Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche regarding Medicine
Buddha
If you can
recite Medicine Buddha mantra as much as you can every day (good to
do at least 5 malas), this will purify negative karma and will help
you never to be reborn in the lower realms.
TADYATA OM
BHEKHANDZYE BHEKHANDZYE MAHA BHEKHANDZYE (BHEKHANDZYE) RAJA
SAMUDGATE SVAHA
Medicine
Buddha said that even if an animal hears the Medicine Buddha mantra
it will never be reborn in the lower realms.
If you
don’t purify negative karma, even dying, having cancer, still you
have to die because of negative karma, because it is not purified,
so you will be reborn in the lower realms as a hell being, hungry
ghost or animal, and again and again without end have to suffer.
Therefore, you need to purify the negative karma now. If you cannot
bear the sickness now how can you bear the suffering of the lower
realms? Especially because of the incredible length of time that
beings have to suffer in the lower realms. It is a billion times
more suffering than all the human problems put together.
Medicine
Buddha mantra prevents you from experiencing all these things. So
it is much more precious than skies of gold, diamonds and
wish-fulfilling jewels—all this wealth means nothing because it
can’t purify all the negative karma. Even if you own that much
wealth, this one Medicine Buddha mantra is much more precious
because it leaves imprints of the whole path to enlightenment in
your mind; it helps you to have realizations of the whole path to
enlightenment. It ceases all the gross and subtle defilements and
makes you achieve enlightenment.
Besides the
benefits you receive from reciting Medicine Buddha mantra, also
these are the benefits just from hearing the mantra. So therefore
this mantra is much more precious than the whole sky full of
diamonds and infinite jewels. With the Medicine Buddha mantra you
can liberate numberless sentient beings from oceans of suffering
and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore, again, reciting even
one mantra or hearing just once the Medicine Buddha mantra is much
more precious than the sky filled with gold, diamonds,
wish-fulfilling jewels and zillions and zillions of
dollars.
So with
full trust in Medicine Buddha you recite the mantra, knowing that
Medicine Buddha will completely take care of your life, heal you.
With full trust know how Medicine Buddha is always with you, in
your heart, on your crown, in front of you. There is not one second
that Medicine Buddha does not see you or have compassion towards
you.
One student
in Hong Kong does Medicine Buddha practice daily and she had a very
heavy brain operation. During the operation she actually saw
Medicine Buddha. She had a miracle recovery, as it was a very risky
operation, but she surprised all and was able to recover and is
still alive. So Medicine Buddha looked after her.
Also one
person in Taiwan, he is not Buddhist, he could not move his body,
could not get up and he didn’t have any helpers around him. He very
badly needed to take his medicine and the medicine was far away in
the bathroom. Next to him was a Medicine Buddha statue and when he
turned his head he saw that the Medicine Buddha statue was holding
his medicine. So he was able to take his medicine. Later he passed
away and when he passed away he was able to put his hands in the
mudra of prostration at his heart to show that he remembered
Medicine Buddha; he passed away peacefully.
So, if you
can, do the Medicine Buddha practice.
Also a
short way to practice is by reciting the refuge and bodhicitta
prayer: “The purpose of my life is to free all beings from
suffering and lead them to enlightenment, therefore, I am going to
do the Medicine Buddha practice, especially to purify the negative
karma, defilements, disease and spirit harm, as well as to do
healing, so that I can have a healthy and long life to offer
service and actualize the path.”
Visualize
Medicine Buddha on the crown of your head or in front of you [at
the level of your forehead.] Nectar beams emit from Medicine Buddha
and enter your own body and mind like water. It pushes away all the
dirty things, like pouring water into a glass pipe; all the dirty
water flows out the top. All the disease, spirit harm, negative
karma and obstacles are completely purified.
Also think
that all sentient beings are in your heart on a moon disc,
especially people who have cancer. Think that the nectar is
purifying the four things (disease, spirit harm, negative karma and
obstacles). All are purified, including your sickness.
If you are
doing the practice for someone else, visualize is the same except
that you visualize Medicine Buddha above their heads.
At the end
dedicate the merits:
“Due to all
the merits I have collected in the past and present and that I will
collect in the future, may the wish-fulfilling, most precious,
ultimate good heart bodhicitta, cherishing other sentient beings
and letting go of the I, be generated in my heart and within the
hearts of all living beings without delay of even a second. May the
bodhicitta that is already generated be increased forever
more.
“Due to all
the merits of the past, present and future that I have collected
and that others have collected, however many sick sentient beings
there are may they be instantly liberated from their sicknesses and
may sentient beings never get sick.
“Due to the
merits of the three times, which exist but are empty from their own
side, collected by me and all others, may I, who exists but is
empty from my own side, achieve enlightenment, which exists but is
empty from its own side, and lead sentient beings, who exist but
are empty from their own side, to that enlightenment, which exists
but is empty from its own side, by myself alone, who exists but is
empty from my own side.
“I
dedicate all the merits as the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and
Manjughosha realized and in the way that the buddhas and
bodhisattvas of the three times dedicate and admire the
most.
“Due to all
these merits, may I actualize completely the stainless teachings of
Lama Tsong Khapa, which unify sutra and tantra in this life, and
may those teachings flourish and spread in all
directions.”
To get the
whole practice:
http://www.fpmt.org/education/prayers/mbpujalttrbklt.pdf