The Medicine Buddha Sadhana
Take Refuge and Generate Bodhicitta
Place your trust in the Medicine Buddha, his teaching and fellow practitioners. Cultivate
the altruistic aspiration to achieve enlightenment, reflect three times on this meditation.
I take refuge until I am enlightened in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha;
Through the merit I create by practicing giving and the other perfection,
May I attain buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings.
The Four Immeasurable Thought
Develop a heart of kindness towards all beings by reciting the following:
May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness;
May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering;
May all sentient beings never be separated from the happiness that knows no suffering;
May all sentient beings live in equanimity, free from attachment and aversion.
Visualization and Recitation of the mantra
Visualize the Medicine Buddha (Bhaishajyaguru Vaiduryaprabha) above the crown of
your head and make the following invocation once; followed by the mantra recitation many times.
You are endowed with an oceanic treasury of qualities and merit;
by the blessing of your
inconceivable compassion,
You calm the suffering and torment of sentient beings.
I
supplicate you, Light of Lapis Lazuli.
Namo bhagavate, Bhaiṣajya-guru-vaiḍūrya-prabha-rājāya,
tathāgatāya, arhate, samyak-saṃbuddhāya.
Tadyathā: Oṃ!
bhaiṣajye, bhaiṣajye, bhaiṣajya-samud-ga'te svāhā.
(Means) Adoration to the Honorable, medicine-teacher-lapis-light-king, the Exalted-one, perfect
disciple, perfectly enlightened Buddha. Like this: "Om! medicine,
medicine, come for the medicine, So be it!"
Visualize purifying rays of light keep pouring down from the Medicine Buddha's heart (the seed syllabel
"Hrih") eliminating your sicknesses and afflictions due to spirits and their causes, all your
negative karma and mental obscurations. You can include other sentient beings (relatives or pets) by
visualizing them around you; your body and their bodies are completely filled with
light and become clear like crystal.
As you recite the mantra many times, visualize rays of light radiating out in all directions,
purifying the sicknesses and afflictions of all sentient beings of the six realms.
Dedication of Merit by reciting the following once:
Due to this merit may we soon attain the enlightened state of Guru Medicine Buddha
that we may liberate all sentient beings from their suffering and lead them into their
enlightened realm.
*** End ***
Glossary
Arhat (sk., noun, male, Arahant, Pali): worthy one, perfect disciple.
Arhate (noun, passive, male, singular), to Arhat.
Bhaiṣajya (noun, neuter): medicine. Bhaiṣajye (passive, singular), on drug.
Bhaiṣajya-guru: a Budha in the Mahāyāna who epitomizes the power of healing both
on a physical and a spiritual level. By virtue of the twelve vowes he made prior to becoming
a Buddha, beings are guaranteed healing through devotional acts dedicated to him.
Bhagavat (adj.): honorable. Bhagavate (adj., passive, singular), to the Honorable.
Bhagavan (noun, Bhagavant, Pali): blessed one, Lord. Reverential title of a Buddha.
Namas (noun, neuter, singular): adoration, worship. According to Sandhi (rule of sound),
'Namas Bhagavate' becomes 'Namo bhagavate'.
Rāja (noun, male): king. Rājāya (noun, male, passive, singular): to the king.
samud-ga'te: ga'te, come, go, depart; samud, forth, near, for.
Samyak-saṃbuddhā: perfectly enlightened Buddha, an epithet of a Buddha. Other honorific
titles include Bhagavan (Lord), Arhat (worthy one), Tathāgata (thus come one) and Jina (conqueror).
Tathāgata (male, Sk, Pali): One who has thus come/gone (ga'te), an epithet of a Buddha. The Buddha used
the term to refer to himself after he had attained enlightenment (bodhi).
Tathāgatāya (passive, singular), to Tathāgata.
Tibetan Version:
om namo bhagawate beshajye guru
vaidurya prabha rajaya tathagataya
arhte sammyaksambuddhaya tadyatha
om bheshajye beshajye maha beshajye
beshajye rajaya samungate svaha
1 Om: Jewel holder, wish fulfilling one, auspicious one.
2 Namo: prostration
3 Bhagavate: The victorious conqueror
4 Bekhaze (Vaishjaye): medicine Buddha. Guru: spiritual master
5 Bedurya-prabha-raza: king of Aquamarine one
6 Tathagata: The one thus gone (the one medicine) gone to the state of the Buddha like other buddhas
7 Arhate: foe destroyed (one who destroyed the enemy of cycle of birth, aging, sickness and death)
8 Samyak-sambuddha: perfectly accomplished enlightenment of Buddha
9 Bekhaze bekhaze: two times calling the name of medicine Buddha
10 Maha bekhaze: great or supreme physician
11 Bekhazaye raza: King of physicians
12 Samungate: Perfectly liberated or awakened
13 Svaha: being auspicious!
