Sickness and Healing

• Three Ways of Bringing Sickness onto the Path by Dodrupchen Jigme Tenpe Nyima

In this very short text, Jigme Tenpe Nyima describes the best, middling and inferior ways of using pain and illness as part of the Mahāyāna path.

• How to Transform Sickness and Other Circumstances by Gyalse Tokme Zangpo

This is a classic work on 'bringing difficult circumstances onto the path' (lam khyer), a subgenre of mind training. Tokme Zangpo reveals what it is like to live beyond hopes and fears, and how to face sickness, poverty and death (as well as good health, prosperity and long-life) with joy.

• The Universal Medicine for Healing All Ills by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

Jamyang Khyentse wrote this playful text on the real nature of sickness to console Rabchok, a student who had fallen ill.

• The Mantra Collection that Incinerates All the Diseases of this Kaliyuga by Mipham Rinpoche

This collection of secret mantras, compiled by Mipham Rinpoche in 1898, is said to be especially powerful in overcoming the various forms of disease and harmful influence prevalent in the current age.

• Wrathful Guru Mantra Visualization by Mipham Rinpoche

This visualization and mantra recitation for the Wrathful Guru in dark blue form and mounted upon a wild boar is extracted from the collection called Profound Fierce Mantras to Subdue All Infectious Disease (nad rims kun thub sngags rgod zab mo).

• Dhāraṇī of Goddess Parṇaśavarī by Chögyal Pakpa Lodrö Gyaltsen

A simple practice of Parṇaśavarī consisting of homage (from a longer praise by Chögyal Pakpa Lodrö Gyaltsen), mantra and dedication, which is particularly recommended as a means to heal and dispel contagious disease.

• Daily Practice of Guru Rinpoche, Buddha of Medicine by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

A very simple practice of Orgyen Menla (o rgyan sman bla), Guru Rinpoche as the Buddha of Medicine, consisting of visualization, mantra recitation and dedication of merit.

• Making Great Bliss the Path: Visualisation and Mantra Recitation of Medicine Buddha by Dudjom Lingpa

Taken from the visionary revelation known as the Net of Wisdom (ye shes drwa ba), this is a simple liturgy for meditating upon the Medicine Buddha (Bhaiṣajya Guru; sman bla).

• Daily Practice of Dorje Gotrab by Dudjom Rinpoche

A daily practice of Dorje Gotrab (Vajra Armour) offering protection against sickness, infectious disease and obstacles, which Dudjom Rinpoche adapted from the terma Protective Wheel: Root Sādhana of the Extremely Wrathful Black Hayagriva.

• Guru Yoga for Pacifying Spirits and Sickness of the Heart by Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö

This simple guru yoga focussing on Guru Drakpo with the master Longsal Dorje at his heart is intended as a means to pacify the harm caused by spirits and to cure sickness of the heart; it was composed in 1957.

• Fast Track to Happiness and Peace: A Very Brief Meditation and Recitation of the Medicine Buddha by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo

A simple practice of visualization and mantra recitation for Bhaiṣajya Guru, the Buddha of Medicine, which appears in the Kriyā tantra section of the extended Nyingma Kama collection.

• Sādhana of Bhaiṣajya Guru (Medicine Buddha) by Karma Chakme

A brief sādhana of the Medicine Buddha (Bhaiṣajya Guru) with a special emphasis on pacifying the sickness and mental toxins of all beings.

• Zabchema: Profound Cure, The Practice of Bhaiṣajya-Guru, Lord of Physicians by Karma Chakme

A simple visualization and mantra practice for Medicine Buddha, otherwise known as Bhaiṣajya-Guru, Lord of Physicians.

• Acala Sādhana by Mipham Rinpoche

This simple sādhana of the deity Acala, the 'Immovable One'—here in his dark blue, genuflecting form—is described as a powerful antidote to obstacles including infectious disease.

• The Method to Pacify All Epidemics, Illnesses and Pandemics from the Sixty Solitary Forms of Yamāntaka by Tertön Sogyal

The 54th of 60 texts in Tertön Sogyal's revelation connected with the 'solitary hero' (ekavīra) form of Yamāntaka, this is a special method for pacifying and healing contagious disease. It is among the rituals being performed by the monks of Larung Gar as a means to eliminate the coronavirus pandemic of 2020–21.

• The Verses that Saved Sakya from Sickness: A Prayer for Quelling the Fear of Diseases by Thangtong Gyalpo

This prayer is said to have ended a virulent epidemic which had swept through the famous monastery-town of Sakya, proving effective where all other measures, including tantric rituals, had failed.

• Advice Series

• Medicine Buddha

• Ucchuṣma Series