Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 52-minute Medicine Buddha empowerment, Kyabje Rinpoche guides practitioners through a detailed visualization of the Medicine Buddha and his retinue stacked on the crown of the head. Starting with the central dark blue Buddha holding a medicinal flower and begging bowl of amrita, Rinpoche introduces seven additional Buddhas—each with distinct colors, hand gestures, and names—arranged in ascending order. The instruction walks through dissolving these Buddhas into one another while making offerings and supplications, after which light from the Medicine Buddha clears away obscurations and impurities. For those taking this as a full initiation, the second half covers embodying the Medicine Buddha yourself, receiving the mantra transmission, and accepting a daily recitation commitment. Pitched at practitioners who have already received Medicine Buddha initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2005-07-03 – 2A – Empowerment – KR.mp3
UUID: ea542c67-b9f0-4306-b8a1-bd7f562f7e02
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Medicine Buddha
Date: 2005-07-03
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~1,968
So the medicine Buddha is on is on our crown, is on the top of our head. His body is dark blue. His right hand is making the gesture of granting blessings and holding a medicinal flower called arura. His left hand is in the gesture of meditative equipoise, and he’s holding a begging bowl filled with amrita or medicine or nectar.
He’s wearing the three robes of the monk or the three robes of the Sangha. He’s sitting in the Vajra posture on a lotus, and his body has all the marks and signs of a Buddha. To his right, from the syllable ah, comes the white bodhisattva called radiant like the moon. To his left, from the syllable mam, comes the orange bodhisattva called radiant like the sun. They both have their hands pressed together, in reverence to the medicine Buddha.
And on top of their heads, in a subsequent order are the six other Buddha medicine Buddhas. Okay. So this the second medicine Buddha that is on top of of the original blue medicine Buddha is a red medicine Buddha called the king of clear knowing, and he’s go on. One one second. Sorry about this.
His left his right hand is in a gesture of bestowing bestowing blessings, and his left hand is in the gesture of meditative equipoise. The the next Buddha on top of Buddha of king of clear knowing is the Buddha called Melodious Ocean of, of Dharma. He is light red in color. His right hand is in the gesture oh, he sorry. Both of his hands are in the gesture of meditative equipoise.
The next The the next Buddha is on top of the Buddha Melodious Ocean of Dharma proclaimed. His name is supreme glory, free from sorrow. His light red in color, and his right hand is in the gesture of bestowing blessings or bestowing Dharma, and his left hand is in a gesture of meditative equipoise. On top of his head is the next Buddha called stainless excellent gold. He is pale yellow color.
His right hand is also in the gesture of bestowing blessings, and his left hand is in the gesture of meditative equipoise. The sixth Buddha is called the king of melodious sound. He is orange in color. His right hand is in the his right hand is in the gesture of bestowing blessings, and his left hand is in the gesture of meditative equipoise. The seventh medicine Buddha is called glorious renown of excellent signs.
He is yellow in color, and again, his right hand is in the gesture of bestowing blessings, and his left hand is in the gesture of meditative equipoise. Then to the to the top order, we make requests to the top order and say, like the prayers that you gave, may you bless and be able to help all beings with illness with beings with illness recover, and we make prostrations to this Buddha and request them request them to to bestow their blessings on us as to the top Buddha at the beginning. To So, Rinpoche will read out the request to the the Medicine Buddha Order. When he’s reading out this request, we should imagine that they will bless us and that we are making offerings to them, we are prostrating to them, and we are asking them to grant us requests that are in line with the prayers they made before they became Buddhas. We should think that it is we who are asking whatever our names is, we should think it’s I who are asking this.
So at this stage, the top medicine Buddha, it dissolves into the medicine Buddha below him, and then we request the medicine Buddha below him and make offerings and like with the previous one. So at this stage the sixth Medicine Buddha dissolves into the fifth Medicine Buddha in succession and then we then request the fifth Medicine Buddha and make offerings and do prostrations etc. So at this stage, the fifth Buddha dissolves into the fourth Buddha, Buddha called supreme glory, free from sorrow and we make supplications to the fourth Buddha. At this stage, the fourth Buddha dissolves into the third Buddha who is called Melodious Ocean of Dharma, and then we make supplications to the third Buddha. So at this stage, the third Buddha dissolves into the second Buddha who is called King of Clear Knowing and we make supplications to the second Buddha.
So at this stage, At this stage, the second medicine Buddha dissolves into the original medicine Buddha, and we are left with the medicine Buddha alone on the top of our head. At this stage, we should make supplication to the medicine Buddha, we should make offerings to the Medicine Buddha, prostrate to the Medicine Buddha, and then say, in the same way that you made these 12 prayers, saying that you saw the sufferings of beings in the future and wanted to to to to destroy their sufferings. Can you please bless me in that my suffering and my illnesses will be will be destroyed. So after we’ve requested in this way, then a light comes from the medicine Buddha and comes down into us, and this light clears away all of the obscurations, all of the negativities, all of the impurities in ourselves, and, this and it completely clears that away.
It we feel we fill up with light from the top down until our bodies are completely clear and we become like a crystal or a very clear glass with absolutely no impurities. So at this stage, we’re going to make a certain a second set of requests to the seven medicine buddhas. As Rinpoche reads this out, imagine that we are requesting each of the seven medicine buddhas and that one dissolves into another in the same way that it did before. So that is the second recitation of the supplications. At this stage the Medicine Buddhas have dissolved into each other and now the final Medicine Buddha is blessing us.
Okay, so that was the third repetition of petitioning the different medicine Buddhas and as in the previous ones they have dissolved into each other and we are left with the medicine Buddha on the top of our heads. Okay. Sorry. This is the the third recitation that it is starting now where we generate the Buddhas on top of each other and then we will dissolve them into each other and make petitions to each one. So at this stage we should ask that they bless us and that we should make prayers towards them.
So this that was the third time that we dissolved the Buddha medicine Buddhas into each other. Now we should imagine that from the lowest medicine Buddha is coming this light which is completely clearing us and clearing out all illnesses and obscurations from us. So for those of you who are taking this subsequent empowerment as a blessing, then you should continue to imagine the Medicine Buddha is at the top of your head. If you have already sat for an initiation before and are therefore taking this as a subsequent permission, then you should imagine yourselves to become the Medicine Buddha, that you have all the characteristics of the Medicine Buddha as before. And to your right is the bodhisattva radiant like the moon, and to your left is the bodhisattva radiant like the sun.
So when we when you imagine yourself to be the the medicine Buddha, then this is what’s called the subsequent permission of the body. In a subsequent permission, there is a body bodily, subsequent permission, a speech, subsequent permission and the mind subsequent permission. This is the body subsequent permission. So this was the the the body subsequent empowerment, from the right. Now, from the we are so therefore, we are the medicine Buddha, and at our hearts is the syllable om.
Now from the om as the there’s also Om, therefore the Om at the Guru’s heart, a light goes out inviting all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the 10 directions to come and to dissolve into the Om at the heart of the person that is sitting for the initiation so dissolving into the Om at our hearts. After this, we should imagine that our crown is the letter om, at our throat is the syllable ah, and at our heart is the the syllable So now we imagine that around the Om at the heart of the disciple is the Medicine Buddha mantra. It goes around the at the heart. Then this mantra, there becomes two, and one of them comes out through the mouth of the teacher and is passed down to us, goes through our mouth, and then circles the om at our hearts. So we say the mantra three times for the first time we say that this is blessing our mind stream the second time the recitation becomes one with the mantra at our heart and the third time it becomes very stable So those people who are taking the initiation as a blessing should still imagine that the medicine Buddha is above their heads and that the mantra is going from the teacher’s heart up to around the heart of the medicine Buddha who’s above their heads.
So the the mantra should be repeated after. Okay. So for those who are taking the initiation as an initiation as a subsequent permission, then the mantra should be in a ring around the om at their heart, and for those who are taking it as a blessing, it should be around the heart of the Buddha that they’re imagining on top of their heads. But both types of people should repeat the mantra after them. So therefore he is giving the recitation or the transmission of the mantra to us.
Okay. So that was the three times recitation of the the transmission of the mantra. So we said this three times. The first time, he’s supposed to bless the mind stream. The second time, he’s supposed to become one with the mantra garland, and the third time to make the Mantra Garland incredibly stable.
So there is three different transmissions to be given. This was the transmission of the mantra, which is called the dependent transmission. 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 recitation 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. So that is seven times a day reciting the mantra that we said that Rinpoche gave us the transmission for just before. So we we we want to have the blessings of these Buddhas. We want to have blessings of these Buddhas that we be free from free from suffering, we be free from illness, and we be free from obscurations.
So, if we want to have these blessings, we 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. So you the this is when we accept to take the mantras. Yeah.
The commitment. Yeah. So so now say your own name.