Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 48-minute talk, Kyabje Rinpoche opens a Medicine Buddha empowerment with preliminary teachings on motivation. He establishes why human rebirth is precious—we can gain control over causes of happiness and suffering—and stresses how death and impermanence make practice urgent. Sickness prevents spiritual work and requires deeper remedy than doctors alone: the spiritual medicine of the seven Buddhas of Healing. Rinpoche walks through a detailed visualization of the Medicine Buddhas stacked in a column directly above the practitioner—the principal Buddha dark blue, bearing medicinal herbs, with six others ascending above in specific colors and gestures, Chenrezig in white on the right and red on the left. He concludes with a request ritual in which each Buddha is invoked and dissolves sequentially into the one below.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1988-12-03 – 1A – Empowerment A – KR.mp3
UUID: c19e50ae-fd0f-4942-9eb6-505d75ac9b05
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Medicine Buddha
Date: 1988-12-03
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,334
So we’re going to begin with this few short preparations before the actual permission is given. Candrakīrti has spoken of how now that we have attained this perfect human rebirth, that we’ve come in contact with the spiritual path, that we’ve heard teachings on the spiritual path, and more than that, that we’ve come in contact with the great vehicle. This is an extremely fortuitous occasion. But in adjusting our motivation, we have to try to raise it to the level of the great vehicle practices, the Mahāyāna. Now, you know, everyone in the world wants to be happy, but no one wants to suffer.
And likewise, we need to find the way we can find the happiness that we’re all seeking, the way that we can eliminate the suffering that none of us want is through a spiritual path. And the method whereby we can actually implement our desire for happiness and elimination of our suffering is simply by eliminating the causes of suffering. By eliminating the causes of suffering, naturally eliminate suffering. By establishing and cultivating the causes of happiness, we will experience happiness. So our practice in order to gain control of our lives is to understand what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected.
So now we’re in an extremely fortunate position that we can begin to gain control over our lives. That we can begin to implement the causes for happiness and begin to work toward eliminating the causes for suffering. And in this we should rejoice, should take a lot of joy in the possibility of actually going beyond the suffering, the dissatisfaction and finding the happiness that we’re seeking. That if we simply begin to act skillfully, that we can that in each moment of our day, in each hour of our day, each each and every day of our life, then we can find the happiness that we’re all looking for and begin to really eliminate the suffering that none of us want. But we, you know, having this fortunate opportunity to actually, begin to find the happiness that we want and go beyond the dissatisfactions, if we don’t actually practice, if we don’t make use of this opportunity, then our human life has gone to waste.
We haven’t done anything with it. But even if we were to make use of it, we’re still not in complete control. We’re still under the influence of outside factors, and this outside factor is the impermanence found in death. That we simply don’t know how long we’re going to live, whether we’re going to have a short life or a long life. It’s only this present occasion that we have to practice.
We simply don’t know when we’re going to die. And we’re also not under the complete control of our lives from the point of view that for most of us we’re under the influence our life is driven by karma, our various actions that we’ve created and the affliction afflictive emotions found within our mind. So it’s extremely rare the opportunity and the the intention to create skillful karma, to to collect positive potentials, positive energy in our life. And if we don’t, then we can only face an endless succession of lives of suffering. So we have to begin to acquaint our mind to accustom ourselves with the thought, now I have this opportunity I can actually do something very significant with the type of life I have and this fortuitous circumstances that I find myself in.
That I can actually go beyond all my mental and physical sufferings and dissatisfactions. I can find real happiness. That I can solve all my problems and pray that in the future that you’ll have the same circumstances that you possess now that in the future you will again and again come in contact with the great vehicle and have the precious human rebirth whereby to practice. And that you’ll have conviction in the Three Jewels going for refuge and beginning to decrease the negative, the forces of negative influences in our lives and develop the excellent qualities of love and compassion. And again and again try to acquaint our minds with such a tendency so that it again and again arises in future lives.
So the essence of the practice of all spiritual practices is love and compassion and this is fulfilled in the awakening heart, the mind of enlightenment. And it is through this as the motivating force and by understanding the correct view that is of emptiness that we can actually achieve our ultimate meaning of a human life that is we can attain Buddhahood. And it is through attaining Buddhahood that we bring to fulfill both the purposes of oneself and others. So to bring about our ultimate goal, we must practice the Dharma, we must practice the spiritual path. And in practicing the spiritual path, various hindrances, obstacles may arise.
And one of these is actual sickness, bodily sickness. And if we get sick, then we can’t we simply can’t practice. And therefore, it becomes important to develop methods extremely skillful methods to rid ourselves of bodily sickness and prevent them. If in order to prevent sickness we need, you know, very potent types of medicines. And of these, we make use of the king of medicines, the Buddhas of healing.
And we can make requests to the seven Buddhas of healing and then recitation and through recitation of their mantras eliminate the various conditions for illnesses to arise. So in the course of a human life there are two main sources of suffering, and these are death and illness. And we have to try to gain control over these two main sources of suffering in our lives. Simply relying on doctors, medicines cannot completely eliminate all the conditions which bring about illness. And therefore in order to completely subdue illness it’s necessary to use a more a deeper method that is through a spiritual practice, which whereby we can eliminate the conditions giving rise to illness.
Just as upon having sickness, having an illness we go to a doctor, the doctor gives us medicine in order to restore our health. Likewise, we can make use of the Buddhas of healing in the same fashion, restoring our health when we’re ill through the process of making requests, recitation of mantra, the flowing of the various nectars into oneself and the dissolution of the various Buddhas of healing into our own body, we can also begin to cure our illnesses. So we’re going to proceed with this ceremony. And this is the ceremony where there is a transmission and there is a permission. And initially we should not think of this place that we’re in, this building, this room, as simply an ordinary place made of plaster and paint.
I just yeah. So this the place that we’re residing is not simply an ordinary place. It’s a very beautiful place. The Latin name is Terminalia chebula. And in Tibetan it’s called arura. So it’s medicinal plant he’s holding in his right hand.
His left hand is in the meditative equipoise in his lap holding an alms bowl. His alms bowl is full of three nectars. The nectar of non sickness, health, the nectar of no death, that is life, and the nectar of the which alleviates the afflictive emotions, that is the nectar of wisdom. So his bowl is completely filled with these three nectars. He he is wearing, the three robes of a monk, and his robes are rather than yellow or red in color.
He’s sitting in the the cross leg the Vajra Asana, the Vajra posture, the Lotus posture, this went with the left instep on the right thigh and left instep on the left instep on the right thigh and the right instep on the left thigh. And he has all the 32 major and 80 minor marks of a Buddha such as the crown protrusion on top of his head, the wheels on his hand, the wheels, the Dharma wheels on his feet, long slender eyes, long earlobes, etc. Yes. Yes. On your right side, slightly above, a little a little higher than yourself on your right side is sitting on a white lotus is Chenrezig.
As in this picture behind me. Then on your left side, slightly above you is on a lotus, a moon and sun disc cushions, is a red Chenrezig or Amoghasiddhi. So there’s three now. We have on top of you is Buddha of Healing Vaiduryaprabha, dark blue in color. On your right slightly higher than you is white Chenrezig and to your left slightly higher than you is red Chenrezig.
And they’re looking to the Buddha of healing with their palms pressed together. Then on above the crown protrusion of the king of the medicinal Buddhas who is who is above your head, just slight above that is another lotus with another moon cushion on top of that. Then sitting on this lotus and moon disc, So then the top of the lotus and moon disc is the second Buddha of healing, yellow in color, having the right hand facing out in a gesture of generosity or giving. The left hand is placed in the lap in the gesture of meditative equipoise. And then on top of so we have Then on top of the second Buddha of healing above the crown protrusion is another lotus with the moon and sitting on that is the third Buddha of Healing, yellow in color with the right hand in the gesture of giving and left hand in lap in meditative posture, equipoise.
Then the the above that, above the crown protrusion of the third Buddha is lotus and moon and sitting on that is the fourth Buddha of healing red in color with the both hands placed in the lap in a meditative equipoise, Gesture of meditative equipoise. Both hands one and and together on the lap. Then the on top of the fourth Buddha above the crown protrusion is another lotus and moon. And sitting on sitting on the moon is the fifth Buddha of healing who is light yellow in color and the right hand is in in the gesture of the the teaching gesture and the left again is in the lap in the meditative equipoise gesture. So above above the fifth Buddha is, above the crown protrusion is another, lotus and moon.
Upon the moon since a a the sixth Buddha of healing orange in color, the right hand in the gesture of teaching, the left in the meditative equipoise is the hand placed in his lap. Above the the sixth above the sixth, the crown protrusion of the sixth Buddha is the seventh Buddha of healing sitting upon a lotus in moon seat, yellow in color, the right hand gesture of teaching, the left in the, meditative equipoise in his lap. So try to imagine that that on top of your head directly is the the first that is the the king of the Buddhas of healing and then the the other six Buddhas, one on top of another. And on the right, is the white Chenrezig. On the left is the red Chenrezig.
So then we’re going to make requests of the Buddhas of healing that and make offerings that and the the form of our request is that in the form of a praise that just as the you have realized your vast and noble prayers, so may I likewise realize my prayers. So each of these of the medicinal Buddhas have have a specific number of prayers that they’ve realized in the past. Some of them have four, some have eight, some have 12 prayers, and we don’t have time to go in each of the nature of each of their prayers. Now we’re going to make requests that you know just as the vast prayers that you have made in the past for the sake of sentient beings so I am now making requests to you. Upon having made this request, we’re directing it to the topmost Buddha of healing of this row.
And upon having made this request, then that Buddha dissolves down into the one just below it. So, you know, we should imagine that we’re actually making this request to this directing our attention to the topmost Buddha, you know, with sin sincerity of heart. Having made this request, the it’s he accedes to our request and then imagine that that the topmost Buddha dissolves into the one just below it. And again, we’re making request this time again to the topmost Buddha. Again, having made requests, the the Buddha accedes to our requests and dissolves, into what is now the third Buddha now becomes the the third from the what was third third from the top now becomes the topmost Buddha and now we direct our request towards this Buddha.
Having having directed a request to the third Buddha, a Buddha accedes to a request and dissolves down into the fourth Buddha. Then we’ll make request to what is now the what was the fourth Buddha, the topmost Buddha now. So the fourth Buddha has acceded to our requests and dissolves into the fifth Buddha and now we’re going to make request of what it was the fifth Buddha from the top and now is the most topmost Buddha. And the fifth Buddha has dissolved into the sixth, and what was the sixth is now the topmost Buddha. The I have directed a request to the sixth.
Buddha of healing. The request is acceded to, and the the topmost Buddha now dissolves down into the seventh, the main Buddha of healing. Now there are three beings beings remaining. There’s the king of the healing Buddhas directly overhead and the other two Chenrezigs right and left. And now we’re going to direct our request to the king of the healing Buddhas.