Sickness and Healing

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Buddha of Medicine

Courtesy of Himalayan Art Resources

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This illusory heap of a body, which, like others, I possess—

If it falls sick, so be it! In sickness I’ll rejoice!

For it will exhaust my negative karma from the past.

And, after all, many forms of Dharma practice

Are for the sake of purifying the two obscurations.

Lotsawa House presents the following texts as part of our Sickness and Healing Series:

Advice

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.

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.

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

Mantras

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.

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).

Practices

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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

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

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 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.

Prayers

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.

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