái chết và sự tái sinh gây ra bởi nghiệp và các vọng tưởng phiền não.

Even if a person or animal has been dead for hundreds or thousands of years, and their consciousness is still in the lower realms, reciting the Medicine Buddha mantra and blowing on the bones can still transfer that consciousness to be reborn in the Pure Land or a higher realm. After reciting the Medicine Buddha mantra, you blow on water, sand, or powdered stone mixed with fragrant oil and sprinkle it on the bones or skin of the deceased person or animal. Doing so can at least help a person or animal shorten the time they suffer in the lower realms.

Thus, practicing the Medicine Buddha meditation, besides seeking to avert misfortune, also has many benefits for the dying or the deceased. When someone is seriously ill, you need to perform the Medicine Buddha ritual in detail and meticulously, including the great vows of each Medicine Buddha. Often, you believe this ritual will determine whether the patient lives or dies. Either the patient will recover immediately, or they will die within one or two days in a peaceful state of mind, instead of prolonging their life in pain. Performing the Medicine Buddha ritual is effective for serious illnesses, but you can also apply this ritual to pray for success in spiritual practice or other activities.

It is also possible to practice meditation and perform the Seven-Chakra Medicine Buddha ritual to heal those in a coma. Of course, recovery is a dependent event; it depends on the severity of the person's karma. If the karma is not very heavy, a short period of practice may bring recovery. But if the karma is heavy, you should perform the Medicine Buddha ritual many times, even ten, twenty, thirty, or forty times… When the karmic obstacles are deep and heavy, recovery will not occur unless there is much effort in practicing meditation and performing the Medicine Buddha puja ritual.

By reciting the Medicine Buddha mantra, you can also increase the effectiveness of the medicine you use or give to others. Here's how:

- Place the medicine in a bowl and hold it in front of you, imagining a moon-shaped plate above the bowl. Visualize the blue syllable OM on the plate, and surrounding the OM are the syllables of the Medicine Buddha mantra in a clockwise direction. While reciting the mantra, visualize nectar flowing from the syllables of the mantra, flowing down and being absorbed into the medicine. Then the mantra syllables and the moon plate will dissolve into the medicine, and at this point, the medicine will become very effective in healing illnesses caused by the body, illnesses caused by demonic possession, and their causes, namely unwholesome karma and deluded thoughts. If you are treating a cancer patient, visualize that the medicine has a special power to cure cancer. The more faith you cultivate and the more you recite the mantra, the more powerful the medicine will become. This is the text of the mantra:

- OM BEKANDZE BEKANDZE MAHA BEKANDZE RANDZE SAMUNGATE SOHA.

* The syllable OM represents the complete: the sacred body, sacred speech, and sacred mind of the Medicine Buddha. Realizing the entire path to enlightenment will purify your impure body, impure speech, and impure mind, transforming them into the sacred body, sacred speech, and sacred mind of the Medicine Buddha. Then you can become the perfect guide for sentient beings. With a fully enlightened mind, you can directly and effortlessly perceive the mental state of each sentient being, and understand all the methods suitable for them to lead them from one happiness to another, and ultimately to the supreme happiness of complete enlightenment.

* BEKANDZE means the elimination of pain.

One explanation is that the first letter BEKANDZE refers to the elimination of the pain of true suffering, not just the suffering of illness, but also the suffering arising from all bodily and mental issues. It also eliminates the pain of death and rebirth caused by karma and deluded thoughts.

* The second syllable, BEKANDZE, eliminates all the true causes of suffering, which are within the mind and not from the outside. This implies that karma and delusive thoughts, that is, the internal causes, have made external factors, such as food or sun exposure conditions, for disease to appear. Scientists claim that sunbathing causes skin cancer; however, as I explained before, it is the true internal cause, not something else, that makes external phenomena conditions for disease to manifest. If there is no cause in the mind, then there is nothing to make external factors conditions for disease.

* MAHA BEKANDZE, the third syllable, MAHA BEKANDZE, means the intense and thorough elimination of all pain. These two syllables also imply the elimination of even the subtle seeds left behind by delusive thoughts in the mind.

Thus, the first BEKANDZE syllable contains the step-by-step path to enlightenment for all beings of the initial stage. The second BEKANDZE syllable corresponds to the path to enlightenment for all beings of the intermediate stage, and MAHA BEKANDZE corresponds to the step-by-step path to enlightenment for all beings of the higher stage. Reciting the mantra will leave seeds in your mind, enabling you to make the path in the mantra a reality. It creates the blessing of the entire path in your mind, and then, you generate the entire step-by-step path to enlightenment, as represented by BEKANDZE BEKANDZE MAHA BEKANDZE.

In the practice and aspiration to save sentient beings through the path of medicine, venerable monks say that those who have studied medicine and know how to practice the Medicine Buddha Dharma, after preparing medicine, often practice the Medicine Buddha meditation and recite the mantra to bless the medicine. Therefore, the medicine becomes more effective because, in addition to the medicinal properties of the herbs, it also possesses spiritual power that purifies the mind and promotes rapid recovery.

If you are a healer, practicing the Medicine Buddha Dharma for one or two months, praising the name of the Medicine Buddha, and reciting the mantra daily, is very beneficial. If you do this, the Medicine Buddha goddesses and guardian deities will help you accurately diagnose illnesses and prescribe correct medications. With this practice, you may even achieve clairvoyance:

- One sign of this achievement is that before a patient comes to you in person, you see them in a dream and you diagnose their illness; the next day, they come in person, and you can prescribe the correct medication for their illness.

- Another sign is that when you pay close attention to the patient's pulse, you can instantly recognize their condition and prescribe the correct medication. Similarly, when you examine a patient, celestial maidens may appear in the air around you and tell you about the patient's condition and the treatment.

In short, practicing Medicine Buddha meditation is a practice that combines seated meditation with mantra practice, because the Medicine Buddha mantra contains the remedy for the entire step-by-step path to enlightenment, from the beginning to the attainment of the unparalleled happiness of perfect enlightenment. You also have the perfect ability to manifest in many different forms suitable for each sentient being and offer various necessary methods to guide them, whether it be material assistance, intellectual education, or preaching the Dharma. Whenever a seed of past virtuous deeds in a sentient being matures, without the slightest delay, you can immediately offer various appropriate means to guide that being to enlightenment.

If you recite the Medicine Buddha Mantra as a daily practice, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will care for you like a loving mother caring for her child, and will always guide you. Similarly, Vajrapani, the embodiment of the power of all Buddhas, the Four Great Guardian Deities, and other guardian deities will always protect and guide you. Reciting the Medicine Buddha Mantra in this way also helps purify all unwholesome karma and quickly eliminate illnesses caused by physical ailments and diseases caused by demonic possession. This recitation also brings success; everything will be achieved exactly as you wish

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