-
Shenpen selThe Clear Light of the Buddhas Teachings Which
Benefits All Beings
June 2000Volume 4, Number 1
Through cultivating the stages of the practice of the Medicine
Buddhathe generation stage and the completion stagewe not only
achievebenefit for ourselves, but we are actually cultivating the
potential to
benefit others. And by doing these practices we actually bless
theenvironment and all the beings in that environment.
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2 SHENPEN SEL
The Clear Light of the Buddhas Teachings Which Benefits All
Beings
ContentContentContentContentContentsssss
This issue of Shenpen sel is devoted to a series of teachings on
the Medicine Buddha Sadhanagiven by the Very Venerable Khenchen
Thrangu Rinpoche in the Cascade Mountains in Washing-ton state in
June of 1999. In addition to the translated, transcribed, edited
text of the teachings,we have published the text that was the
subject of Rinpoches commentary.
33333
IntroductionIntroductionIntroductionIntroductionIntroduction
66666 The Medicine Buddha SadhanaThe Medicine Buddha SadhanaThe
Medicine Buddha SadhanaThe Medicine Buddha SadhanaThe Medicine
Buddha Sadhana6 A Practice That Is Extremely Effective in the
Removal of Sickness
13 The Great King of Medicine Is Active in Pacifying the
Suffering of Beings23 The Visualization Uncovers the Inherent
Purity of Phenomena33 Because of Its Vastness, Offering the Entire
Universe Produces Great Merit42 On the Origin of Auspiciousness in
the Substances and Symbols
5353535353 Medicine Buddha Sadhana in EnglishMedicine Buddha
Sadhana in EnglishMedicine Buddha Sadhana in EnglishMedicine Buddha
Sadhana in EnglishMedicine Buddha Sadhana in English
7272727272 TTTTThe Vhe Vhe Vhe Vhe Very Essence of Mind,
Mahamudra, the One Sufficient Pery Essence of Mind, Mahamudra, the
One Sufficient Pery Essence of Mind, Mahamudra, the One Sufficient
Pery Essence of Mind, Mahamudra, the One Sufficient Pery Essence of
Mind, Mahamudra, the One Sufficient Pathathathathath
7474747474 TTTTTenga Renga Renga Renga Renga Rinpoches
Commentinpoches Commentinpoches Commentinpoches Commentinpoches
Commentary on the Mahamudra of the Vary on the Mahamudra of the
Vary on the Mahamudra of the Vary on the Mahamudra of the Vary on
the Mahamudra of the Venerable Gampopa,enerable Gampopa,enerable
Gampopa,enerable Gampopa,enerable Gampopa,the One Sufficient
Paththe One Sufficient Paththe One Sufficient Paththe One
Sufficient Paththe One Sufficient Path
88888 99999 Re-eRe-eRe-eRe-eRe-estststststablishing the Dharma
in Tablishing the Dharma in Tablishing the Dharma in Tablishing the
Dharma in Tablishing the Dharma in Tibetibetibetibetibet
Volume 4 Number 1
Editorial policEditorial policEditorial policEditorial
policEditorial policyyyyyShenpen sel is a tri-annual publication of
KagyuShenpen sel Chling (KSOC), a center for thestudy and practice
of Tibetan vajrayana Buddhismlocated in Seattle, Washington. The
magazineseeks to present the teachings of recognized andfully
qualified lamas and teachers, with anemphasis on the Karma Kagyu
and the ShangpaKagyu lineages. The contents are derived in
largepart from transcripts of teachings hosted by ourcenter.
Shenpen sel is produced and mailedexclusively through volunteer
labor and does notmake a profit. (Your subscriptions and
donationsare greatly appreciated.) We publish with theaspiration to
present the clear light of theBuddhas teachings. May it bring
benefit and mayall be auspicious. May all beings be inspired
andassisted in uncovering their own true nature.
Photo creditPhoto creditPhoto creditPhoto creditPhoto credits
this issue:s this issue:s this issue:s this issue:s this issue:
David Karchmer, pages 6, 13,23, 33, 42, 72, back cover.
StStStStStaffaffaffaffaff
EditorEditorEditorEditorEditorLama Tashi Namgyal
Copy editors, TCopy editors, TCopy editors, TCopy editors, TCopy
editors,
Transcribers,ranscribers,ranscribers,ranscribers,ranscribers,RecordersRecordersRecordersRecordersRecordersGlen
Avantaggio, Peter Borodin, AlanCastle, Anita Castle, Ken DeSure,
DavidDuBois, Ryszard K. Frackiewicz, MarciaGlover, Denise Glover,
Wolfgang Hirsch,Candace Kielbiski, Judy Knapp, DonaldLashley, Linda
Lewis, Edmund Liong, EdMacArthur, Yahm Paradox, Chris Payne,Rose
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DatDatDatDatDatabase managerabase managerabase managerabase
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Shenpen sel
Kenn DeSure
Kenn DeSure
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SHENPEN SEL 3
IntroductionIntroductionIntroductionIntroductionIntroduction
All of the Buddhas teachings can be subsumed under the two
categories ofshamatha and vipashyanacalm abiding and insight. In
the hinayana traditions ofBuddhism the intention of the vipashyana
teachings is to establish the lack of trueexistence of the
individualsometimes called one-fold egolessness, the selflesssness
ofthe individual, the identitylessness of the individualand the
lack of true existence ofgross phenomena or things. The intention
of the vipashyana teachings of the first half ofthe mahayana
teachingsthe second turning of the wheel of dharmais to extend
thisunderstanding to include the lack of true existence even of the
most subtle phenomenon,including atoms and subatomic matter and
energy, time, and all forms of consciousnessitself. These two
understandings together are referred to as two-fold egolessness,
theselflessness of the individual and the selflessness of
phenomena, and are both included inthe terms sunyata or
emptiness.
The second half of the mahayana teachingsthe third turning of
the wheel ofdharmagoes on to teach that emptiness is not simply a
mere nothingness, nor merely theother side of the coin of
interdependence, nor even simply a state beyond all
conceptuality.The third turning teaches that this emptinesswhile
lacking any limiting characteristics,such as color, shape, size,
location, substance, or gender, and being empty of all cognitiveand
emotional obscurrationsis not empty of its own nature, the radiant
clarity of mindand reality, which we refer to as clear light, in
which all the positive qualities of intelli-gence, wisdom,
compassion, skillful means, devotion, confidence, etc., inhere as
oneundifferentiable quality. Various manifestations of this quality
arise out of the clear lightnature in the form of the deities of
the vajrayana tradition such as the Medicine Buddha,Vajrayogini,
Tara, or Chenrezig. And although it is said from the standpoint of
relativetruth that these deities actually do exist as individual
beings who can be supplicated, theyexist as such because, and only
because, the qualities that they embody were alreadyinherent in the
clear light nature, the buddha nature, of their own minds when they
wereconfused sentient beings, just as they inherently exist today
in the minds of all confusedbeings.
The essential nature of all deities can be better understood by
understanding theessential nature of their body, speech, and mind.
The body of the deity is the union ofappearance and emptiness and
emerges in the practitioners experience when the experi-ence of
perceiver and perceived is purified. What is it purified of?
Grasping and fixation.Grasping or clinging to a self, and fixating
on an other. In the words of Guru Rinpoche,Perceiver and perceived
when purified are the body of the deity, clear emptiness.
The speech of the deity is the union of sound and emptiness. We
all know that sound isintangible, but sounds without the experience
of their emptiness have tremendous power
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4 SHENPEN SEL
to hurt us, to insult us, to exalt us, to exhilarate us, etc.
But when sounds and verbalcommunications are experienced as mere
sounds, as the union of sound and emptiness,their power over us
dissolves and we experience perfect equanimity.
The mind of the deity is the union of awareness and emptiness.
The experiences of thefive sense consciousnesses and of the mental
consciousness give rise to a constantly chang-ing kaleidoscope of
thoughts, mental afflictions, and subtle dualistic perceptions
whichhave the power, in the absence of the experiential
understanding of their emptiness, toinvolve us in the most
outrageous, outlandish, though sometimes very subtle, melodramasof
the mind. But when their essential emptiness is recognized, and one
ceases to welcomeand reject, they dissolve or are self-liberated in
their own place, the space of empty aware-ness. All deities share
these three aspects of the essential naturewhich we also
callmahamudra or dzogchenand all practitioners who practice deity
meditation with suffi-cient diligence and perseverance will come to
realize this very same naturethe body,speech, and mind of the
deityin themselves as they become the deity.
At the same time, each deity has its own particular relative
blessing. If one meditateson Chenrezig, ultimately one will realize
mahamudra or dzogchen, and attain buddhahood.But in the short run,
one will experience a strengthening of ones loving kindness
andcompassion. If one meditates on Green Tara, ultimately one will
attain enlightenment, butin the short run, one will experience
freedom from fear and mental paralysis, the in-creased ability to
accomplish ones objectives, and an increase in active compassion.
If onemeditates on Manjushri, in the end one will attain
enlightenment, but in the short run onewill experience an increase
in intelligence, insight, and wisdom. If one meditates on
theMedicine Buddha, one will eventually attain enlightenment, but
in the meantime one willexperience an increase in healing powers
both for oneself and others and a decrease inphysical and mental
illness and suffering. Whether or not we have a very strong motive
toattain buddhahood, we all desire these sorts of relative
objectives, so deity meditationprovides tremendous incentive for
the practice of dharma.
And yet deity meditation is just another version of shamatha and
vipashyana. Whenone meditates on the form, the attire and other
attributes, the entourage and environ-ment, and the internal
mandala of a deity, and when one recites the deitys mantra, one
ispracticing shamatha; and when one realizes that all that one is
meditating on is mereempty appearance, one is practicing
vipashyana. But because meditation on the deity andon the union of
the deity and ones own root lama instantly connects one with the
emptyclear light naturewhich is the essence of the deity, the guru,
and the lineage, as well asbeing ones own essential naturethe power
of this form of shamatha to purify the mind ofthe practitioner of
the mental obscurations blocking his or her insight is
immeasurablygreater than that of ordinary tranquillity meditation
on mundane objects like the breathor a flower or a candle flame.
And since the forms upon which one is meditating are meremental
fabrications, their emptiness is more immediately apparent than,
say, the empti-ness of something like the Jefferson Memorial or the
Washington Monument.
This is all possible because of the special quality of the
vajrayana, which takes enlight-enment as the path, rather than
seeing it merely as a goal. Through the three processes
ofabhisheka, which ripens the mental continuum; oral transmission,
which supports onespractice; and the teachings, which liberate, one
is connected directly to the enlightenedstate transmitted by the
guru and the lineage. Thereafter, when one practices or
merelybrings to mind those teachings, one is instantly reconnected
with that compassionate
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SHENPEN SEL 5
primordial awareness, and this constant reconnecting then
becomes ones path, bring-ing with it the rapid purification of
mental defilements and the rapid accumulation ofmerit and wisdom.
The recognition of this connection is the uncovering of ones
ownwisdom. If it goes unrecognized, it still exists in the
practitioners mental continuum asa seed, which will gradually ripen
according to conditions.
The teachings on the Medicine Buddha in this issue of Shenpen
sel present thestages of practice of the Medicine Buddha Sadhana.
In it the Very Venerable KhenchenThrangu Rinpoche elucidates not
only the details of this particular practice, but alsomany of the
basic principles of tantric theory and practice in general: the
notion ofdeities and buddha realms, the principles of samayasattva
and jnanasattva, the prin-ciples of emanating and gathering, and
the use of offerings to cultivate qualities, tomention a few. For
anyone engaged in any vajrayana practice, this teaching is
veryuseful in understanding the foundations of tantric practice,
and a garden of delights.
Thrangu Rinpoches teachings on the Medicine Buddha Sutrathe next
seventeachings in this serieswill be carried in the next issue of
Shenpen sel.
a a a
The reader will notice that most of the deities in this
particular mandala are male.One should not conclude therefrom that
this is typical of tantric mandalas. Thereare some mandalassuch at
Arya Tara, Vajrayogini, and Chdin which the deitiesare virtually
all female, others that are balanced, and others that vary slightly
moreone way than the other.
a a a
Also included in this issue is a remarkable teaching on
mahamudra by Gampopa,elucidated by the Very Venerable Tenga
Rinpoche. It will be of notable interest toanyone who thinks that
they are getting somewhere or anyone who actually is
gettingsomewhere with their mahamudra practice. In five short
sentences, Gampopa de-scribes the stages one must accomplish on the
path to buddhahood.
a a a
Finally, one will find an update on the activities at Kala
Rongo, the womens monas-tery in eastern Tibet, and on the other
activities of Lama Norlha and KagyuThubten Chling in eastern
Tibet.
Lama Tashi Namgyal
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6 SHENPEN SEL
Medicine Buddha
A Practice That Is Extremely EffectiveIn the Removal of
Sickness
In the Cascade Mountains in Washington, in June of 1999, the
Very VenerableKhenchen Thrangu Rinpoche led an eight-day retreat to
teach the MedicineBuddha Sadhana and Medicine Buddha Sutra.
Rinpoche gave the teachings inTibetan; they were orally translated
by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso. The following isan edited transcript.
I would like to begin by welcoming all of you here today and
thanking youall for coming. I am delighted to have this opportunity
to meet with you, tostudy the Medicine Buddha practice together
with you, and to talk withyou about dharma. As usual, we are going
to begin by reciting the lineage sup-plication. While doing so,
please generate strong devotion for the root guru andthe other
gurus of the lineage, such as Vajradhara, Tilopa, Naropa, and so
forth.
[Recitation of lineage supplication.]First, in order to listen
to the teachings properly, please generate the atti-
tude of bodhicitta, which is necessary for the practice of
dharma in general, and
TTTTThe Vhe Vhe Vhe Vhe Very Very Very Very Very Venerable
Khenchen Tenerable Khenchen Tenerable Khenchen Tenerable Khenchen
Tenerable Khenchen Thrangu Rhrangu Rhrangu Rhrangu Rhrangu
Rinpocheinpocheinpocheinpocheinpoche
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SHENPEN SEL 7
particularly for the practice of something likethe Medicine
Buddha. While listening to theteachings, please think that you are
listening tothem and will practice them in order to be of
thegreatest possible benefit to all beings.
We might think that there issomething of a contradictionbetween
the motivation withwhich we might practice theMedicine Buddha and
the moti-vation of bodhicitta. We mightthink that fundamentally we
arepracticing the Medicine Buddhain order to benefit our ownbodies,
whereas the motivationof bodhicitta is the wish to ben-efit all
beings. But in fact thereis no contradiction, because, inorder to
be effective in benefitingother beings, we need to accom-plish an
excellent samadhi ormeditative absorption; and inorder to
accomplish that, to-gether with the insight andrealization that it
brings, we need to have astable practice. In order to have a stable
andprofound practice, we need to be physically andmentally healthy
or comfortable, because bybeing comfortable in our body, and
comfortablein our mind, we will be free of obstacles to dili-gence
in practice and free of obstacles to thecultivation of meditative
absorption. So there-fore, we are practicing the Medicine Buddha
inorder to attain states of mental and physicalhealth or balance,
not merely for our own ben-efit, but for the benefit of others as
well.
There is, therefore, no contradiction betweenthe motivation you
might have for practicing theMedicine Buddha and your motivation
for prac-ticing dharma in general. We practice dharma inorder to
attain buddhahood, and we practice theMedicine Buddha in order to
attain that samegoal. We may be practicing it specifically inorder
to attain a state of mental and physicalhealth in this life, but
when we practice theMedicine Buddha in this way, we are not
reallylimiting our motivation to our attainment of
mental and physical health, because by means ofthat practice we
can accomplish great benefit forourselves and others; and we can
successfullycomplete our practice of dharma in the sense
ofattaining buddhahood.
Furthermore, by practicingthe Medicine Buddha, we notonly
achieve health in this lifebut we cause ourselves to beblessed by
the Medicine Buddhathroughout all future lives aswell. And through
cultivating thestages of the practice of theMedicine Buddhathe
genera-tion stage and the completionstagewe not only achievebenefit
for ourselves, but we areactually cultivating the potentialto
benefit others. And by doingthese practices we actually blessthe
environment and all thebeings in that environment.
The practice of the MedicineBuddha is fundamentally a
mental practice, a practice of meditation. Now,you might wonder
how something you are doingprimarily with your mind could affect
your body.How could practicing the Medicine Buddhapreserve your
physical health or alleviate physi-cal sickness? You might think
that the mind andbody are fundamentally unrelated, and
thattherefore the practice of meditation cannotaffect our bodies.
In fact, our bodies and mindsare extremely interrelated. The body
supportsor is the container for our mind, but the body isalso based
upon or supported by the mind.Therefore, the practice of meditation
does affectyour body and your physical state. Specifically,in the
meditation practice of the Medicine Bud-dha, in addition to
visualizing the MedicineBuddha in front of you, you are also
visualizingyour own body as the body of the MedicineBuddha. These
and other visualizations, and therecitation of the mantra and so
forth, whichinitially or primarily seem only to affect themind, do,
therefore, eventually affect the body aswell.
We are practicingthe MedicineBuddha in orderto attain statesof
mental andphysical health orbalance, notmerely for ourown benefit,
butfor the benefit ofothers as well
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8 SHENPEN SEL
We practice fundamentally with our minds,but this practice does
affect and benefit both themind and the body. As is generally
taught, whatwe identify as our mind consists of eight differ-ent
consciousnesses, or functions of conscious-ness. These arise the
way they do because of theconnection between body and mind. For
ex-ample, one of the eight consciousnesses is theeye consciousness,
the visual consciousness. Thisconsciousness is a function of three
things: itsobject, which is visible forms; its organic sup-port,
which is the eye as an organ of vision; andthe consciousness, which
is the mind functioningin connection with these two. Now, the point
ofthis is that the visual consciousness never arisesin isolation
from an object and an organic sup-port. It arises because the
organic support iscapable of detecting its appropriate objectinthis
case, visible form. Therefore, because theobject, the organ, and
the consciousness are sointimately interrelated or inter-connected,
the transformation ofany one of these will necessarilyaffect the
aspect or manner of theother two. Therefore, just aswhen an object
is changed, thataffects the visual consciousness ofthat object in
dependence uponthe organ; and when the organ ischanged, that
affects the visualconsciousness and therefore theperceived objects;
in the sameway, when the consciousness istransformed, as it is
through thepractice of meditation, thataffects the perception of
objectsand the organic support itself.
In the same way, our othersenses arise as consciousnesses
inconnection with their objects and their organicsupports. Based
upon the organ of the ear, therearises what is called the ear
consciousness orhearing, which experiences its object,
audiblesounds. In dependence upon the organic supportof the nose,
there arises the nose consciousness,which detects smells. In
dependence upon theorgan of the tongue, there arises the tongue
consciousness, which detects tastes. And independence on the
organic support of the bodyand the nerves of the body, there arises
the bodyconsciousness, which detects or experiencestactile
sensations. All of these consciousnessesarise or are generated by
the presence of anobject which is encountered by its
appropriateorgan. Sometimes they arise based upon theorgan itself
experiencing the sensation, but inany case, the sensations of the
five senses thatwe experience are functions of the organs andthe
objects experienced by these organs, whichgenerate appropriate
consciousnesses. Becausethe consciousness pervades the experience
of itsobject and the experience of the organ itself, ifthe
consciousness is transformed, or ones modeof experience of
consciousness is transformed,into pure appearance, then the
appearances ofthe objects, and also of the organs themselves,will
become pure or sacred. It is in this way that
the practice of this form ofmeditation can benefit not onlyyour
mind but also your body.
In addition to the five senseconsciousnesses, the
sixthconsciousness, which is themental consciousness, alsoarises in
connection with physi-cal experience. Now, accordingto the
abhidharma, the mentalconsciousness does not relyexclusively upon a
specificphysical organ support the waythe five sense
consciousnessesdo. The condition that leads tothe arising of the
mental con-sciousness is the previousmoment of that
consciousnessitself. Generally speaking, this
arises to some extent on the impressions pro-duced by the
physical experience of the senses.So, indirectly, we could say that
the organ sup-port for the mental consciousness is the momen-tum of
all of the consciousnesses connected withsense experience. But the
mental consciousnessitself is that which generates and experiences
allof the varieties of emotion and thought that we
When theconsciousness istransformed, as itis through thepractice
ofmeditation, thataffects theperception ofobjects andthe
organicsupport itself
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SHENPEN SEL 9
knowattachment, aversion, bewilderment,apathy, pride, jealousy,
feelings of joy and de-light, feelings of sadness, feelings of
faith andcompassion, etc.all of these different emo-tional states
and all of the thoughts connectedwith them are varieties of
experiences of thesixth or mental consciousness. Now, as
thesevarious thoughts and emotionspass through our minds,
theytransform and influence thatconsciousness itself. But not
onlythatthey also affect the fivesense consciousnesses. For
ex-ample, when you are very sadand you look at something, youwill
perceive it as sad, or asunpleasant. If you look at theidentical
object when you arehappy, you will see the samething as pleasant.
And if you lookat it when you are angry, you willsee, again, the
same object asentirely different. This is a verysimple example of
how the men-tal consciousness in particularand our mind in general
affectsour experience of sense objectsand the sense
consciousnessesand the sense organs themselves.
Of the eight consciousnesses,the most evident in our experience
are these sixconsciousnesses, or six functions: the five
senseconsciousnesses and the mental consciousness.But there are, in
addition to these, two otherfunctions of mind, which are called
stable orunderlying consciousnesses or functions. Theseare the
seventh consciousness, which is thesubtle mental affliction, and
the eighth con-sciousness, which is called the all-basis.
Theseventh consciousness, the consciousness whichis the root of
mental affliction, refers to thesubtle, fundamental misapprehension
of anexistent self, the fixation on a self. This fixationis itself
the root of samsara. It is not, however,regarded as an unvirtuous
or negative thing initself. It is morally neutral. But because it
isignorance and the basis of further ignorance, it
is regarded as the most fundamental and impor-tant thing to be
abandoned or relinquished. Infact, we could say that the teachings
ofbuddhadharma are mainly about how to abandonthis fixation on
self. It is for that reason thatthere is so much emphasis in
buddhadharma onthe meditations on selflessness, emptiness, and
so forth. Through these medita-tions one can realize
selfless-ness, through which one relin-quishes the kleshas,
throughwhich one attains liberation.
The meditation upon self-lessness, however, and specifi-cally
the meditation upon thelack of true existence of thepersonal self,*
does not consistof trying to imagine or convinceyourself that you
are nothingwhatsoever. It is done, espe-cially in the visualization
prac-tices of the generation stage oftantra, by replacing your
solidsense of your own existence withsomething else. In the case
ofthe Medicine Buddha practice,you relinquish the thought, Iam me,
I am the person I think Iam, and replace it with thethought, I am
the Medicine
Buddha. The primary technique in the medita-tion consists of
imagining yourself to be theMedicine Buddha, conceiving of yourself
as theMedicine Buddha. By replacing the thought ofyourself as
yourself with the thought of yourselfas the Medicine Buddha, you
gradually counter-act and remove the fixation on your personalself.
And as that fixation is removed, the powerof the seventh
consciousness is reduced. And asit is reduced, the kleshas or
mental afflictionsare gradually weakened, which causes you
toexperience greater and greater well-being inboth body and
mind.
By replacing thethought ofyourself asyourself with thethought
ofyourself as theMedicineBuddha, yougraduallycounteract andremove
thefixation on yourpersonal self
*Editors note: The meditation on selflessness is tradition-ally
divided into realizing the lack of true existence of apersonal
self, what we usually think of as the self, andrealizing the lack
of true existence of phenomena.
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10 SHENPEN SEL
The eighth consciousness is the all-basisconsciousness, so
called because it is the groundon which habits, both good and bad,
accrue. Weexperience things the way we do because of thehabits we
have accumulated. Aswe accumulate good habits wehave positive
experiences, and aswe accumulate bad habits wehave negative
experiences. Thefundamental reason for ourimmersion in samsara is
theaccumulation of bad habits, somemore virulent than others.
Theprocess of getting ourselves outof samsara consists of
graduallyweakening the bad habits andstrengthening the good
habits.For example, when we begin topractice, we have no
confidencewhatsoever that we really are theMedicine Buddha. We have
a strong negativehabit of regarding ourselves as whomever weregard
ourselves to be. But through cultivatingthe technique and attitude
of regarding our-selves as possessing the body, the speech,
themind, the qualities, and the blessings of theMedicine Buddha,
then these natural qualitieswithin us will increase.
The main practice in vajrayana consists of thegeneration stage,
the cultivation of thepractice of regarding oneself as a deity.
From anordinary point of view, we might regard this asuseless. We
would think, Well, I am not a deity.What use is there in my
pretending to be adeity? But in fact, the root of samsara is
thehabit of impure perception. By regarding oneselfas a deity one
gradually purifies, weakens, andremoves that habit and replaces it
with thepositive habit of pure perception. It is for thisreason
that the meditation upon oneself as adeity is considered so
important.
In most religious traditions, the deities ofthat tradition, when
they are related to or imag-ined, are imagined in front of one.
Then, visualiz-ing the deity or deities as being present in frontof
one, one prays to them, and by doing so hope-
fully one receives their blessing, which benefitsone in some
way. In the vajrayana tradition,however, we regard the blessing and
the powerand the qualities of the deities as being innate,
as being within ones own mind.This innate presence of thewisdom
and blessings of thedeities in our own minds iscalled the unity of
the expanseand wisdom, or the unity ofspace and wisdom. Of course,
itis true that when we look at ourminds, we have mental
afflic-tions, we have thoughts, wehave all kinds of suffering
andproblems. But at the same timewe always have the innatepotential
to transcend these.And the reason why we havethis innate potential
is that the
nature of the mind and the nature of everythingthat arises in
the mind is emptiness. Regardlessof what is passing through your
mind, your mindis always a boundless space of emptiness.
The innate potential of our minds lies in thevery fact that our
minds are empty. Because ourminds are empty, all of the problems
and suffer-ings and defects that arise in our minds can beremoved
or purified, because they too are empty.This emptiness of the mind
is not absolutenothingness; it is not a static or dead or
neutralemptiness, because, while emptiness is indeedthe nature of
the mind, the nature of that empti-ness is wisdomit is the innate
potential for thearising of all qualities. In Buddhist
scripturesthis innate potential is called buddha nature.
Now, the process of working with our lifesituation through
practice in tantric Buddhismconsists first of acknowledging that
ones ownbasic nature is that potential, that buddha na-ture, and
then of meditating upon its presencewithin one by regarding oneself
as a deity. Theform of the deity is the embodiment or expres-sion
of that potential, that unity of emptinessand wisdom, within one.
It is through regardingoneself as the deity that defects are
graduallyeradicated and qualities gradually revealed. The
The process ofgetting ourselvesout of samsaraconsists
ofgraduallyweakening thebad habits andstrengtheningthe good
habits
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SHENPEN SEL 11
The primarytechnique ofvisualization isto visualizeourselves as
thedeity, becausethe potential totranscend ourproblems isinnate
ratherthan externalto us
primary technique of visualization is to visual-ize ourselves as
the deity, because the potentialto transcend our problems is innate
rather thanexternal to us. Therefore, our main practice
inmeditation upon deities is the self-generation ofthe deity,
visualizing oneself as the deity.
If you ask is this the only way in which wework with deities,
the answer isno. We also visualize deities infront of us. Now, in
the commontradition* of Buddhism, as isfound in the scriptures of
theTheravadin tradition and so onwhich I cannot read in the Palibut
have read in Tibetan transla-tionwe find an extensive pre-sentation
by the Buddha thatthere is no external deity to berelied upon, that
the path con-sists fundamentally of eradicat-ing ones own kleshas,
therebyeventually attaining the state ofan arhat or arhati without
re-mainder. Thus in the sutras ofthe common vehicle, the state
ofliberation is presented as free-dom from all kleshas,
limitations,and attachment, but not particu-larly as an abiding
wisdom.
However, in the sutras of the mahayana, andespecially in the
teachings of the vajrayana, it isclearly taught that once someone
attains fullliberation and buddhahood, they do not becomenothing.
The process of purification finallyreveals, and therefore there
remains, an endur-ing wisdom that is of the nature of
nonconcep-tual compassion. The attainment ofbuddhahood, the path
through which it is at-tained, really begins with the generation
ofbodhicitta, which is the intention to attainliberation so that
one can bring all beings to thesame state. Because that is the
motivation withwhich the path is begun, when the result, which
is buddhahood, is attained, the result of thatpath is naturally
spontaneous, impartial, andnonconceptual compassion. Therefore, we
regardbuddhas as having an awareness that is respon-sive to the
needs of beings, and therefore asbeing open and accessible to our
prayers andsupplication. For that reason, while we prima-
rily visualize ourselves as dei-ties, we also visualize the
deitiesas present in front of us.
We supplement the visualiza-tion of ourselves as the deitywith
visualizations such asimagining the actual wisdomdeities themselves
dissolvinginto ourselves again and again,by means of which we
receivetheir blessing. Sometimes wevisualize the deity in front of
us,separate from ourselves, think-ing that rays of light from
thedeitys heart engulf and pervadeus, granting the blessing of
thedeity. And sometimes we visual-ize that rays of light,
whichembody the blessing of thatdeity in front of us, strike
allbeings, removing their obstacles,
increasing their longevity, wisdom, and so on. Allof these
visualizations are methods by which wearouse the compassion of all
buddhas and causetheir blessings to enter into ourselves and
oth-ers.
All the yidams and deities used in meditationhave the same
fundamental nature and areutterly pure. Nevertheless they have
differentappearances, which reflect the different activi-ties that
they embody and engage in. Thesedifferent activities are primarily
determined bythe individual aspirations they made at the timeof
their initial generation of bodhicitta. Forexample, in the case of
the Medicine Buddha,there is a specific set of aspirations, as
there isin the case of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara orthe
bodhisattva Arya Tara. It is primarily for thisreason that deities
manifest in their variedappearances sometimes appearing as male,
in
*Editors note: The common tradition is a way of referringto
those teachings held in common by all traditions ofBuddhism, which
are the teachings on personal liberation ofthe hinayana or lesser
vehicle.
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12 SHENPEN SEL
lineage of the practice which serves to conse-crate or bless
your practice in the form of sound.Because the lineage has been
transmitted as thesound of the words of its transmission, when
thereading transmission is given to you, you simplylisten to the
sound and think that by doing soyou receive the blessing of the
lineage.
Today I will give the reading transmission,the lung, for the
Medicine Buddha practice. Theempowerment for the practice, I will
give onSunday. With regard to the empowerment, youshould understand
that the Medicine Buddhapractice is not solely a vajrayana
practice. Likethe practice of mahamudra, it is a combination
ofvajrayana [tantra] and sutra. For example, whilewe could say that
mahamudra is primarilytaught in the vajrayana, it is also found in
certainsutras, such as the Samadhiraja Sutra, and soforth. In the
same way, this practice of the Medi-cine Buddha is a combination of
what the Bud-dha taught about the Medicine Buddha in thesutras of
the Medicine Buddha and in varioustantras. Because it is connected
with vajrayana,it is most appropriate to receive the empower-ment
to enhance the practice; but because it isalso connected with the
sutras, it is acceptable todo the practice without the empowerment
aswell. As you are receiving the reading transmis-sion today, there
is no particular visualizationyou need to do. Maintain the
motivation ofbodhicitta for receiving the transmission, andthink
that simply by hearing the sounds of thewords as I read them you
receive the transmis-sion or blessing of the lineage of this
practice.
[Rinpoche gives the reading transmission.]To give you a support
for your visualization of
the Medicine Buddha when doing the practice, Iam going to give
each of you a small image of theMedicine Buddha. So please, in
order to receiveit, come up.
[Rinpoche hands out cards.]
which case they primarily embody upaya ormethod; sometimes
appearing as female, inwhich case they primarily embody prajna
orwisdom; sometimes appearing as peaceful,sometimes appearing as
wrathful, and so on. Inthe case of the Medicine Buddha, at the time
ofhis initial generation of bodhicittawith whichact he began the
path that culminated in hisattainment of buddhahoodhis primary
motiva-tion was to remove all suffering of beings ingeneral, but
especially to remove the physicaland mental sufferings of beings
caused throughthe imbalance of the elements, which we know ofas
mental and physical illness. This was hisprimary motivation or
aspiration throughout thethree periods of innumerable eons during
whichhe gathered the accumulations of merit andwisdom that
culminated in his attainment ofbuddhahood as the Medicine Buddha.
Therefore,as the Medicine Buddha, he possesses extraordi-nary
ability and engages in extraordinary activ-ity to pacify sickness.
Whether you access thisactivity through visualizing yourself as
theMedicine Buddha, or through arousing thecompassion and activity
of the Medicine Buddhaas conceived of as external to yourself, in
eithercase, the practice of the Medicine Buddha issupremely
effective in the removal of sickness.
The practice of the Medicine Buddha comesprimarily from the
uncommon tradition ofthe vajrayana, which means that the
transmis-sion of the practice is done using three pro-cesses called
the empowerment, which ripens;the instruction, which frees; and the
readingtransmission, which supports. The function ofempowerment,
the formal ceremony or ritual ofempowerment, is to introduce you to
the prac-tice and to the process of visualization and soforth,
which will make up the practice. Thefunction of the instruction,
which frees, is togive you complete access to the practice bymeans
of telling you literally how to do itwhatyou do with your body,
what you say with yourspeech, and what you think with your mind.
Thefunction of the reading transmission, whichsupports, is to
transmit the blessing of the
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SHENPEN SEL 13
Continuing the Very Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoches
teaching on theMedicine Buddha.
We are now going to start going through the text itself, the
liturgyfor the practice, so that you will understand how to do it.
As youwill have noticed, the first part of the Medicine Buddha
practiceis the lineage supplication, which consists of the
supplication of the princi-pal Medicine Buddha, the seven
accompanying Medicine Buddhas, thesixteen bodhisattvas, and
finally, the holders and propagators of the teach-ings of the
Medicine Buddha. The purpose of reciting this supplication at
thebeginning of the practice is to invoke and receive at the very
beginning ofthe practice the blessing of the Medicine Buddha
through the power of yourfaith in and devotion to the deity and to
the lineage of this teaching.
The supplication begins with one line in the language of
Sanskrit:
NAMO BEKENDZE MAHA RADZAYE
This means, Homage to the great king of medicine. The initial
homageto the Medicine Buddha as the great king of medicine is done
in Sanskritbecause the source of the teachings of the vajrayana in
particular, and of thebuddhadharma in generalthe original sutra and
tantra teachings of the
Medicine Buddha
The Great King of Medicine Is Active inPacifying the Suffering
of Beings
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14 SHENPEN SEL
Buddha Shakyamuniwere given primarily inSanskrit. Moreover, the
mahasiddhas,bodhisattvas, and shravakas of India also prima-rily
used Sanskrit as their dharma language.Therefore, in order to
maintain a connectionwith the source of the tradition, and because
theSanskrit language itself is held to bear greatblessing, the
initial supplication is made inSanskrit, after which follows the
main body ofthe supplication of the Medicine Buddha inTibetan.
The first stanza of the supplication is ad-dressed to the
principal Medicine Buddha, andis based on the Buddha Shakyamunis
presenta-tion of the Medicine Buddhas initial motivationfor his
path and the aspirations he made inconnection therewith, as
recorded in the sutrason the Medicine Buddha.*
You are endowed with an oceanic treasury ofqualities and
merit;
By the blessing of your inconceivable compassionYou calm the
suffering and torment of sentient
beings.I supplicate you, Light of Lapis Lazuli.
The meaning of the stanza is that, because ofthe quality and
special nature of his initialmotivation and ensuing aspirations,
the Medi-cine Buddha very quickly accumulated vastamounts of merit,
as a result of which, while onthe path and finally at the time of
fruition orbuddhahood, he came to embody a vast treasuryof
qualities associated with awakening. There-fore, because of his
initial compassionate motiva-tion and because of the qualities of
his awaken-ing, he possesses inconceivable blessing, byvirtue of
which, in accordance with his aspira-tion and motivation, he is
active in pacifying thesufferings of beings. So in chanting the
beginningof the supplication, you mention him by name,referring to
him as the Light of Vaidurya.
The second stanza is also addressed to theMedicine Buddha, and
it continues from thepresentation in the first. In the first stanza
youwere essentially praising the fact that he embod-ies
extraordinary merit and qualities as a resultof his extraordinary
motivation and aspirations.Upon his initial generation of
bodhicitta theMedicine Buddha made twelve particular aspira-tions.
In connection with these, the benefits ofrecollecting the name of
the Medicine Buddhabegin to be specified in the second stanza.
Those bound by very intense greedAre born in the hungry ghost
realm.If they hear your name, they are born human and
take delight in generosity.I supplicate you, victorious
Menla.
Recollection of the name means keeping thename of the Medicine
Buddha in mind by havingan attitude of faith and devotion to the
MedicineBuddha. The stanza says that even someone who,as a result
of intense greed, is destined to bereborn as a preta or hungry
ghost, if such aperson hears the name of the Medicine Buddha,they
will be reborn as a human being and willdelight in generosity. In
that way, you supplicatethe Medicine Buddha by referring to the
poweror blessing of his name.
The next stanza gives a second benefit ofrecollecting and
hearing the name of the Medi-cine Buddha.
Violating morality and abusing others,Beings are born in the
hell realms.Hearing your name, they are said to be born in
the higher realms.I supplicate you, King of Medicine.
Those who violate moral commitments andwho actively harm or
abuse others will be rebornin the hell realms. This refers to those
who haveno interest in maintaining the dharma commit-ments they
have undertaken, who have no inter-est in benefiting others, and
who are only inter-ested in harming them. But if even such a
personhears the name of the Medicine Buddha, theywill be reborn in
higher realms. By simply hear-
*Editors note: The Medicine Buddha, when understood asan
individual buddha who once was a sentient being, predatesthe Buddha
Shakyamuni. Therefore, our knowledge of him isbased, at least
initially, on the teachings that arose spontane-ously out of the
supersensible cognition of the BuddhaShakyamuni.
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SHENPEN SEL 15
ing the name of the Medicine Buddha, theirinherent capacity for
virtue will be awakenedand they will gradually become interested
inacting appropriately and benefiting others.Changing their course
of action, they will not bereborn in a lower realm.
The next stanza describes a third benefit ofhearing or
recollecting the name of the MedicineBuddha.
Whoever by repeated dissension and slanderCreates serious
schisms and takes life,Hearing your name, they cannot harm others.I
supplicate you, King of Medicine.
Those who are naturally jealous, competitive,and arrogant, and
as a result, find themselvesalways trying to produce dissention;
who, whenseeing that others are friendly and
harmonious,automatically try to create discord; who createschisms
where there is harmony and discordeven to the point where it leads
to loss either oftheir own life or the lives of others; even
some-one with this jealous, competitive, and arrogantnatureif they
hear the name of the MedicineBuddha, will be unable to cause harm.
Unable tocause harm means that their mindset and theirattitudes
will change. They will cease to bejealous, cease to be arrogant,
and will graduallyfind themselves unwilling and therefore unableto
intentionally bring this kind of harm to oth-ers.
There are two sutras principally concernedwith the Medicine
Buddha. One is the Sutra ofthe Medicine Buddha, which is concerned
withthe principal Medicine Buddha, his twelveaspirations, and the
benefits of recollecting hisname. The second is the Sutra of the
Eight Medi-cine Buddhas, or the Sutra of the Eight MedicineBuddha
Brothers. The medicine buddhas re-ferred to in this sutra are the
previously men-tioned principal one and seven others who formhis
retinue. The next stanza in the supplicationis concerned with the
other seven medicinebuddhas. They each have their own
individualaspirations. Some of them have made eightaspirations;
some have made four. And the
recollection of their names brings benefits simi-lar to those
brought about by the recollection ofthe name of the principal
Medicine Buddha.
Excellent Name, Appearance of Stainless FineGold,
Glorious Supreme One Free of Misery, Resound-ing Dharma
Melody,
King of Direct Knowledge, King of Melody,And King of Shakyas, I
supplicate you all.
These seven buddhas are named Tshen Lek,or Excellent Name; Ser
Zang Dri Me Nangwa, orAppearance of Stainless Fine Gold; Nya NgenMe
Chok Pal, Glorious Supreme One Free ofMisery; Ch Drak Yang,
Resounding DharmaMelody; Ngn Khyen Gyalpo, King of DirectKnowledge;
Dra Yang Gyalpo, King of Melody;and Shakya Gyalpo, King of the
Shakyas.
The next stanza is a supplication to the otherdeities in the
mandala of the Medicine Buddha.These are not listed in their
entirety, but eachset of deities is mentioned briefly and a few
ofthe names of each set are mentioned.
Manjushri, Kyabdrl, Vajrapani,Brahma, Indra, the Four Kings of
the Four
Directions,The twelve great Yaksha chiefs, and so forth,I
supplicate you, entire and perfect mandala.
The first class of deities after the eightmedicine buddhas are
the sixteen bodhisattvas.Here three of them are mentioned:
Manjushri,Kyabdrl, and Vajrapani. The next class are theten
protectors of the world, or of the directions,of whom two are
mentioned, Brahma and Indra.The next class are the four great kings
of thefour directions, who are also protectors, notmentioned here
by their individual names.Finally there are the twelve yaksha
chieftains,or yaksha generals, and they too are just men-tioned as
a class. The last line of the stanzaindicates that this is the
supplication of theentire mandala of the Medicine Buddha.
Up to this point you have supplicated theprincipal Medicine
Buddha and his retinue, andin doing so have supplicated the body of
theMedicine Buddha and the mind or the emana-
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16 SHENPEN SEL
tions of the Medicine Buddha. What remains isto supplicate the
speech of the Medicine Bud-dha; having supplicated the buddhas
andbodhisattvas of the mandala, you next supplicatethe dharma.
The Sutra of the Seven Tathagatas Aspirations,And the Sutra of
the Medicine Buddha,The treatise by the great abbot
Shantarakshita,
and so forth,I supplicate all the volumes of the genuine
dharma.
Mentioned first are the two sutras taught bythe Buddha
Shakyamuni about the MedicineBuddha: the Sutra of the Aspirations
of the SevenTathagathas, which means the seven medicinebuddhas in
the retinue, and the Sutra of theMedicine Buddha, which is the
principal medi-cine buddha. Mentioned in the same stanza arethe
shastras,* which also form part of the scrip-tural source for the
Medicine Buddha tradition.These are referred to by mentioning as an
ex-ample the treatise of the great abbotShantarakshita, which is
one of the oldest ororiginal sources of the Medicine Buddha
prac-tice. And then you chant, I supplicate the genu-ine dharma in
the form of books. The reason forthis is that in general, of
course, dharma existsin the form of the written word. But it has
aspecial significance in the case of this mandala.The
self-generationthe form of the MedicineBuddha with which you
identify your ownbodyis the Medicine Buddha alone, withoutretinue.
But the front visualization is the Medi-cine Buddha surrounded by
all the rest of themandala. The first circle of the mandala
immedi-ately surrounding him consists of the otherseven medicine
buddhas and the volumes of thedharma as the eighth member of the
retinue.During this supplication you visualize the Medi-cine Buddha
seated in the sky in front of you inthe center of a fully opened
eight-petaled lotusand surrounding him, on each of the seven
petalsother than the one directly in front of him, the
seven other medicine buddhas. On the lotuspetal directly in
front of the principal MedicineBuddha, you visualize the volumes of
thedharma, the sutras, and so forth, that present hispractice.
The next stanza of the supplication suppli-cates the lineage of
this practice.
Bodhisattva Shantarakshita, Trisong Deutsen,and others,
Translators, scholars, kings, ministers,bodhisattvas,
And all genuine lamas of the lineage,Powerful One of the Dharma,
and others, I
supplicate you.
First mentioned are those who first broughtthis tradition of the
Medicine Buddha from Indiato Tibet. Where it says bodhisattva, it
means theabbot Shantarakshita, who bestowed this teach-ing on many
students, including the Tibetandharma king Trisong Deutsen, who is
mentionednext. Then supplicated are all of the translatorsof Tibet
and the panditas of India who enabledthis tradition to spread to
Tibet through trans-lating it, teaching it, explaining it, and so
on.Next are supplicated all of the other inheritorsof this
tradition, bodhisattvas who took the formof dharma kings, ministers
and so on. Finally, allthe gurus of the lineage of this practice
aresupplicated, and in particular ones own rootguru. This
supplication was composed, and thepractice in general was edited,
by the learnedand accomplished master Karma ChagmeyRinpoche, and so
he supplicates his own rootguru, Chkyi Wangchuk, by name here.
The final stanza of the supplication dedicatesthe power of the
supplication to the ends thatyou wish to achieve.
Through the blessing of this supplication,May the diverse
temporal diseases and dangers
of this life be stilled.At death, may all fear of the lower
realms be
calmed.Grant your blessing that afterwards we are born
in Sukhavati.
The stanza reads, Through the blessing of*Editors note: Shastras
are commentaries on the originalteachings of the Buddha.
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SHENPEN SEL 17
supplicating in this way,which means by theblessing of
supplicating the Medicine Buddha,his retinue of buddhas,
bodhisattvas, and protec-tors, and all the teachers of the lineage,
withdevotionin the short run may the variousdiseases, dangers, and
fears be pacified, and atthe time of death, after all fear of being
reborn inthe lower realms has been pacified, grant yourblessing
that we may be born in Sukhavati, theland of great happiness and
great bliss. You areexpressing your wish here to be protected
fromsuffering both in the short term and in the longterm. In the
short term you are asking to beprotected from sickness andvarious
other dangersfromwhatever can go wrongin thislife. In the long
term, you areasking that you not be reborn inlower states or in
lower realms,and that, once the danger andfear of being reborn in
the lowerrealms have been transcended,you may achieve rebirth
inSukhavati, the realm ofAmitabha. That completes thelineage
supplication.
After the lineage supplication comes thetaking of refuge and the
generation of bodhicitta,which, as necessary preliminaries, are
alwaysrecited at the beginning of any vajrayana prac-tice. Each has
a specific function. The function oftaking refuge is to prevent
your practice frombecoming an incorrect path. The function
ofgenerating bodhicitta is to prevent your practicefrom becoming an
inferior path. In the case ofthis practice, each of these
aspectsrefuge andbodhicittaoccupies two lines of a
four-linestanza.
NAMO to the sources of refuge, the three jewelsAnd the three
roots, I go for refuge.
The first line of the refuge identifies thesources of refuge,
and they are two: the threejewels and the three roots. The three
jewels,which are the common sources of refuge,* arethe Buddha, in
whom one takes refuge by accept-
ing him as a teacher and an example; thedharma, in which one
takes refuge by acceptingit as a path; and the sangha, in which one
takesrefuge by accepting the sangha as companionsand guides on that
path. Identifying the threejewels as the initial source of refuge
indicatesthat by taking refuge in them you are freeingyourself from
the possibility of an incorrect path.
Then there are the uncommon sources ofrefuge, which are unique
to vajrayana. They areknown as the three roots: the gurus, who are
theroot of blessing; the yidams or deities, who arethe root of
attainment; and the dharmapalas, or
dharma protectors, who are theroot of activity. First of these
arethe gurus, who are the root ofblessing. Blessing refers to
thepower of dharmathat which indharma is actually effective,
thatactually brings the result ofdharma. Obviously in practicingwe
need that effectivenessthatpower or blessing of dharmatoenter into
us. The original sourceof this blessing, of course, is the
Buddha, who first taught the dharma in thisparticular historical
period. Unfortunately, wedo not have the ability in this life to
meet theBuddha or hear the Buddhas speech directly.But we do have
the opportunity to practice histeachings and to attain the same
result we couldhave attained had we met the Buddha, becausethe
essence of his teachingsand therefore theblessing or effectiveness
of his teachingshasbeen passed down through the lineage, begin-ning
with the Buddha himself and culminatingwith our own personal
teacher or root guru.Therefore, the first source of refuge in
thevajrayana are root and lineage gurusand,especially the root
guruwho are the source ofthe blessing of dharma.
The second source of refuge in the vajrayana,the second root,
are the yidams, the deities, whoare the sources of attainment or
siddhi. Whilethe guru is the source of the blessing and effec-
*Editors note: common to all traditions of Buddhism.
The function oftaking refuge isto prevent yourpractice
frombecoming anincorrect path
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18 SHENPEN SEL
tiveness of dharma, the guru cannot simply handyou the result or
attainment of dharma practice.The source or root of that
attain-ment is your practice. And yourpractice is embodied by
theyidam or deity which is the basisof that practice. This means
thatyou attain the result of dharmapractice through engaging in
thetechniques of visualizing the bodyof the deity and engaging in
thegeneration and completion stagepractices which are
associatedwith that deity. In this specificinstance, the yidam is
the Medi-cine Buddha. By identifying with the body of theMedicine
Buddha, you attain the result, theattainments or siddhis,
associated with theMedicine Buddha, which include the
pacificationof sickness and other sufferings.* The reasonwhy these
deities are referred to as yidams,which literally means mental
commitment, isthat in order to practice dharma you have tohave a
clear direction and strong focus in thetechnique and method of
practice. The idea ofyidam is that a certain practice and, in the
caseof vajrayana a certain deity, is identified by you
as that practice to which you commit yourself,that direction in
practice which you will take. A
yidam is the deity about whichyou think, I will practice this.
Iwill come to attain this result.
The third vajrayana source ofrefuge, the third root, are
thedharmapalas, the protectors,who are the root of
activity.Activity here means the protec-tion of your practice from
ob-stacles, so that you can success-fully complete it and bring it
tothe appropriate result, so thatyou will be able to benefit
others
effectively in a way that is in accordance withthe practice. In
order to achieve these ends youneed this blessing of activity or
protection. Thisis gained chiefly from specific bodhisattvas
whotake the form of protectors, and, in certain cases,dakinis. In
the specific case of the MedicineBuddha, when the Buddha taught the
MedicineBuddha sutras, there were certain deities whocommitted
themselves to protecting these teach-ings and all practitioners of
these teachings,including even those who merely recollect thename
of the Medicine Buddha. These protectordeities are represented in
the mandala, and theyinclude the twelve Yaksha chieftains, the
fourgreat kings, the ten protectors of the world, andso on. In this
way, you are taking refuge byaccepting the Buddha as a teacher; his
teachings,the dharma, as a path; the sangha as companionsand guides
on that path; and you are takingrefuge by requesting the blessings
of the gurus,attainment through the yidam, and the protec-tion of
the dharmapalas and dakinis. That is thetaking of refuge, which
serves to protect yourpractice from becoming an incorrect path.
Next comes the generation of bodhicitta,which serves to protect
your practice frombecoming an inferior path.
To establish all beings in buddhahood,I awaken a mind of supreme
enlightenment.
It is true, of course, that our basic motivation
*Editors note: The practice of any yidam deity will result inthe
attainment of both the ultimate and relative siddhis. Theultimate
siddhi is the stable realization of the radiant clarityor clear
light nature of mind and all reality which we know ascomplete and
perfect enlightenment or buddhahood. Therelative siddhis are such
qualities as loving kindness,compassion, intelligence, the wisdom
of insight, spiritualpower, protection and the removal of
obstacles, good health,longevity, wealth, magnetism, etc. The
practice of a deityyields first the relative siddhis. If we pray to
Chenrezig, thefirst result beyond the simple development of
concentrationwill be an increase in loving kindness and compassion
in ourexperience. If we pray to Manjushri-Sarasvati, we
willgradually experience greater perspicacity, strength of
intellect,and facility with music and language. If we
practiceMahakala, we will experience protection and the removal
ofobstacles, if we practice White Tara we will develop
greaterinsight and longevity, if we practice Green Tara we
willexperience liberation from fear, the quick removal of
obstacles,joy, compassion and upliftedness. If we practice
Vajrayoginiwe will begin to develop mahamudra siddhi and
increasedwarmth and magnetism. If one practices both the
develop-ment and completion stages of any deity with
sufficientdevotion and application, one will eventually attain
fullrealization, at which point all of the siddhis of all of
theyidams will be spontaneously present.
The function ofgeneratingbodhicitta is toprevent yourpractice
frombecoming aninferior path
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SHENPEN SEL 19
The idea behindgeneratingbodhicitta is torecollect that
allbeings withoutexception wish tobe happy inexactly the sameway
and toexactly the samedegree as we do
for practicing is that we all wish to be free fromsuffering.
This wish to be free from suffering isgood. But it is often
somewhatlimited, which is to say that it issomewhat selfish, and it
is oftensomewhat petty or small-mindedin scope. The idea behind
gener-ating bodhicitta is to recollectthat all beings without
exceptionwish to be happy in exactly thesame way and to exactly the
samedegree as we do. If you bring thatto mind fully, then your
aspira-tion to attain freedom for your-self will expand and become
anaspiration to bring all beings tothat same freedom. This
aspira-tion has to be a long-term aspira-tion. It is not enough
simply toaspire to free beings from acertain type of suffering, or
tofree them from the suffering theyare undergoing now, or to free
them from thisyears suffering. For it to be the aspiration
ofbodhicitta, which is the fullest and most exten-sive motivation,
you must have the attitude ofwishing to establish beings in a state
that willpermanently free them from all suffering. Now,the only way
that you can actually make beingspermanently happy is to bring them
to a state offull awakening, to buddhahood. So ultimately,the only
way to protect beings from suffering isto establish them all in
awakening, because theysimply will not be happy until they have
attainedit. If you understand thisthat all beings wish tobe happy
just as much as we do and that none ofus can be happy until we
attain awakeningthen you will naturally give rise to
bodhicitta,which is the intention to bring each and everybeing to a
state of full and perfect awakening.Bodhicitta also includes within
it, of course, theaspiration to be of any other assistance you
canto beings along the way to accomplishing thatultimate goal. So
it is not limited to any specificform of assistance.
If bodhicitta has been genuinely generated,then your motivation
for practice will be re-
flected in your thinking, I am practicing inorder to bring all
beings to awakening; I am not
practicing merely because I amafraid of my own suffering
orbecause I wish to protect a fewothers from suffering or becauseI
wish to protect all others froma few types of suffering. In thatway
your motivation for thepractice of the Medicine Buddhabecomes
bodhicitta, which is theattitude: In order to bring allbeings to a
state of buddhahood Imust first attain the state of theMedicine
Buddha in order to beable to do so effectively, becausein my
present state I cannoteffectively protect or benefitothers.
The refuge and the genera-tion of bodhicitta are followed bythe
blessing or consecration of
the place and the materials of practice.
From the expanse of primordial purity come forthClouds of
offerings filling the earth and skyWith mandalas, articles of
royalty, and goddesses.May they never be exhausted. PUD DZA HO.
The reason for this stage of the practice isthat at any given
moment we have an impureperception* of and an impure attitude
towardsourselves, towards others, and towards theenvironment as a
whole. The more we invest inthat impure perception or attitudein
theperception of things as impurethe worse oursituation will
become, and the more attachmentand aversion and apathy we will find
ourselves
*Editors note: It is important to note that these
impureperceptions and attitudes are not stable, but are
constantlychanging moment by moment according to changing causesand
conditions. Thus, in one moment one might think quitehighly of
oneself and actually see oneself as attractive,intelligent, and
charming, and in a subsequent moment feelquite depressed about
oneself and see oneself as tiresome anddreary. These perceptions
and attitudes go through myriadchanges, but they are all impure in
the sense that we arealways seeing projections of ourselves,
others, and the environ-ment, and not things as they truly are.
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20 SHENPEN SEL
By regardingthings as pure,you will graduallystart to
perceivethings as pure,which will purifythe habitualtendency
toperceive themas impure
generating. The remedy for this is simply tochange our attitude
and to regard things as pure.Initially, of course, this takes
someconscious effort. But by regardingthings as pure, you will
graduallystart to perceive things as pure,which will purify the
habitualtendency to perceive them asimpure.
At this point the liturgy reads,Clouds of offerings emanatedfrom
the primordially pure ex-panse fill the sky and the earth.You
imagine that the place inwhich you are practicing is acompletely
pure realm filled withevery imaginable type of pleasantoffering
substance. This realm andthese offerings, although you areimaging
them, are not imaginary.They have been there from the very
beginning,which is why it says in the liturgy emanatedfrom the
primordially pure expanse. From thevery beginning, this is how
things actually are,how things actually have been. You are not
creat-ing them by imagining them, nor are you foolingyourselves by
imagining them. It is rather thatour present mode of perception is
like being inthe midst of a nightmare from which we hope towake up;
and when we wake up from it, we willsee things as they are. It is
important to under-stand that you are imagining things to be what
infact they really are.
The offering substances contained in this purerealm include such
things as offering mandalas,the seven articles of royalty, and
various otherkinds of offerings that are specified in the
liturgy,together with gods and goddesses who presentthem, and so
on. All of these offerings are inex-haustible; they are unlimited
in amount, they areperfect in quality, they do not just disappear,
andthey never get used up. This section is both theconsecration of
the offerings and the consecrationof the place of practice. And the
attitude withwhich this is done is that you are starting topurify
your otherwise impure perception of yourenvironmentof your body, of
your mind, and of
all the other materials and implements in yourenvironment.
Following the consecrationof the offerings is meditation onthe
four immeasurables. Thefour immeasurables are fourattitudes that
are to be culti-vated without limit, which iswhy they are known as
immea-surable, or unlimited. Unlim-ited means no limit on howmuch
and no limit on forwhom. The first immeasurable,in the usual
enumeration, islove. Immeasurable love meansno limit on how much
love andhow much compassion yougenerate, and especially nolimit on
for whom you generateit.
May all beings be happy and free of suffering.May their
happiness not diminish. May they
abide in equanimity.
Intrinsic to all four of these attitudes isimpartiality. When
enumerated separately,impartiality is the fourth of the
fourimmeasurableslove, compassion, empatheticjoy, and impartiality.
However, when you actu-ally practice them, you need to begin with
thecultivation of impartiality. We all have somedegree of love,
some degree of compassion, andsome degree of empathetic joy. But in
order tomake these genuine and to make them immea-surable we need
to cultivate impartiality, whichis why it is to be cultivated
first. When we saythat we all have some degree of love, we meanthat
we all wish that some beings be happy andpossess causes of
happiness. We all also havesome degree of compassionwe all wish
thatsome beings be free from suffering and thecauses of suffering.
The problem is that wegenerally wish these things only for
certainbeings and do not particularly care about whathappens to
other beings. Although our love andcompassion are indeed love and
compassion,they are partial; and because they are partial,
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SHENPEN SEL 21
If you do notcultivateimpartiality in thebeginning,
bystrengtheningyour love forsome you maygenerateaggressionfor
others
they are impure and incomplete. If you cultivateimpartiality,
they become unlimitedwhichmeans that they become perfect. So the
firststage in the cultivation of the fourimmeasurables is to
cultivate impartiality to-wards beings, which means cultivating
theattitude that you have the sameamount of love and the sameamount
of compassion for allbeings. And then, on that basis,you can
strengthen the attitudeof lovethe desire that beings behappy and
possess causes ofhappinessand by strengthen-ing it you will
strengthen thatattitude towards all beings ingeneral. If you do not
cultivateimpartiality in the beginning, bystrengthening your love
for someyou may generate aggression forothers. Therefore, you need
firstto cultivate impartiality, andthen, on the basis of
impartiality,to cultivate the other threelove, compassion, and
empathetic joy. However,in the text they are listed in the usual
order,which places impartialityhere referred to asequanimityat the
end.
Essentially love consists of wanting others tobe happy, and
compassion consists of wantingothers not to suffer. These two
attitudes, ofcourse, are excellent. But if they are presentwithout
any way to bring about what you wishif your love is without any way
to bring about thehappiness of beings and your compassion isdevoid
of any way to remove the sufferings ofbeingsthen they will actually
become a causeof greater suffering and sadness for you. You willbe
more sensitive to the sufferings of othersbecause of your attitude,
but will feel unable tohelp. And so, instead of just the other
beingsuffering, two beings will sufferyou will sufferas well. If,
however, the attitudes of love andcompassion include the
understanding of howyou can actually bring about happiness
andfreedom from suffering, then these attitudes donot become
sources of depression. Therefore we
expand the attitude of love from may all beingsbe happy to may
all beings be happy and pos-sess causes of happiness, and expand
the atti-tude of compassion from may all beings be freefrom
suffering to may all beings be free fromsuffering and free from
causes of suffering.
While you cannot confidentlyexpect to be able to make allbeings
happy on the spot, youcan gradually cause beings toaccomplish or
accumulate causesof happiness and to avoid and getrid of causes of
suffering. Andbecause you understand that inthe long term you will
be able tomake beings happy and freebeings from suffering, then
theseattitudes of love and compassionbecome not only confident
butactually joyous. In this way, theeffect of love and compassion
isno longer sadness and depres-sion but empathetic joy, which isthe
third immeasurable. In this
way, you train or cultivate the fourimmeasurables as a
preliminary for meditationon the Medicine Buddha.
Now to apply the four immeasurables to thespecific context of
the Medicine Buddhapractice: Since the primary cause of suffering
inthis case is the physical affliction of sickness,and since that
is the initial focus of this practice,you can focus on that in your
meditation on thefour immeasurables. Thinking that it is in orderto
remove the sickness of beings that you arepraying to the Medicine
Buddha, meditatingupon the Medicine Buddha, reciting the Medi-cine
Buddhas mantra, and so on, you couldformulate the four
immeasurables in the follow-ing way: Immeasurable love would be the
atti-tude, May all beings possess the happiness ofwell-being and
the causes of that. Immeasurablecompassion would be, May all beings
be freefrom sickness and the causes of sickness. Im-measurable
empathetic joy would be rejoicing inthe well-being of others and in
their freedom
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22 SHENPEN SEL
There is always aresult from doingthis practice, butthe way in
whichthe result willmanifest is notabsolutelydefinite
from illness. And immeasurable impartialitywould be generating
these aspirations andattitudes not merely for those you know, such
asyour own friends and family, butfor all beings without
exception.
When you do the MedicineBuddha practice with the inten-tion and
aspiration to benefityourself and others in this way,sometimes you
will perceive anevident benefit: Either you orsomeone else will be
freed fromsickness in a way that youidentify as a result of
yourpractice. This will give yougreater confidence in the
prac-tice. At other times, no matterhow much you practice and
howhard you pray and how many mantras you say,you will not perceive
any evident benefit. Andthis will cause you to doubt the practice,
andyou will think, Well maybe it doesnt really
work. But you need to remember that the benefitof this practice
is not like the direct physicaleffect of the function of a machine,
such as some-
thing that emits a laser beam.There is always a result fromdoing
this practice, but the way inwhich the result will manifest isnot
absolutely definite. So in yourattitude towards the results
ofpractice, you need to have a long-term focus. In that way you
cankeep the practice focused on thefour immeasurables.
That completes the prelimi-naries to the Medicine
Buddhapractice. I am going to stop therefor this afternoon, and we
willconclude with the dedication of
the merit of this teaching to the liberation of allbeings.
[Dedication of merit.]
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SHENPEN SEL 23
Medicine Buddha
The Visualization Uncovers the InherentPurity of Phenomena
Continuing the Very Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoches
teaching onthe Medicine Buddha.
Yesterday we discussed the lineage supplication of this
practice,the refuge and bodhicitta, the consecration of the
practice placeand the materials, and the meditation on the four
immeasurables.Today we are going to begin with the actual
visualization of oneself as theMedicine Buddha, which causes the
blessing of the Medicine Buddha toenter into one, and the
simultaneous visualization of the mandala of theMedicine Buddha in
front of one, which serves as an object of ones sup-plication and a
field for the accumulation of merit through making offer-ings.
The visualization is begun by purifying your perception of the
entireworld, including your own body and mind. This is done
initially throughthe single recitation of the mantra of the pure
nature or the mantra ofthe purity of dharmata:
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24 SHENPEN SEL
OM SOBHAWA SHUDDHA SARWA DHARMASOBHAWA SHUDDHO HAM
The meaning of the mantra reflects its sig-nificance. Following
the initial syllable Om, thenext word is swabava, which means the
nature,and then shuddha, which means pure. Ordi-narily the things
that appear to usthe world ofexternal appearances and our internal
perceiv-ing mindappear to us as being impure becauseof the presence
of the kleshas and otherobscurations in our minds. What is meant
hereby the pure nature is that, although we perceiveappearances and
our minds in this impure way,this is not their actual nature. While
they seemto be impure, in fact, in their nature, in and
ofthemselves, they are pure. Following the state-ment pure by
nature, are the words sarwa,which means all, and dharma, which
meansthings. So the mantra states that all things arepure in their
nature.
The term dharma usually has one of twomeanings. One meaning is
sadharma or thegenuine dharma, the teachings of the Buddha,and the
other meaning is thing, things in gen-eral, anything that can be
known. Here it refersto things.
The mantra continues with the wordsswabava shuddha a second time
and then AHum. Because of the way that Sanskrit linkswords, the
second shuddha and A Hum arejoined together to become shuddho ham.
Againswabava shuddha means pure in its nature ortheir nature; A Hum
can mean self or the veryembodiment of something. Here it is
understoodto mean that not only are all things pure in theirnature,
but that they are in and of themselvesthe very embodiment of that
purity. So thismantra is essentially a statement of why thepath can
lead to the result. Because things arepure in their nature, because
this purity ispresent within the nature of things, then it
canmanifest as experience and as a resultthroughtaking that
inherent purity as a path. For ex-ample, because sesame oil is
present withinsesame seeds, then by pressing the seeds you
canextract the oil. If there were no oil present
within the sesame seeds, you could not get oil,no matter how
hard you pressed the seeds.Because the hidden nature of things is
theirpurity, then by regarding things as pure, you candirectly
experience them as pure; you can di-rectly experience their purity.
The swabawamantra is used here to point this out, and also
tointroduce or begin the samadhi which will culmi-nate in the
visualization of yourself as the Medi-cine Buddha.
Following the recitation of the swabavamantra, you say the
Tibetan words, tong pa nyidu jur, which means that everything
becomesempty or becomes emptiness.
Everything turns into emptiness.
This describes the beginning of the visualiza-tion. At this
point you imagine that everythingdisappears, that everything
becomes empti-nessnot only in how it is but in how it mani-fests.
However, it is important to remember thatyou are not pretending
here that things areother than they are. You are using the
imaginarydissolution of things into emptiness as an ac-knowledgment
of the fact that things have been,from the very beginning,* empty
in their nature.
The dissolution of ordinary impure appear-ances into emptiness
is the first part of a two-step process that serves to counteract
our usualsuperimposition of impurity onto appearances.**The second
step is the emergence from or withinthat expanse of emptiness of
the pure appear-ances which are the realm and palace of theMedicine
Buddha.
From the depth of emptiness, this triple universe
*Editors note: Buddhism, of course, does not assert any sortof
cosmological beginning, so the use of beginning here hasthe same
meaning as from beginningless time.
**Editors note: This superimposition of impurity ontoappearances
is the same as referred to by Nagarjuna, in InPraise of the
Dharmadhatu: The phenomena that appear tothe mental consciousness,
the chief of them all, are conceptu-alized and then superimposed.
When this activity is aban-doned, phenomenas lack of self-essence
is known. Knowingthis, meditate on the dharmadhatu. The swabava
mantraand the ensuing sadhana, as well as all other sadhanas
andcompletion stage practices are methods for training the mindto
abandon this activity of superimposition.
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SHENPEN SEL 25
The significanceof the lion throneis primarily thesense of
utterfearlessnessindicating thedeitys freedomfrom fear anddanger
ofany kind
becomesThe exquisite palace, where
The first step is to think that all of the impureappearances
dissolve into emptiness, and thesecond is that from within
thatemptiness the realm and palaceof the Medicine Buddha emerge.Now
when you imagine that theplace in which you are practicinghas
become the realm and palaceof the Medicine Buddha, you donot limit
this consideration tothis world or to this planet alone.As it says
in the liturgy, it is theentire billion worlds of thislarger world
system, or galaxy.
There are two ways that youcan do this practice. The simplestway
is to visualize yourself as theMedicine Buddha. The moreelaborate
way, which is indicatedin the liturgy, is also to visualizethe
Medicine Buddha, surrounded by his reti-nue, present in front of
you as well. It is easierfor beginners to do the self-visualization
alone;on the other hand, doing the front visualizationas well gives
one the opportunity to gather theaccumulation of merit. In either
case, in themidst of the realm of the Medicine Buddha,which you
have visualized as emerging from theexpanse of emptiness, there is
a palace. Thispalace is square, and quite symmetrical. In thecenter
of each of the four sides is a large gate-way, each forming an
entry into the palace. If youare doing the practice with both self
and frontvisualizations, you need to visualize two palaces:one in
the center of which you will sit as the selfvisualization; and one
in front of you and some-what elevated, which will serve as the
residencefor the front visualization.
On lion thrones, each with a lotus and moon diskon top
Appear deep blue HUNGs, the seed syllable ofmyself and the main
figure visualized in thefront,
In the center of the self-visualizations palaceis a throne made
of gold and jewels and otherprecious substances that is upheld by
eight snowlions. The significance of the lion throne isprimarily
the sense of utter fearlessness
indicating the deitys freedomfrom fear and danger of anykind. On
top of the throne is afully opened lotus flower, on topof the
center of which, lying flat,is a moon disc, on top of whichyou will
be visualizing yourselfseated in the form of the Medi-cine Buddha.
In the center of thepalace in the front visualization,you visualize
a sixteen-petaledlotus, in the center of which youvisual an
eight-petaled lotus. Inthe center of the eight-petaledlotus, you
visualize another lionthrone, lotus, and moon discseat, as in the
self-visualization.There are eight- and sixteen-
petaled lotuses in the front visualization becausethere will be
additional buddhas andbodhisattvas in those places.
Next, on top of the moon discs in both thefront and self
visualizations, you visualize a bluesyllable HUM.* The HUM syllable
on top of themoon disc in the self-visualization palace repre-sents
the essence of the mind or wisdom of theself-visualization deity,
and the blue HUM on topof the moon disc in the front-visualization
palacerepresents the essence of the mind or wisdom ofthe
front-visualization deity. This particularsyllable HUM is used
because HUM is the soundof dharmata, the expression as sound of
thenature** itself. It is blue because that is thecolor of the
deity who will emerge from thesyllablethe Medicine Buddha is blue,
as isVajradharabut also because blue representsthat which is
unchanging and unfabricated.***
*Editors note: These syllables are to be visualized inTibetan
script.
**Editors note: the true nature, the ultimate nature
***Editors note: This color blue is generally described asdeep
blue, the color of an autumn sky high in the mountains.
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26 SHENPEN SEL
Having visualized the syllables, you then visual-ize innumerable
rays of light radiating from eachof these syllables simultaneously.
On the end ofeach ray of light are innumerable offering god-desses
holding various offering substances whichthey present to all the
buddhas and bodhisattvasin all the directions throughout space.
This vastarray of buddhas and bodhisattvas receivesthese offerings
with pleasure, and as a conse-quence their nonconceptual compassion
isaroused, which manifests as their blessingscoming back in the
form of rays of blue lightwhich dissolve into the HUM. Rays of
lightwhich went out bearing offerings are reabsorbedbearing
blessings back into the two HUM syl-lables. Once again rays of
light radiate outwardfrom both HUMs simultaneously, this
timepurifying the entire external world, the entireuniverse, of
everything in it that could possiblycause harm or suffering of any
kind, and alsopurifying the mental continuums of all beingswithout
exception of any kind of suffering ormisery or cause of suffering.
Then the rays oflight are reabsorbed again into their
respectiveHUMs. At that moment the syllables are in-stantly and
simultaneously transformed into theMedicine Buddha.
From which, arises Menla, his body the color oflapis lazuli and
radiating light.
After this transformation, the self-visual-ized Medicine Buddha
that you are identifyingwith is now considered your own body, and
thefront visualization is in front of you. The Medi-cine Buddha is
a brilliant blue in colorthecolor of a precious stone called
vaidurya, gener-ally considered to be lapis lazuli. In
appearancethe Medicine Buddha is luminous and majesticand radiates
innumerable rays of light primarilythe color of his own body.
Yidams can appear in anumber of different wayspeaceful or
wrathfuland frightening; nirmanakaya or sambhogakayain form, and so
on. The Medicine Buddha ispeaceful and in the nirmanakaya form.
He is clothed in the three dharma robes.
Saying that he appears in nirmanakaya formmeans that, though
some yidams appearing insambhogakaya form wear lots of jewelry
andsilken robes and so on, the Medicine Buddhamanifests in what is
called the passionlessappearance of a nirmanakaya buddha,
wearingonly the three dharma robes commonly worn bythe monastic
sangha: the inner and outer upperrobes and the lower skirt.
The Medicine Buddha has two arms.
His right hand in the mudra of supremegenerosity holds an
arura.
His left hand in meditation mudra holds abegging bowl.
His right hand is extended, palm outward,over his right knee in
the gesture called su-preme generosity. In it he holds the arura,
ormyrobalan, fruit. This plant represents all thebest medicines.
The position of his right handand the arura which he holds
represent theeradication of suffering, especially the sufferingof
sickness, using the means of relative truth.Sickness can be
alleviated by adjusting thefunctioning of interdependent causes and
condi-tions by the use of relative means within therealm of
relative truth, such as medical treat-ment and so on. The giving of
these methods isrepresented by the gesture of the MedicineBuddhas
right hand.
His left hand rests in his lap, palm upward,in the gesture of
meditative stability or medita-tion, which represents the
eradication of sick-ness and sufferingand, indeed, the very rootsof
samsarathrough the realization of absolutetruth. From the point of
view of either relativetruth or absolute truth, the fundamental
cause ofsickness and suffering is a lack of contentmentand the
addictive quality of samsara. Therefore,to indicate the need for
contentment, in his lefthand he holds a begging bowl.
Because the mind of the Medicine Buddha isstainless and pure,
his form reflects this in itsexcellence and physical
perfection.
With the major and minor marks complete, hesits in the vajra
posture.
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SHENPEN SEL 27
In the end it isthe dharma thatliberates us fromsamsara
andsickness
He is adorned by what are called the marksand signs, the primary
and secondary indicationsof the awakening of a buddha. In all
aspects ofhis physical formthe crown protuberance, orushnisha, the
image of wheels on the soles of hisfeet, and so forththe Medicine
Buddha isidentical to the Buddha Sakyamuni, with thesingle
difference that the Buddha Sakyamunisskin is golden in color, while
the Medicine Bud-dha is blue. Because the Medicine Buddha
isimmersed in an unwavering samadhi of absorp-tion within the
realization of the nature of allthings, and because this samadhi is
utterlystable, he is seated with his legs fully crossed inthe vajra
posture. You visualize yourself in thisform, and you visualize the
front visualization inthe same form as well.
Everything described up tothis pointthe palace, thethrone, and
the Medicine Bud-dhapertains to both the selfand the front
visualizations. Inthe case of the front visualiza-tion, however,
you will rememberthat the lion throne sits in thecenter of an
eight-petaled lotus,which in turn sits in the center of a
sixteen-petaled lotus. Now on seven of the eight petals ofthe eight
petaled lotus, which surround theMedicine Buddha in the front
visualizationonthe seven petals other than the one directly infront
of the Medicine Buddhaare the sevenother medicine buddhas, the
BuddhaShakyamuni and six others. As is the principalMedicine
Buddha, they are all adorned by thethirty-two marks and the eighty
signs of physicalperfection which grace the body of a buddha.
In particular, on the lotus petals of the frontvisualization
Are the seven Buddhas, Shakyamuni and theothers, and dharma
texts.
On the eighth petal, directly in front of theprincipal Medicine
Buddha, is a volume of thedharma. The reason for this is that in
the end itis the dharma that liberates us from samsara and
from sickness. When we talk about thesadharma, or the genuine
dharma, we are refer-ring fundamentally to the third and fourth of
thefour noble truths: the truth of the cessation ofsuffering and
the truth of the path leading to thecessation of suffering. The
truth of cessation isthe result of practice, which is the
abandonmentor transcendence of everything that is to beabandoned or
transcended.* The truth of thepath is the dharma we practice that
leads to thattranscendence. The dharma in essence is theexperience
and realization of the meaning ofdharma** that is present within
the minds ofthose who practice it and achieve its result.
Byextension, the dharma also refers to the tradi-tion of passing on
that meaning, and therefore
one visualizes that meaningpassed on from the Buddhadown to the
present day in theform of books on the petal di-rectly in front of
the MedicineBuddha visualized in front.
Around them are the sixteenbodhisattvas,Around them are the ten
protec-
tors of the world,And the twelve great chiefs with their
respective
retinues.The Four Great Kings are at the four gates.
Surrounding the seven Medicine Buddhasand the v