The power and benefits of Medicine Buddha are immense. Medicine Buddha is commonly relied upon in times of sickness, pain, and suffering, also for the dying and the deceased; Medicine Buddha puja is often one of the practices done during the 49 days after a person has deceased to ensure a smooth transition to the next life. The Medicine Buddha practice is also beneficial for animals as well as for creating the causes for success. Lama Zopa Rinpoche advised that it is so beneficial, it can be used for any purpose!
The yoga method of the Medicine Buddha was taught by Guru Padmasambhava in the collection of teachings called Jewel Treasure. It was taught to enable those who practiced it to diagnose and treat their patients perfectly, particularly in times when the five degenerations were flourishing. Because the pure wisdom of the omniscient mind, the dharmakaya, is bound by infinite compassion for living beings, it manifested in various aspects to eliminate different obstacles of living beings.
Deities such as the seven Medicine Buddhas manifested in order to pacify the obstacles to the achievement of even temporary happiness, and especially the ultimate happiness of full enlightenment.
The seven Medicine Buddhas are not only very powerful in healing disease, but in purification, for both the living and the dead. The Medicine Buddha practice can purify even those who have already died and liberate them from suffering. It is also powerful in bringing success, both temporary and ultimate.
The reason they also bring success is that in the past when they were bodhisattvas practicing the path to enlightenment, they promised and made extensive prayers to actualize all the prayers of living beings of the degenerate time, when the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha are in decline. They generated a very strong intention to become enlightened for this reason; this was their motivation for meditating on and actualizing the path. This is why it is important to pray every day to Medicine Buddha, not only for the healing of disease, but also for the success of our Dharma practice and other activities.
As the Buddha’s holy speech is irrevocable, we can trust the power of the Medicine Buddhas to quickly grant blessings to sentient beings in these degenerate times. If we pray to the Medicine Buddhas we will quickly be able to accomplish everything that we wish. Merely hearing the name of the Medicine Buddha or the Medicine Buddha mantra closes the door to rebirth in the lower realms. We should not have any doubt in regard to these benefits.
Guru Shakyamuni Buddha said in the sutra Medicine Buddha, Beams of Lapis Lazuli: “Ananda, do you believe my explanation of the qualities of this Tathagata?” Kungawo replied, “I do not doubt the teachings of you, the Bhagawan. Why not? Because the actions of a Tathagata’s holy body, speech, and mind are always pure and faultless.” Guru Shakyamuni Buddha then advised, “Ananda, whoever hears the holy name of this Tathagata will not fall into the evil realms of the suffering transmigratory beings.”
When someone is seriously ill, elaborate meditation practices containing the dedicated purposes of each of the Medicine Buddhas are done. It is commonly found that this puja decides whether the person lives or dies. They either recover immediately or die within one or two days with a peaceful mind rather than living with a lot of pain.
Medicine Buddha practice is very powerful. While the Medicine Buddha puja is very effective in cases of serious illness, it is also performed to bring success generally.
Excerpted from a teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Vows of Medicine Buddhas
When we perform the puja, we start with the Buddha on the far left (as you face the altar) and go one by one reciting the name of each Buddha and asking them to fulfill their promises, all the way up to Shakyamuni Buddha on the far right. See their individual vows below.
1) Medicine Buddha Renowned Glorious King of Excellent Signs (Supari Kirtita Nama Shri Raja)
Of glorious renown; of glorious features; gold in colour, in the mudra of giving protection.
• For the benefit of those tormented by disease, epidemics, pressured by killers, by the living dead and by fears of all kinds
• For those struck by blindness, deafness, madness, skin disease and all vicious illnesses
• For the deluded by desire, hatred and ignorance, who have committed the five heinous acts, those who have abandoned dharma.
• For those fallen into poverty, without food, drink, cloths, money, grain, bedding, incense, garlands, and all necessities of life
• For those beaten, bound, cast into prison, tormented by an array of weapons
• For those tormented by heat, cast among lions, tigers, bears and snakes in fear of their lives
• For those involved in the terrors of war, fights and conflicts
• For those lost at sea, thrown into the waves of the ocean, uttering cries of despair
2) Medicine Buddha King of Melodious Sound, Brilliant Radiance of Skill, Adorned with Jewels, Moon and Lotus (Svaragosa Raja)
Master of melodious sound; yellow in colour, in the mudra of granting the supreme
• For the benefit of those whose love of business and commerce has led them to distraction, away from the Bodhi mind
• For those tormented by cold, heat, hunger and thirst
• For women whose bodies are tormented by pain and for those who suffer at birth
• For those tormented by death, enemies and isolation
• For parents, families and friends lost in grief
• For those wandering in the darkness, persecuted by demons
• For those of little intelligence, confused and attracted to base things
• For those who, at the end of the aeon, when the world burns, suffer alone without protection
3) Medicine Buddha Stainless Excellent Gold, Great Jewel Who Accomplishes All Vows (Suvarna Bhadra Vimala)
Of the best and purest of gold; of the colour of the golden waters of the Jambu; in the mudra of teaching Dharma
• For the benefit of those who have killed and are destined to suffer much illness, a short life, to be killed by water, poisons, weapons, fire and disease
• For those who have stolen and are destined to live in poverty, plagued by hunger, thirst and lack of clothes
• For those who fight and kill each other with minds of hatred
• For those blinded by desire, hatred and ignorance, who are devoid of morality and live evil lives
4) Medicine Buddha Supreme Glory Free from Sorrow (Ashokottama Shri Raja)
Of the glory that is freedom from pain. Pale red in colour; in the mudra of meditative equipoise
• For the benefit of those in grief, suffering, sad and troubled
• For those reborn or to be reborn in the blackness of the great hells
• For those who stole and were reborn in poor families, devoid of clothing, food, drink, bedding and ornaments, tormented by heat, cold, hunger and thirst
• For those persecuted by demons, spirits and ghosts that rob them of their health
5) Medicine Buddha Melodious Ocean of Proclaimed Dharma (Dharma Kirti Sagara )
Proclaimer of Dharma, ocean of melodious sound. Pink in colour; in the mudra of teaching Dharma
• For those born into families of wrong views, with no faith in the three Jewels
• For those who have not heard the sounds of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha; born in distant lands under the influence of wrong teachings
• For those bereft of clothing, ornaments, incense, garlands, ointments, bedding and medicine, and who live lives of non virtue
• For those who, by the force of ripening karma, argue, fight and harm each other with weapons
6) Medicine Buddha Delightful King of Clear Knowing, Supreme Wisdom of an Ocean of Dharma (Abhijnya Raja)
Supreme in knowledge; of the colour of coral; in the mudra of granting the supreme
• For those working in the fields and in business who argue and fight
• For those who have taken the path of the ten non virtues and are to be reborn in hell
• For those under the oppression of others, punished, bound and beaten, thrown into prisons and condemned to death
• For those of a short life who commit many wrongs
7) Medicine Buddha Guru King of Lapis Light (Bhaishajya Guru)
The light of Lapis, the guru of medicine. Blue in colour, in the mudra of granting the supreme
• To be adorned by the 112 signs and marks of an enlightened being
• For those on wrong paths and on lesser paths
• For those with deformed bodies, senses impaired, of mottled and bad skin, crippled limbs, hunchbacked, blind, deaf, dumb, insane and struck by illness
• For those tormented by illness, without refuge or guide, lacking the necessities of life, medicine and the support of friends
• For those who, condemned by the fires of hunger and thirst, commit many wrongs in their pursuit of sustenance
• For those without clothes, living in poverty, persecuted day and night by the heat, flies and wasps
8) Shakyamuni Buddha
The mighty prince of the Sakya clan: of the colour gold; in the mudra of pressing the earth who gave the Medicine Buddha mantra and promised that those who supplicated the seven tathagata Medicine Buddhas and recited the mantra 8’000 times would be freed from all obscurations formed by past deeds, would not be struck down by illness, would enjoy a long life with no untimely death, free from the harms of death, enemies, arguments, fighting and separation; and would not fall into the hands of oppressors and that all wishes would come true
Extracted and translated from the middle length sadhana, by Gavin Kilty, 2001.
The Medicine Buddha encompasses all the buddhas. This means that when we practice the seven-limb prayer and make offerings with the seven limbs, we receive the same merit as we would if we had made offerings to all the buddhas. Similarly, when we recite the mantra of Medicine Buddha, we collect unbelievable merit just as when we offer the seven-limb practice to Medicine Buddha.
Reciting the Medicine Buddha mantra brings inconceivable merit. Manjushri requested the eight tathagatas (Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and the seven Medicine Buddhas) to reveal a special mantra that would make the prayers they (the eight tathagatas) made in the past (prayers to be able to actualize the happiness of sentient beings by attaining the path to enlightenment and pacifying various problems, to be able to see all the buddhas, and for all wishes to be quickly realized) to quickly come to pass, especially for those sentient beings born in the time of the five degenerations who have small merit and who are possessed and overwhelmed by various diseases and spirit harms.
During that time, all the eight tathagatas, in one voice, taught the Medicine Buddha mantra. Therefore, if you recite the mantra every day, the buddhas and bodhisattvas will always pay attention to you, and they will guide you. Vajrapani, owner of the secrets, and the four guardians will always protect and guide you. All your negative karmas will be pacified, and you will never be born in the three lower realms. Even just hearing a recitation of the names of the eight tathagatas pacifies all diseases and spirit harms—even spirit harms that arise as a condition of disease—and all your wishes are fulfilled.
This is just a brief explanation of the benefits of the Medicine Buddha practice. This practice is especially beneficial if you are helping others, especially if you are doing healing work. It helps you to be more accurate and beneficial. You will receive much support, not only from the eight tathagatas, but from the four clairvoyant devas as well. These devas can help you to diagnose and understand the right method to heal, as they are associated with the eight tathagatas.
Excerpted from Medicine Buddha Sadhana by Ngawang Losang Tenpa Gyältsän, translated by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, and prepared by Ven. Thubten Gyatso. Published by FPMT Education Services.
ཏདྱ་ཐཱ། ༀ་བྷཻ་ཥ་ཛྱེ་བྷཻ་ཥ་ཛྱེ། མཧཱ་བྷཻ་ཥ་ཛྱེ[་བྷཻ་ཥ་ཛྱེ]། རཱ་ཛ་ས་མུདྒ་ཏེ་སྭཱཧཱ།
TADYATHĀ / OṂ BHAIṢAJYE BHAIṢAJYE / MAHĀBHAIṢAJYE [BHAIṢAJYE] / RĀJA SAMUDGATE SVĀHĀ
Common pronunciation:
TAYATA / OM BEKANDZE BEKANDZE / MAHA BEKANDZE [BEKANDZE] / RADZA SAMUDGATE SOHA
TAYATA – means “like this”.
OM – is composed of the three pure sounds A U and MA, which signifies one’s own body, speech and mind that get transformed into the vajra holy body, speech and mind.
Then BEKANDZE BEKANDZE -“eliminating pain, eliminating pain”. What eliminates pain is medicine. This pain is not ordinary pain – even animals do not want to experience that. The first eliminating pain is true suffering, the second is the true cause of suffering. The medicine that eliminates pain is first the graduated path of the lower capable being, and second the graduated path of the middle capable being.
Then MAHA BEKANDZE -“the great eliminating pain” is the graduated path of the higher capable being, which eliminates the subtle defilements.
So BEKANDZE BEKANDZE MAHA BEKANDZE contains the whole path to enlightenment, the ultimate medicine.
RADZA – is king.
SAMUDGATE – (ocean of goodness)
Soha – to establish the foundation in the heart, the blessing, the devotion from which the realization comes.
By actualizing the meaning of the path contained in BEKANDZE BEKANDZE MAHA BEKANDZE, the whole Lamrim, you cease the defilements—gross and subtle—and purify the ordinary body, speech, and mind into the vajra holy body, speech, and mind. After this you are able to do perfect works for other sentient beings.
Bhagawan with equal compassion for all,
Whose name when merely heard dispels suffering of lower realms,
Dispeller of disease and the three poisons:
I prostrate to Medicine Buddha Vaidurya Light.
The Fifth Dalai Lama explains that the verse expresses what Medicine Buddha is and talks about the qualities.
Bhagavan means “Destroyer Qualified Gone Beyond One” or Chom dän dä in Tibetan. “Destroyer” means not only destroyer of one’s own gross and subtle defilements, the delusions, but also destroyer of other sentient beings’ delusions and defilements. “Qualified” refers to six qualities. “Gone Beyond” means gone beyond the oceans of samsaric suffering.
With equal compassion for all means Medicine Buddha’s compassion is equal towards all sentient beings, there are no discriminating thoughts. Buddha doesn’t just help those who have faith in him. Medicine Buddha has compassion to every single living being equally and that includes us.
Whose name when merely heard dispels suffering of the lower realms Any living being who hears the name of Medicine Buddha never gets reborn in the lower realms—that’s the benefit, the power of just hearing the name, the mantra. The reason there is so much power is due to Medicine Buddha’s compassion. In the past when he was a bodhisattva he made so many prayers and dedications with strong compassion for his name to be wish fulfilling, to bring happiness.
When he became enlightened, one of the ten powers of a buddha is the power of prayer—that means that all the prayers that have been made get fulfilled. So it is extremely important in our daily life to practice Medicine Buddha and to chant his name for the animals. It’s an unbelievably easy way to liberate yourself and to help others too.
Medicine Buddha practice also purifies any broken vows, like Pratimoksha vows, or precepts. It is very powerful for purification and for healing sickness. Normally people think that Medicine Buddha is for healing but it’s not only that, it’s also very powerful for purifying negative karma and very powerful for success. The Medicine Buddha practice is so precious. It seems that you can do Medicine Buddha Puja for ANY purpose, ANY problem, ANYTHING. You can use the Medicine Buddha practice for any kind of problem, for court cases, to stop wars, to stop violence, anything. It is very good for business, for mothers who are pregnant to give birth successfully, anything.
The practice can be done for anything. It is very powerful for success and of course the most important success is to have the realizations of the Lam Rim, the path to enlightenment: to realize emptiness, develop wisdom, bodhicitta and guru devotion – to be able to give extensive benefit to other sentient beings.
Dispeller of disease and the three poisons The three poisons are ignorance, hatred and attachment, the sicknesses of the mind from which come the physical sicknesses—cancer, depression, etc.
I prostrate to Medicine Buddha Vaidurya Light.
Edited and condensed from a talk during Medicine Buddha Puja by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Land of Medicine Buddha, 28 July 2001
The Medicine Buddha Puja is performed every day at Land of Medicine Buddha. You are welcome to request a prayer for a friend, family member, pet, or anyone who could benefit from them. You can also request prayers for those who have recently passed away.
For more information, go to Prayer Request.
Heart of Wisdom teaching and Medcine Buddha Initation, hosted by Land of Medicine Buddha
