Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 38-minute teaching, Choedak guides practitioners through the Medicine Buddha practice, focusing on its ethical prerequisites, visualization sequence, and practical application for healing. He begins with dietary restrictions for practitioners—avoiding meat, garlic, and onions on practice days—and explains these as supports rather than commandments. The core instruction covers the complete sadhana: generating oneself as Medicine Buddha (dark blue, holding medicinal plants and an ambrosia-filled bowl) alongside two bodhisattva attendants; invoking the wisdom being through four hand gestures (hook, rope, chain, bell); reciting the mantra three times while radiating healing blue light to all suffering beings—particularly those in hospitals, natural disasters, and epidemic zones. Choedak emphasizes mantra practice as an extension of compassion rather than magical performance, and offers practical variations: blessing medicine pills before ingestion, breathing the recited mantra onto them, or simply holding sincere intention. He stresses quality of concentration over quantity and concludes with the eight-part offering sequence (water, flowers, incense, lamps, perfume, food, music) using specific hand mudras. Suitable for both beginners receiving instruction and those with prior initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 05 MB.mp3
UUID: ac0c4068-af5e-40e5-badb-ad33d5989f88
Teacher: Choedak
Collection: Medicine Buddha (Choedak)
Date: 2002 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~3,094
So if you are particularly doing the practice, say in the evening, definitely you can’t eat any or have any of those prior to, you know, during the whole day. But if you were going to do the Medicine Buddha practice early in the morning, then it’s okay, you know, you can eat those things after that practice or so. But some strict people who observe, they will just completely stop eating any of those at any other time. But others at least observe on the day of the practice. And if your practice is regular on these things, particularly with the Medicine Buddha, so this is just usually listed as a requirement to facilitate the benefit of the practice to occur.
So, that’s all, and we will have a one hour break, and when we come in, I will be doing short preparation of the Medicine Buddha empowerment, and during that you can do this vajra recitation. And we might do the food dedication prayer, which you have been given. There wasn’t enough copies of food dedication to go around. Yeah.
They were given, weren’t they? Yes. They’ve been given out. Yeah. Those, yeah.
Just share with the person next to you. If not, just listen. There’s a few more copies up there on the bench in that blue box. Yeah. Few more copies there.
So as you can see, the food dedication prayer has om ah hum, om ah hum, om ah hum at the beginning, another vajra recitation for you. Food is vajra, hopefully. So we just like this. Buddha accompanied by two bodhisattvas on your right and left, and then you invoke the symbolic Medicine Buddha in which you appear to be fused with the wisdom being of Medicine Buddha. After you have become the Medicine Buddha, both the symbolic one and the resultant one fuse together, then you recite the mantra of Medicine Buddha on page seven, during which then you visualize rays of light go from your heart.
If you have people you wanted to particularly think about, if you are a physician or if you are a health professional, you do this practice every day, and the beginning of your day best would be the beginning of your day, particularly before you go out and work, then all those people you will be treating and helping and consulting and whatever you’re doing, may I receive them all with kindness and compassion and use this recitation, this mantra recitation to invite them, to anticipate, to receive them with kindness and compassion. So that’s why this mantra recitation that you do actually says that you have to visualize rays of light issue from your heart to all the enlightened realms. From there the blessings come and all the blessings you send to sentient beings, whoever is sick, sad, unhappy, lonely, depressed, whatever they are. You just visualize them. These rays of blue light go to each and every sentient being, sponge their suffering, these rays completely free them, separate them from the suffering, the causes of their suffering by the compassionate hand of the Medicine Buddha. It removes their suffering, makes them to hear the name of the mantra as you invoke.
So, in that way, you really do the main practice. If you are to do this practice for your own health, you’re under medication, you can do the practice. You recite the Medicine Buddha mantra while holding the pills in your hand or in front of you, and then imagine all the blessings of Medicine Buddha absorb into the pills. All the blue rays come from all ten directions, absorb into the pill, and all the pills become just like the pills that were given by the Medicine Buddha, and then you take it. Good medical practitioners in Tibet also do that. They bless all the pills like this.
Actually before giving to people, they bless all these pills like that and then all the pills are already blessed, so to speak. So that’s what happens. So in this case we are going to do as practitioners ourselves, reciting the Medicine Buddha, invoking the blessings, sending healing rays of blessings to all sentient beings, whoever they are, freed from all the illnesses in the big hospitals, nursing homes, streets, in the corners, in the epidemic-ridden places, the places of flood and fire and volcano, natural catastrophe, wherever there are people sick, injured, hurt, all the blessings go. You feel greatly hurt and pained by the sufferings of the world. Then recite the mantra.
Not to make yourself blissful and high up in the space only, you know, you have to have strong emotional feeling, the need of compassion, which makes you to recite the mantra and stay in meditation. So, with this in mind, we just do the Medicine Buddha mantra. After you finish the mantra recitation, as long as you are able to, then you make offerings of the flower, water, incense, lamps, perfume, food, and music as set out on the shrine to the Medicine Buddha as a thanksgiving and offer a praise as well. And then you conclude later on asking the wisdom being to depart and symbolic Medicine Buddha, that is you, remain in the world. Please.
So that’s the practice, very short. So, let’s do the main meditation now. From the state of emptiness, one’s own mind appears in the form of syllable hum, atop a lotus and moon disc. Light rays issuing from the syllable hum accomplish the two goals, then reabsorb into the hum. One’s self appears as the Medicine Buddha. One’s own body is dark blue in color with one face and two hands.
The right hand in the gesture granting the supreme excellence holds an arura, myrobalan, and medicinal plant, and the left in the position of meditation holds a begging bowl filled with ambrosia. Blessing with the splendor of major and minor marks, one is wearing the three Dharma robes and seated with both feet in the vajra posture. To the right is the red Bodhisattva Radiant like the Sun, holding in his left hand a lotus supporting the sun. To the left is the white Bodhisattva Saturating like the Moon, holding in his left hand a lotus supporting a moon. They both make the gesture of Chenrezig with their right hands, are fully adorned with silks and jewels, stand on lotus and moon discs in the posture bowing to the main deity.
The main deity and the retinue are marked with a white om at the foreheads, red ah at the throats, blue hum at the heart. The light shines from the hum in one’s heart, and the Tathagatas of the ten directions are invoked in the sky in front of oneself in the form of victorious Medicine Buddha. Om vajra samaja. So when you do the invocation, which is invoking the wisdom being to fuse with the symbolic Medicine Buddha, that is you, you do this invocation gesture when you recite the mantra. Om vajra samaja.
You just touch your two fists at the heart and then snap your hands across the heart like this. Just like fusing the two. Just a further fusion. Again. Do the hand thing.
Yes. Again. Jah is called hook gesture. You are hooking the wisdom being. Yeah, hook.
So that is why you touch your right index finger on the left little finger. Jah, just like hooking. Jah. Other way around, right index, right this index, just move this. Touch this left little one.
That’s jah, jah, jah, yeah, jah, that’s a jah. That’s called hook gesture. You’re hooking the wisdom being, yeah, in order to jah. Then next is called rope gesture. Rope, hum.
You know, just put the right inside and touch the back, the fist back to back. Yeah? Fist back to back. That’s good. The right one inside.
Right hand’s towards you. Should touch like this. And go like this. That’s a rope. You’re roping the wisdom being.
After hooking, you’re roping. And third one is called chain gesture. Chain is just touching the fist back to back, like a chain. You’re chaining the wisdom being from leaving. Perfect.
Ask to stay. That’s the chain. And the fourth one is ho. It’s the bell gesture. Ho.
And the right hand goes out, left inside. Yeah. Just a gesture for you to feel the wisdom being is completely merged into yourself. Yeah? That’s how I — he’s absorbed non-dually into myself.
Light shines from the mantra syllables around a hum in a moon disc in one’s heart. Make offerings to the noble ones, cleanses the two obscurations of sentient beings. The compassion and blessings of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas return and bless my being. So that’s the visualization. You visualize rays of light issue from your heart, make offerings to the enlightened ones, cleanse the two obscurations. Obscurations — there’s a gross obscuration and subtle. Gross obscuration is karma and defilements.
Karma is the illnesses and all the other things. Obscuration is afflictions and that’s the first obscuration. Second obscuration is knowledge obscuration, grasping to even the purification of the self, the I. So these two are completely purified. And then the blessings of all the enlightened beings absorb into one’s being. So with this in mind, undistractedly you recite the mantra. We do just that. So just recite the mantra a few times slowly as it might be new to you and you don’t know how to say exactly.
So first listen a few times properly and then say it together and then we all recite together. So the meaning of the mantra is there, the translation is there as Tadyatha, thus it is said. Om is homage, Bhaisajya literally means king of medicine. But here is homage to the healing, because king of medicine is the medicine that works. So that means healing really.
Homage to healing, Bhaisajye, to the healing, Maha Bhaisajye, to the great healing. Meaning great healing is not one where you need another healer to heal your sufferings. Great healing is where you exterminate the causes of pain in the first place, causes of illness in the first place. That is only the Medicine Buddha. Enlightened one is one who is a great healer.
He himself is not subject to illness. He himself completely eradicated the suffering, the causes of suffering, the affliction and karma. So therefore here, our own self, when we recite the mantra, we are not so much invoking the Medicine Buddha, the one from outside. We are more invoking the one from within that we can become enlightened so much so that we do not create the cause of suffering. So therefore that is a great healer, is one who doesn’t create the causes of pain that need to be healed in the first place.
Then can heal incessantly to others because of one’s being free from all sufferings. To the great healing, to the healing, the great healing. Rāja Samudgate. Rāja here refers to king, really. King, the great healing refers to king or Rāja Samudgate svaha.
Samudgate, sam means entirely supreme or best. Udgate, may it be, so be it. So in this way the long mantra that you have, you recite usually three times or whatever time permits you. Long and short are usually no different except the longer one is a slightly longer version of the salutation at the beginning. The main mantra itself is the same.
Anyway, so we recite the long mantra three times. So up to now you’ve been appearing yourself in the form of Medicine Buddha and reciting mantra, sending rays of light, compassion and healing to all beings together with the blessings of enlightened beings, healing, sponging the suffering and illness of all beings. So that’s the visualization. Emotionally you have to feel great hurt and compassion for the sufferings of all beings. Then praying and supplicating with utmost feeling of sadness and compassion, devotion, hope that your prayer will make a big difference.
And since it has been a prayer made by the Medicine Buddha, and promise made by the Medicine Buddha, you are simply continuing that solemn prayer by repeating it. So therefore without any hesitation you recite the mantra as many as you can. Longer you recite, that many times you purify negative karma of speech. At least, if no healing has taken place, but if your speech negative karma is purified, that’s quite a lot of healing. So in many ways without any doubts or without letting yourself feel dull and tired and resting on the back and reciting mantra, just sit even more upright and have more concentration on each mantra.
If your concentration doesn’t allow you to recite many mantras, just so be it. Just recite as many as you can and then be sharp and short concentration of healing and blessing. And so don’t drag on doing so many mantras when you’re half asleep, or get tired and still trying to get up the numbers. It’s not really practical. So try to make it as succinct as possible in your everyday life.
At least as I said before, teaching says that when you take medicine, whatever medicine you take, don’t take it just for the sake, without any positive thinking, without any positive thought. But here, incorporate the recitation of mantra, breathe on the pills, the breath with which you recited the mantra, and then swallow it. And as many great masters, like His Eminence, most people don’t get to see him because he’s often in meditation. He often spends hours and hours in meditation. He blesses the boiled water in the morning.
He just breathes on the medicine and all, after his prayers. And most people then distribute the holy water. They take the water everywhere. Whole town gets distributed, this water, and then you get cured. So it doesn’t have to be you, yourself doing the mantra.
Your faith, your real compassion, your real purpose, why you are doing sincerely for the benefit of others, it carries a lot of weight of benefit. So, therefore recite the mantra regularly. And the spirit of the practice is compassion, really. Compassion particularly directed towards illness. You know, who wouldn’t feel compassionate?
You go to visit your friends, carrying a bunch of flowers to visit the hospital. Is it the visiting time? Careful that you’re visiting at the right time. So careful that you’re carrying the right bunch of flowers. You try to do all of that, but what’s the benefit?
Your friend will like it, be happy, but it takes a bit more than that. Send a bit more than that regularly with your daily prayer. Then you don’t have to visit every day. You don’t have to feel so bad. However far away you are, they are there in your prayers and your heart and your compassion.
So therefore, it becomes a completely adequate way of loving and caring for others without necessarily being in the presence of them and appearing as you’re doing a lot. And your heart can do a lot more than physical presence if you do the mantras. So, as a way of concluding, you do the offerings. As it says here, finally, wisdom aspect of the stage of creation appears in the sky in front of you. So the Medicine Buddha appears all of a sudden in the space before you, and then make the offerings and praise and supplication to the Medicine Buddha. You know?
So you are the symbolic being. A wisdom being appears in the space before you, and then you make the offerings. The offerings consist of the drinking water, feet washing water, flower, incense, lamp, perfume, food, music, as you see. That’s arranged from left to right on the shrine here. Whether you have a shrine or not, you just offer mentally, you know, mentally by reciting these mantras.
So if you know, you do the mudra gestures as well for each of those offerings. So that’s the main general mantra. You just recite. Then you’re listing the offerings. That’s drinking water.
You touch the two middle fingers. Fist like this. Fist. Fist like this. Yeah.
Put the two middle fingers up, and then touch like that. Much better gesture than like this. Mudra is just drinking water. Gestures make a lot of difference so please do them in your meditation. Interplaying your body by gesture, your speech by recitation, and meditation by visualizing.
So that’s much more powerful. Argham, drinking water. Why you do this is you’re just pouring the water from jug or whatever with both hands. More polite, isn’t it? Next is feet washing water.
That is also water, so same gesture. And next is flower. So put your middle finger back and then go like that and touch. That’s flower. Flower.
It means flower about to blossom. Yeah? About to blossom. Flower. With your thumb inside the fist.
Yeah? Thumb. Pushpe, this flower. Uh-huh. Give you three.
Let’s do this first three. Yeah. Just get. Argham, argham, padyam again. It’s called drinking water, feet washing water.
And then pushpe, flower. Flower. Good. So pushpe, yeah, flower. And the next one is incense.
Just go to this hand, go up like that. That’s pushpe. Push. So dhupe, that’s incense. Incense.
And holding a bunch of incense sticks. Dhupe. And then next one is easy. Aloke. Just transform it.
Aloke is just the lamp, the flame of the light. Aloke, lamps. And then perfume is gandhe. Gandhe. Just like that.
You’re offering perfume. You’re offering perfume. Rubbing, rubbing, offering. Gandhe. And the next is food.
How do you offer food? Naivedya, please have some. Naivedya, food. And then the last is music, shabda. Shabda is just touch.
So these offerings that you do, and then at the end, ah, so you snap fingers, ah. So the reason why you’re doing this is you’re finally about to conclude your practice, and you’re offering this to Medicine Buddha, first with the two waters, drinking water and feet washing water. You’ve offered the drinking water with a request as you make the offering of drinking water to you. Of course, you are not thirsty, but we are. You know?
Please give us.