Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Why do we need the seven Medicine Buddhas? In this 34-minute opening session of a Medicine Buddha retreat, Khensur Rinpoche begins with that question, explaining that all physical disease ultimately arises from disturbing emotions — 84,000 of them, he says, corresponding to 424 types of illness. Ordinary doctors can treat the body, but only Medicine Buddha practice reaches the mental root. He then walks through the core visualization: generating bodhicitta and the four immeasurables, offering the seven-limb prayer, then imagining the seven Medicine Buddhas before you in the sky and requesting healing nectar to flow into your crown, cleansing disease like heavy rain through a drain. He closes with the honey-in-lemon-juice image: one drop won’t make it sweet, and one session won’t cure illness — only sustained, repeated practice brings results.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 MBR 2000-07-22.mp3
UUID: 03f019d4-7dde-4da3-9fe5-3b1ff00da099
Teacher: Khensur Rinpoche
Collection: Medicine Buddha Retreat (Khensur Rinpoche)
Date: 2000-07-22
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 34.2 minutes
Words: ~1,299
How do you do your Medicine Buddha practice? When you do the Medicine Buddha practice, do you recite all the text or no? We won’t be reciting the text today, Medicine Buddha. So which which version you’re reciting normally? The abbreviated one.
So, to develop the motivation here that in order to help entire — sorry. In order to free both oneself and others from the suffering and bring them to the state of ultimate happiness, I shall hear through the practices and the meditation of Buddha. With this motivation, we use our deep breathing prayer, which is which is page one, verse three. I’m very pleased to note that every second Saturday, Saturday, you practices the medicine Buddha. So for the Medicine Buddhas, there are seven — seven in number — and those medicine Buddhas, from the beginning, they developed the love and compassion towards the entire sentient beings, and developed bodhicitta to help the sentient beings.
And especially at this time of the degeneration of Buddha Śākyamūni’s teaching, the people undergo the suffering of many, many types, especially with the different types of disease — and such disease, the different types of disease, like chronic disease and so forth — and they’re suffering, and they suffer from those difficulties. So in order to help those sentient beings, especially who are suffering, this is how the medicine Buddhas come. So and the people, we believe that the people suffer from the diseases because of all the disease illness comes from the disturbing emotion, because from disturbing emotion, people cultivate people cultivate the action or karma. And and according to the karma, people one suffers. So, and talking about this, and about the disturbing emotions, we there are eighty eighty four thousand eighty four thousand disturbing emotions, and each disturbing emotions cultivates the action.
So because of this all because of having huge number of this eighty four thousand disturbing emotions, we we say there are four hundred and twenty four types of diseases people suffer. And about diseases, there are two types. The internal and external, which is the physical and the mental. All the physical illnesses are produced or comes from the mental illness. And the external illnesses or which the physical illnesses can be consulting a doctor.
So, the physical illnesses can be cured by consulting doctors and taking prescriptions, but the mental illnesses cannot be cured by the general doctors. In order to cure the internal, the mental illness or disease, the medicine Buddhas are very helpful, that through the practice of receiving blessings and the distilling of the nectars, one cures the mental illness. So, it is very the oh, curing the mental illness is very, important because by curing the but but by curing the internal Yeah. The mental disease, auto one automatically cures the physical illness as well. But by curing the physical if one yeah.
By curing only the physical illnesses, one will not cure the mental illnesses. So therefore, care of or the mental illness is very important. No? What can say is that minister So, in order to help sentient beings in the future, the seven medicine Buddhas had developed a wish and made prayers as well as cultivated a huge amount of merits or virtues. So at the end, they were able to perfect all the accumulations and as well as able to accomplish or fulfill their wishes.
And finally, they attained the enlightenment in order to help sentient beings. So on their part, the medicine Buddhas, they have they have capability as well as they have power to help us. Now what we need to do here is we need to look for a method and a wisdom to to receive their help. So, on our part, what we require is in we need to have a motivation to help both self and others. And along with that motivation, one develops the kind-heartedness, takes refuge, and develops the bodhicitta, then cultivates the four immeasurables.
And by after having done all these practices, and after the four immeasurables, then one one makes the seven-limb prayers. One does the seven-limb prayers and makes offerings to the Buddhas. And then having made the seven-limb prayers, offering up the seven-limb prayers, then one visualizes all the seven medicine Buddhas in the front space, imagining sitting in the clouds. And then making requests to the seven medicine Buddhas with due respect, imagining in order to cure the diseases and so forth, and along with the request, the nectar flows from the Medicine Buddha and enters from one’s crown aperture and pervades the entire body, imagining like the rain, heavy rain — imagining that all the disease has been purified like a heavy rain cleansing a drain. So the seven medicine Buddhas have the capability to help you to cure your disease, your illness. And so by doing that — this visualization and with the due respect, one requests and does the practices of distilling — yes.
Following the nectar from the medicine Buddhas into your body, and then that medicine cleanses one’s illnesses. And doing that, maintaining that practices, and doing it often, again and again, is very important. And important. Just by one practice of, or doing one visualization of distilling, or befalling the medicine will not cure one’s disease. It is, and doing it again and again is important because it’s like a it’s like a cup with a very strong lemon juice.
And just one drop of honey will not make it sweet. So in order to make that lime juice sweet, the constant drop of honey, the constant drop of honey is required to make it sweet. So like this, just one visualization is not enough. Doing it again and again. So the our practice the practice is like a drop of the honey.
So one practice is not enough. So now, along with the devotion and faith, one makes offerings and takes refuge in the Medicine Buddhas. And and doing so is very important as well. It is appropriate because all the medicine Buddhas are the Buddhas, and they have immeasurable affection, equal affection towards all sentient beings, and and and their affection is very strong. It is their affection towards us.
It’s like the affection a love of a mother to a single child. And they have the capability or power to help us, and they themselves are free from all the fears, and they are skilled and empowered in helping others from others to free from their fears. So, for example, in our in general sense, when when when one gets sick, one needs to take a medicine to cure the disease, or cure the disease. And in order to take the medicines, one has to go to the doctor, a very skilled doctor, to have the proper prescription of what medicine to be taken. Without going to the doctor and sitting, closing oneself in ones house, one will not be free from the disease.
Taking that prescription once is not enough. One needs to take the prescription again and again to cure the disease. So likewise, the medicine Buddhas, they are like doctors, and they have a medicine to cure us. And so in order to receive their prescription, one needs to have due respect and faith in the medicine Buddhas and make offerings and do the recitation. Then by doing this practice, one receives the medicine or nectar from the Medicine Buddhas, and really one will have all these medicines come straight towards one’s illness or disease and ritually cure — cure the — yes.
What I mean is that by prostrating towards all the seven medicine Buddhas, we will receive the blessings and receive the blessings and the nectars from them.