Medicine Buddha

I'm at my best when I remain teachable. Much of the time I have preconceived ideas of the way things are going to work, and as a result I don't pay attention when people have good ideas. Life is better when I have a truly open mind. Last night I was reminded about the antidote to resentment: pray for the well-being of the person resented. I needed to hear that, especially since I've thrown around the same advice in the past, but yet somehow had forgotten it.

It occurred to me later that I do pray for people regularly in the Medicine Buddha Sadhana that I do from time to time. I had included some names on my Medicine Buddha list originally because I wanted to be free of resentments against them, but I had forgotten that purpose. It turns out it works a lot better if you bring the right intention to the prayer, and try to feel it as deeply as you can.

Medicine buddha's aspiration is to clear away the illness (both physical and mental) of all sentient beings, and bring all beings to enlightenment. He's like Shakyamuni Buddha, only with an emphasis on healing. During the ceremony, you visualize yourself as Medicine Buddha, forming in your own mind Medicine Buddha's aspiration to heal all sentient beings. Even if you feel Medicine Buddha is metaphorical, the idea of Medicine Buddha is brought forth during the ceremony, taking residence in your own heart. By visualizing yourself as Medicine Buddha, you realize his potential to heal all beings, because you yourself can then go out into the world and effect positive changes. Thus Medicine Buddha really does help all sentient beings, acting through us. On the other hand, many people take Medicine Buddha to be an actual independent, supernatural entity. As a Buddhist, I'll keep my mind open to the possibility, but also as a Buddhist, I won't accept anything that I haven't personally discovered. That's such a wonderful aspect of Buddhist teaching: we should not take things on faith. Rather we should only accept and adopt that which we have personally verified through introspection, deep looking, mindfulness and meditation.