Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 49-minute session, Kyabje Rinpoche teaches the second transmission of the Medicine Buddha empowerment, focusing on commitments—how many times daily practitioners should recite the mantra (minimum seven, or whatever frequency they can sustain). The central teaching, illustrated through a memorable story of a man healed by mistaking his teacher’s dismissal for a mantra, emphasizes that faith and belief matter far more than mechanical repetition: a hundred thousand mantras without faith bring no result, while few mantras with genuine conviction bring immense benefit. Rinpoche guides the group through blessing and offering rituals using rice, then closes with practical instructions for both retreat and daily practitioners, emphasizing visualization of nectar purifying illness and negativity. Suited for those who have already received Medicine Buddha initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2004-07-03 – 2B – Empowerment – KR.mp3
UUID: f8ca7802-a0b4-4636-bfaa-f592223c364a
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Medicine Buddha
Date: 2004-07-03
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,238
So, we’ve now come on to the second transmission, which is the transmission of, the commitments. What we’re talking about here, what we do with this recital is to, state in our minds how many times we can accept to say the mantra every day. We have to accept to say some of it because we’ve taken the initiation, so we have to decide how many times we are able to say it. If we can do it a thousand times a day, then we should accept to do it a thousand times a day. If we can do it 500 times a day, we should accept to do it 500 times a day, or a 100, or at the very least, seven times.
That is So seven times a day reciting the mantra that we said that Rinpoche gave us the the transmission for just before. So we we want to have the blessings of these Buddhas. We want to have the blessings of these Buddhas that we be free from free from suffering, we be free from illness, and we be free from our obscurations. So if we want to have these blessings, have to do the mantras. We have to say the mantras.
If we don’t say the mantras, then we don’t get the blessings. Okay. So this is when we accept the. Yeah. The commitment.
Yeah. So so now say your own name. So so now we should think how many times in a day that we’re able to say the mantra. So the last part was where we said it means I promise to do this. So however many times you can manage to say the mantra, that’s how much blessing you will get.
If you can’t say the mantras, then it’s difficult to get the blessings of the Medicine Buddhas. So if we have faith, if we have belief in the Medicine Buddhas and that they can answer our our petitions, then then we would absolutely get the blessings of the Medicine Buddhas. Okay. So there’s a good story that that illustrates how important faith is and how important it is if we have faith when we’re saying the mantras. There was a really holy teacher or very a Rinpoche in India, and this man came to see him because he was ill.
And he said to the man, he said, please give me something to so I I won’t be ill. But the Rinpoche didn’t have any time, so he told the man to go away. So he said, go away, go away. And the man thought that him saying go away, go away was actually a mantra that he should recite. So he went away he went away and he said go away, go away, go away many times.
And after seven days he had been bent over, and after seven days, his back straightened up. And and he felt much better, so he went went back Rinpoche and said, whatever it is that you told me to say, it really worked. I’m not ill anymore. And then Rinpoche said, what? I didn’t give you a mantra to say.
I just told you to go away. So but by having faith, then it shows that the recitation really helped him. So so the as the you know, the Dalai Lama said when he was, you know, about to give the Kālacakra initiation, if you practice this every day, if you do and don’t have faith, then you won’t experience the results. Doesn’t matter if you do it every day. If you don’t have faith, you won’t experience the results.
So it’s very important to remember that if we have faith, then the mantras that we were saying will bring their result. And if there’s no faith, then the mantras we’re saying won’t have any result. So we have to remember how important it is for us to have faith. But but developing faith or belief is in is very difficult. So if we think that the the medicine Buddhas made prayers to be a benefit to all beings, and they worked incredibly hard and did all the things they were supposed to in order to achieve Buddhahood, and are there in order to be a benefit to us.
If we think like this, and then we do the mantras and ask for their blessings, then with that faith, then we will receive the blessings. But if we don’t have this faith, then whether we do a 100,000 even if we do a 100,000 mantras, getting any benefit from it can be a difficult thing. If we do have faith, then even if we do a few of the mantras, then it will be of enormous benefit. So if we have belief and then we have the thing that we’re focusing on, then there will be results to the tantric practice. So, Geshe-la said that already today he has made offerings to the Medicine Buddhas that are over to his right.
But now, in this ceremony, we go and make offerings again to the Medicine Buddhas. So we we first of all, we bless the things that we’re offering, and then we offer them to the Medicine Buddha. Oh, yeah. Along with Rinpoche. The Om Ah Hum is blessing what it is that we are offering.
And then the other prayer we’re saying is when we are offering the things to the Medicine Buddha. So there was one group one prayer that started with, and that was the one we were blessing. And then the second one that starts with That that the is the one we we’re making the offering. Yeah. That’s blessed.
Yeah. So the the first one was the blessing, the second one was making an offering. Yeah. So so does everybody have rice? Yes.
Because we’re up to the third transmission, this is a transmission of a blessing in us that we need rice. So once we’ve said this, we’ve made an saying this, we’ve made an offering to the teacher, with the and with the rice as well. We’ve made this offering, and then the a teacher blesses the offering that we’ve just given, and then the offering is given back to us in the form of blessings that come, that dissolve into us, come through the crown of our head, and we don’t miss any of the blessings. They will come into us. So we’ve now completed the subsequent empowerment of the Medicine Buddha.
We’ve gone through the body, speech and mind empowerments and the three transmissions. So so that was the empowerment. But whether we actually get the blessings from the medicine Buddha or not depends on whether we actually do the practice of the medicine Buddha or not. Yeah. The the medicine Buddhas made prayers that they would be able to help but if we don’t have the faith and we don’t request the blessings of the Buddhas, then we don’t get any results from their prayers.
It’s a similar thing as if we go to a doctor for help. Now, when we go to a doctor for help, we’ve already established that we’re sick, so we already have this understanding that we’re sick and we need help. But if we don’t follow what the doctor says, then we don’t have any of the results from what the doctor knows. The doctor may know how to help us, but if we don’t go and ask for help, then he can’t do anything to in order to use his knowledge to help us. Practices is to work with our minds, to make our minds good.
And if we don’t have a good mind and try and do the practice, it won’t be of much benefit to us. So the main thing that we are trying to work with is our mind in this case. So if we practice the the pure, the the completely correct Dharma, if we do this practice, then that acts as a cause for us to achieve enlightenment, completely achieve Buddhahood and become a Buddha, there this this practice this practice that we’re working on our mind becomes a reason for us to achieve Buddhahood. So in order for us to do these practices, in order for us to practice the Dharma in order to become a Buddha, then we need we need to be free from from illnesses and diseases within our bodies. If we have, illness and disease, then it’s very difficult for us to practice the Dharma.
So we want to pray to the medicine Buddhas in order to get rid of the illnesses in our body in order that we can practice Dharma. Okay. So people who are doing their retreat with David and Okay, so if I get this wrong, then you tell me, right? Okay, so, for the people that are staying in going to be who are going into retreat, then David has made a tape, yes? And so, if they do it like the tape, text or tape, yes, then that would be a good idea.
Now, for the other people who aren’t doing the Medicine Buddha practice in retreat and who are doing it every day, then if So they do it in a the people who are doing it every day, if they do a truncated version of this and they start off by having a good motivation, developing refuge, then bodhicitta, and then doing the prayer of the four immeasurables, and then visualizing the Medicine Buddha, then thinking that we want to become like the Medicine Buddha. Inviting the wisdom beings into the Medicine Buddha, then thinking that we want to become like the medicine Buddha, and then doing the mantra. Then that will be fine. Yeah. Oh, oh, and and also the the seven-limb prayer.
Alright. So then, once we have invited the wisdom beings, if we can do the seven-limb prayer and the mandala offering, and if we know how to do the seven types of offering, then we should do that, and if not, we should just do the mandala offering. Then we should imagine the seven medicine buddhas dissolving into one, and then do mantras Okay. So and then at our heart, obviously yeah. And and then at our heart, then we have the the the we we imagine the lotus, on top of the lotus, the moon, on top of the lotus, the ah syllable, and then from around the ah syllable is the mantra.
And then once we’ve imagined this, then we should recite the mantra. I was gonna say, yeah. Yeah. Then we should recite the mantra. And after we and while we’re visualizing nectar coming from the mantra into our bodies.
Yeah. and into the bodies of all sentient beings. Not only into our bodies, but into the bodies of all sentient beings. Yeah?
And then then purifying the bodies of ourselves and all sentient beings. Pardon? So then, we’re saying in the mantras we should imagine that the Buddhas have made prayers to be able to help us with our illnesses. Our illnesses are caused because of negativities that we’ve done, because we’ve done negative things. So if we want to stop experiencing illness, then we have to stop practising negativities, and if they can show us how this works.
Then if we think like this, then the mantras that we’re saying and the blessings from the Medicine Buddhas will be of immense benefit to us. Because they have achieved the antidotes, the Medicine Buddhas have achieved the antidotes to the the problems that we have, so therefore, they can they can use the antidotes in order to show us how to help us stop us from creating negative things that will have negative results. Yes. So for those who haven’t sat for the empowerment because they can’t imagine themselves as medicine Buddha, if they imagine that from the medicine Buddha is coming nectar into their bodies and the nectar is clearing out all the negativities of their of their body and all the illnesses of their body, then that would be a benefit for them because they don’t imagine themselves as Buddha. So then and then and then we should make aspirational prayers, and that’s okay.
So we have have done we have sat for the medicine Buddha empowerment. So then then we should try and do the the practice to the best that we can. And if we do the practice to the best that we can, then we will receive the blessings from the Buddha, and we should dedicate what we’ve done to achieving enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. Okay. So today, many students have come, and I’ve got to see many students and many different people, and it’s made me very happy to see, so many different people.
Okay. Okay. We can have to say, like, with Rinpoche. We’re going to repeat after Rinpoche to is to make a prayer for the end of the the or for the end of the transmission. Now we should offer them.
He said that was very difficult. I don’t have any experience in it. No. I did it. Well, you got lots of merit.
No. I know. You did. An experience. How are you?
Very good. How are you? Good. Good. Good.
Yeah. Yeah. My little ears are all.