Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 74-minute teaching, Venerable Lobsang Namgyel introduces Medicine Buddha practice to a mix of newcomers and experienced practitioners. After opening with a brief motivation practice grounded in bodhicitta, he walks through the seven-limb prayer and the complete visualization of the Medicine Buddha—a sapphire-blue figure seated above the crown of the head on a white moon disc resting on a lotus. He explains the key details: the Buddha’s gesture of giving, the arura healing plant symbolizing the removal of all sickness and suffering, the lapis lazuli bowl of nectar, and the meaning of full-lotus posture as stability and unchanging compassion. Throughout, he emphasizes working with whatever visualization appears, rejoicing in imperfect images rather than abandoning them, and viewing the guru as inseparable from Medicine Buddha. He stresses the distinction between Lamrim practice (recognizing ordinary beings and working toward enlightenment over countless eons) and tantric practice (visualizing the perfected result now), showing how both are needed: Lamrim provides the antidotes for obstacles, while Medicine Buddha vision generates the outcome directly. He also covers practical guidance for group retreat versus home practice, the power of transforming daily activities and environments into Medicine Buddha’s mandala, and the four immeasurables and dedication verses that frame the session.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2011 10 15 MBP session 1.mp3
UUID: 49e97592-0bb6-4208-a8de-007e2bb857ed
Teacher: Ven Lobsang Namgyel
Collection: Medicine Buddha Practrice (Ven Lobsang Namgyel)
Date: 2011-10-15
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 74.5 minutes
Words: ~9,742
No point in struggling against the music, is there? Just flow with it. They must be having a lot of fun. Okay. What are we doing?
Medicine Buddha. I think we need to consider our motivation because it’s so important to start with a positive motivation. So let’s spend a few minutes on motivation, concentrating on the breath, calming the mind. So thinking that I have my own situation, my own problems, and my own suffering. But when I compare that to countless sentient beings, my problems are nothing.
They’re very small in comparison to all other beings. So if I just liberate myself from my suffering, that doesn’t do anybody any good. It stops me from harming others, but I don’t have the motivation to benefit others. Self liberation is just for me. So the most beneficial is to be enlightened, not just liberated from suffering, but wanting to benefit all sentient beings.
So you open your heart. You allow every sentient being into your heart, including those you don’t like and those you don’t know. We spend a few minutes on the breath, breathing in peace, and breathing out thoughts. Breathing in peace and breathing out thoughts. And then slowly becoming aware of the room we’re sitting in, the cushion you’re sitting on, and the meditation we’ve just been doing.
So we’ll just start with some prayers, the usual prayers that we do. Thank you. I’m just looking which prayers they have with the thirty five Buddha and seven Medicine Buddhas. Not much. Okay.
So we’ll go to page a hundred and eleven. We’ll do refuge in English and then the four immeasurables. And then we’ll read the motivation for life. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, the supreme assembly. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings.
I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme assembly. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme assembly. By my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings were to abide in equanimity, free from hatred and attachment.
May they abide in equanimity. I myself will cause them to abide in equanimity. Please, guru, deity, bless me to be able to do this. How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings had happiness and the causes of happiness. May they have happiness in its cause.
I myself will cause them to have these. Please, guru deity, bless me to be able to do this. How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings were free from suffering and its cause. May they be free of suffering and its cause. I myself will cause them to be free from suffering and its cause.
Please, guru deity, bless me to be able to do this. How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings were never separated from the happiness of higher rebirth and liberation. May they never be separated from these. I myself will cause them never to be separated from these. Please, guru deity, bless me to be able to do this.
Then we read the motivation for life. The purpose of my life is to free all sentient beings from every suffering and to lead them to happiness, especially the sublime, peerless happiness of full enlightenment. Since the enjoyments in my everyday life, every past, present, and future happiness, including enlightenment, are dependent on other sentient beings. The happiness of these numberless sentient beings depends on me. If I generate loving-kindness towards sentient beings, then all sentient beings will receive no harm from me and instead will have peace and success.
Therefore, I am responsible for all sentient beings’ happiness and peace. I am a servant here to serve every sentient being without discriminating between those who harm and those who help whatever they do. For the success of this, I must achieve full enlightenment. Therefore, I’m going to put all the actions of my body, speech, and mind in virtue so that I can be of the greatest benefit to all sentient beings, which means to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. May all these actions not cause the slightest harm, but bring only benefit to all sentient beings in the best way so that they too may as quickly as possible achieve enlightenment.
Okay. Good morning, everybody. Hope you’re all well. So this is Medicine Buddha. How many people have not done the Medicine Buddha practice at all?
A few. You didn’t put your hand up, did you? I wasn’t sure if that was a a sort of shy you know? Okay. So, I thought to go through the sadhana.
I had this sadhana made for you, because I really like bigger pictures. As you get older, you find these tiny pictures that they give you with the mudras. You know, you can hardly see the mudras. And so I made this, some years ago when I started doing Medicine Buddha in Kopan. So you have one Medicine Buddha on each page, which I think really helps.
And you can make notes on it. It’s yours. So, I will go through the sadhana so that you’re clear about it. I’ll explain the benefits of each Medicine Buddha and then what the Medicine Buddha mantra means. And then in the afternoon, then we just do the whole sadhana.
Okay? Is that alright? Okay. I wasn’t sure what you wanted, so that’s what you’re getting. It’s not too little, is it?
Alright. So, starting on the first page, you have the visualization. So it says ten finger-widths above the crown of your head is a lotus flower. So, you know, you can’t get out a tape measure and sort of think, now what’s exactly ten finger-widths? And the Buddha has to be exactly ten finger-widths.
It just indicates it shouldn’t be too close, and it shouldn’t be too far away. Okay? If it’s too close, you feel that the Buddha is going to be pressing down on your crown, so it’s just not comfortable for a visualization. If the visualization is too far away, also you feel disconnected from Medicine Buddha. So either way, you could cause a problem with the visualization.
However, if you don’t have control over your visualizations, you can’t make it happen. You can’t say, I want the the Medicine Buddha to be exactly there. It’s just going to happen. So, usually, what I tell people is if you’re not used to doing visualizations, if anything appears, be really happy. That’s the rule.
You know? Just be happy. Don’t start fiddling around and thinking, oh, this is completely wrong. You know? This this Buddha should be a little bit higher or a bit a little bit lower, bigger, smaller.
If you start being dissatisfied with the visualization, the visualization will disappear. So in the beginning, you have to be just happy, rejoice with whatever you get. Okay? It might be an eyebrow. It could be a hand.
It probably won’t be the full visualization. Then given familiarity and time, you’ll be able to develop the visualization because you’re happy with what you’re getting. You know? But if you’re dissatisfied, it really doesn’t make a good visualization. So above the crown of your head is a lotus flower.
Usually, the lotus is white. In some cases, there’s a multicolored lotus. There’s different colored lotuses. But usually with Medicine Buddha, the color is white. I haven’t seen in any text another color, but it’s always possible.
You never know. So in the center of the lotus is a white moon disc. So the moon disc is a cushion. So you shouldn’t think of this as a a not like a a wafer. You know, it’s not like a well, here, you’ve got this thin wafer.
It’s not like that. It’s actually a thick cushion of light. So you imagine that you the the Medicine Buddha is sitting on the most comfortable cushion you can imagine, not something tiny. Okay? So here, the lotus is painted in colors.
That’s what I said. You’ll get individual artists who will paint in different colors, and so you’ll see white lotuses and blue lotuses and red lotuses and green lotuses. It depends on the artist who’s painting, the thangkas. But, generally, when you’re visualizing white, then it represents purity. But you can visualize in other colors.
If you really like a blue lotus, because it’s a blue Medicine Buddha, you can have a blue lotus. I don’t think there’s any rule against it. So, generally, the colors are indicative of a certain energy. So with white, we’re thinking of purity. Yeah?
So usually, you know, when we think about the lotus, we think of it coming out of the mud. It comes up out of the mud, and then when it opens, it’s clean. So this is symbolic of the bodhisattva. So the bodhisattva is in the mud of saṃsāra, and is still in saṃsāra, like, still present, but not affected by saṃsāra. So that’s symbolic you know, symbolized by the lotus.
Okay? So you have this lotus, which is supporting the moon cushion. And so why you have the lotus is because the lotus comes up and it’s clean when it opens. So this is symbolic of a Bodhisattva. Then on top of that, you have the moon disc.
So not like that, but think of a thicker white cushion. You should be offering the most comfortable that you can, not the least comfortable. So not something really thin. So seated on a white moon disc and seated on the moon is your root guru. So now often this creates a problem because if you start and you think, well, I don’t have a root guru.
Who’s my root guru? So you can think of his holiness. If you don’t have a guru at all, you can think of his holiness, the Dalai Lama, or you can just think about Medicine Buddha as being your guru. So, Medicine Buddha can be your guru. Or if you have a special connection with a teacher, then you see the teacher as indivisible from Medicine Buddha.
So you don’t have your teacher and then Medicine Buddha. It’s when you think about your teacher, you think about Medicine Buddha. And when you think about Medicine Buddha, you think about your teacher. They’re indivisible. It’s not that you have your teacher and Medicine Buddha.
Your teacher is Medicine Buddha. So it says, in the center of the lotus is a white moon disc. Seated on the moon disc is your root guru. So, you may not have a root guru. You may just have teachers.
But the benefit of visualizing your teacher as the Medicine Buddha is much better than just having Medicine Buddha. It’s said that the merit is so much better. So if you do have a special connection with a teacher, then do try and think, my teacher is the dharmakaya essence of all the buddhas. This teacher when you’re thinking about your teacher, you think this teacher has appeared for me in this particular form to help me to become enlightened. Okay?
So it’s not that, you need to have the absolute perfect teacher appear, and then you’ll think, oh, this absolute perfect being is Medicine Buddha. You may see faults in the teacher. And then in the text, it says, so why do you see faults in the teacher? Because your mind is not pure. You’re not an enlightened being.
And so because your mind is impure, then you project this impurity onto your teacher. So your teacher’s appearing in the best possible way to help you to go from imperfection to perfection. Because we might be sitting around thinking, well, this teacher’s imperfect, and this teacher’s a problem, and I don’t you know, none of them are quite perfect. I’m just waiting for the perfect one. And in actual fact, those teachers are appearing in the perfect way for you.
We once asked Lama Lhundrup in Kopan, who’s just passed away, we once asked him, in what form do Buddhas appear? And he said countless forms. He said if a dog needs a teacher, then the teacher appears as a dog. So the Buddha will appear as a dog. The the Buddha will appear as a cat, as a human.
In all different realms, the Buddha will appear in an appropriate form to benefit you. So when you think about that, you think, well, this is totally amazing that the Buddhas are appearing in forms that will help me. Not help others, but it’s particularly for me. And so whatever has appeared for you is appropriate for you. And so in that way, then you start to understand the dharmakaya, because the nirmanakaya is the manifestation of all the Buddhas.
How the Buddhas manifest is in the dharmakaya. It’s purity rather than impurity. So in this practice, what we’re doing is we’re concentrating on purity. And when we have an appearance of impurity, we think, oh, there it goes. There’s my karma.
You know? There’s something pure, and my karma is bending it, twisting it into something impure. Okay? So this is the way that you create the karma to experience the dharmakaya rather than the karma to experience saṃsāra. Do you understand?
Because there’s a difference between the Medicine Buddha practice and Lamrim. With Lamrim, you see the problem, and then you take the medicine, a meditation within the Lamrim. Right? So you see the problem. You say, oh, I have anger.
I need to do something about the anger, so therefore, need to antidote it with love and patience and tolerance. With Medicine Buddha, we’re looking for the perfection rather than the imperfection. Based on your Lamrim practice, you’re then doing the Medicine Buddha practice from a different angle, from a different perspective. You’re saying everybody is Medicine Buddha, just I haven’t been recognizing it. Whereas with Lamrim, you’re saying everybody is an ordinary sentient being, and we need to work to become enlightened.
So Medicine Buddha is coming from a different angle. So you have to change your angle. You have to see it in a different way. So if you’re helping somebody who’s passing away or somebody’s, got lots of problems, instead of thinking I’m helping them, you’d be thinking they’re helping me because they’re manifesting as the guru, as the Buddha in order to help me. If that person wasn’t dying, then I couldn’t be helping them.
I couldn’t make the merit of helping them. So how fortunate it is that the Buddhas are manifesting in this way. It’s it’s quite difficult because you’ve got to turn it around. You start looking for perfection instead of imperfection, which is a bit mind blowing when you’re in a city, isn’t it? No?
But you keep looking for Buddhas. Oh, there’s another Buddha. There’s another Buddha. And as your karma changes, you see more Buddhas, less ordinary sentient beings. So in the form of the Medicine Buddha, blue in color, radiating light from his body.
So the important thing about the visualization is not solid, real, heavy body, but a body made of light. Okay? So the whole visualization has to be made of light. So blue. Now there’s a controversy about the blue, I should tell you.
Lama Öpsel started this controversy. I don’t know if it’s ongoing. But we used to say lapis blue. Well, it’s changed. Life is impermanent.
Right? So it’s changed. So we had lapis blue because apparently, a long, long time ago, lapis was translucent. Lapis was a really good quality stone that you could virtually see through. But now it’s become dense and heavy.
And so Lama Öpsel saying, maybe now we shouldn’t be saying lapis because it gives the wrong feeling of this dark heavy blue. It should be something that is made of light and feels translucent. So Rinpoche says, maybe sapphire. So sapphire blue that you can see through. You know?
So in the visualization, get that feeling of lightness rather than heaviness. So maybe think of sapphire blue. So made of light, the body is made of light and then radiating light. So it’s not just that the body is light. The body is actually radiating light, and the light is going out in all directions.
So not just to you, but to all sentient beings, but including you. I think this is really important because we often forget that when we’re doing the practice, the light is also coming to us. You know? He’s above our head. The light is coming to us and blessing us and giving us this positive energy, but it’s also going to all other sentient beings.
So simultaneously benefiting us and all sentient beings. In the gesture of giving the highest goal so this is the palm facing outwards on the right knee. So he’s got his palm on the right knee facing outwards, holding the stem of the arura plant, which is also called baidurya or bendurya. It’s sometimes it’s spelled b a I d u r y a, Baydoria, or, b e n d, Bendurya. So in different texts, it’s spelled in different ways.
It still exists today. So this plant is existent. It’s used in Tibetan medicine, and it’s said that this is the most incredible plant for any sickness, that it can heal any sickness. But, unfortunately, because of the change of climate and, the weather patterns, it’s getting more and more difficult to find this plant in the Himalayas. So they’re having to go higher and higher up, and virtually, it’s become a treasure.
And they have it in his holiness’s hospital, Menzikang, but it’s locked away. And they use tiny amounts of it in various medicines. They just can’t get enough of this plant. So this plant is symbolic of a method, a system, something to be able to remove all sickness, all suffering, all problems, all delusions. It’s symbolic of that.
So this plant in Tibetan medicine was known to be able to remove every sickness. So this plant in this visualization represents the ability to remove all sickness, all problems, life, death. He’s holding between the thumb and the first finger. He’s real. I thought they were plastic.
So between the thumb and the first finger like that and then with the hand down, so the pliancy is coming straight up, and then the hand is down like that. Okay? I’ve looked and looked to see if there’s a color to this plant, and it seems to be just green. I don’t know what yeah. Usually, they they paint like this, just green, and they usually put a flower, which is a sort of pinky pinky orangey color.
There’s a small flower there in this painting. This seems to be general. I’ve looked in all different paintings, and it always seems to be this sort of painting. So I would assume the pliancy is green with these small pinky orange sort of flowers. So that’s the arura plant, and arura is Sanskrit.
So, bendurya would be Tibetan. In the mudra of concentration, his left hand is holding a lapis lazuli bowl filled with nectar. So that’s in the left hand, on his hand, is a Medicine Buddha bowl. So then we have to question, so is this bowl lapis lazuli or not? So I think also this bowl, we need to transform into sapphire because also it should be made of light.
It should be translucent. So, again, if your mind starts to go towards the heavy the heaviness of the visualization, the point is to get the visualization made of light. He’s seated in the full lotus posture. So this is, the feet up on the knees. The the posture, full lotus posture, represents somebody who’s very stable.
So the posture is, very stable. It’s, touching the earth. When Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree, he sat in the full lotus posture and said, I’m not moving. So it should give you that feeling of I’m not moving. Even if you can’t sit like that, then, the Buddha is giving this feeling that I’m always going to be there.
I’m always going to be with you. I’m very stable. I’m unchanging in the sense of I have realizations. I have wisdom and compassion. I have enlightenment.
I have everything, and that’s not going to go away. So the posture gives you that feeling of stability of I’ll I’ll always be with the with you. I’m not going to leave you. And I’m also got not going to leave all sentient beings. So, all of that visualization is to give you an impression.
Okay? You have to think what impression, what sort of feeling do you have of Medicine Buddha? Because virtually, you’re taking refuge in medicine Buddha. You’re saying, I want to be like you. Isn’t it?
When you do prostrations or when you say refuge, you’re virtually saying, look at you. Look at what you’ve achieved. How incredible. I want to be the same. So that’s what refuge is.
You’re you want to, not not just emulate, but you want to become the Medicine Buddha. So then what does that mean to you? You have to think about the qualities of the Medicine Buddha in order to get that strong feeling towards Medicine Buddha. If it’s just a painting or a statue, you don’t get that strong feeling of personality, whereas there’s a definite feeling of, Medicine Buddhaness, if you like. The medicine buddha having a certain, wish to benefit beings in a certain way.
Okay? So maybe through, knowing the benefits of each medicine buddha, maybe that will help a little bit for you to get more of a feeling about Medicine Buddha. I also don’t know if you know, where did the Medicine Buddha practice come from? It didn’t just appear. It wasn’t Medicine Buddha who said, this is what you should do.
It was actually Śākyamūni Buddha who taught Medicine Buddha practice. So people said to Śākyamūni Buddha, in future, will there be sicknesses? Will there be problems? And he said, oh, for sure. Because of the degenerate times, because of more greed, more anger, more hatred, then in the future, this will create pollution, and then there will be more problems with the body, more problems with the mind.
So then, people said to Śākyamūni Buddha, so what can we do? And he said, well, in the past, there was an incredible Bodhisattva called Medicine Buddha. He did these these practices. He became enlightened, and he dedicated all of this merit for others to be able to do this practice and benefit from the practice. And there were six others there were six others who did the same thing.
So this became the seven medicine Buddhas. There’s one one main Medicine Buddha and six other Bodhisattvas who did similar practices. So this practice was taught by Śākyamūni Buddha. It’s not from Medicine Buddha. It’s not that Medicine Buddha said, do my practice.
Śākyamūni Buddha said, in the future, this practice is going to be very, very beneficial when there’s a lot of pollution, when there’s many new sicknesses. This practice will really help. Okay. Any questions? The visualization’s clear.
Did you get it? You did? Excellent. Were you sitting outside, or are you clairvoyant? Then you could stay at home, you know?
You could just the aerials could just come up, and you pick it all up from home. Yeah. Many people, many people say this. Many people. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Also feels a little bit strange when they’re when they’re facing backwards, actually. You know? It could that also can feel a bit strange.
But if if you feel if you feel you want them that way, you can visualize at the height of your forehead. Here, you can put the Medicine Buddha there. Now the problem comes. I’ll tell you. Because I’ve had all of this in all the Medicine Buddha retreats.
We get every single question asked. You put the Medsim Buddha there, then you have to visualize the other six. Right? So you can make this one go higher and higher. That’s okay.
You still got them in front of you. Now you’ve got a problem with the nectar. That’s when it’s difficult. So what you could do is start with the Medicine Buddha in front. So where we’re saying here, ten finger-widths above the crown of your head, instead of that, then here, put him here.
Okay? You create the visualization in front of you. And then when it comes to refuge, bodhicitta, that’s all okay. You can leave him there. When it comes to the multiple visualization, you can still have him there, or you could move him to the crown of your head.
If you keep them there, then once you come to the nectar, you’re going to have to move them. So you’ll have seven, and then you’re going to have to move them all. So you may find it’s easier to have the one. Move the one to the crown of your head, and then create the other six. Get it first.
Yeah. I tell you why it is. Because we look like this, and so the visualization comes like this with the Buddha facing this way. I think that’s why it is. We’re looking like that, and so the visualization appears like this.
You know? It doesn’t appear like that. So it does create a problem with visualization. But I think what you should do is look, close your eyes, try to add in the details, and if the Buddha’s there, rejoice. You think this is incredible.
So many people just get a fog. You know? No visualization at all. So if you’re getting a visualization, you think, wow. Incredible.
You know? And gradually move him around. Because if you have the ability to visualize, you have the ability to move him to the crown of your head. That’s the next step. But I’d be really happy with the visualization.
Don’t worry about it. Yeah? It’s all gone south. I think is it individual retreat or group retreat? Group.
Group. So says when you’re in a group, you multiply the power of the activity by one hundred. So it means you say one mantra, you’re multiplying it by a hundred when you’re in a group. So that makes the practice much more powerful, which means the visualizations come better. You feel much better.
You connect with the practice better. And then you go home, and it’s like you’ve been in in nirvana, and you go home to saṃsāra, you know, the dishes, the washing. It’s like back to back to normal. And so we have to transform those activities into Medicine Buddha activities. You know?
The washing is is something beneficial. The cooking is something beneficial. Otherwise, we go from, like I said, nirvana, everything’s incredible, everything’s very beautiful. And then we go home, and it’s like it’s all samsaric. So it would be the difference between Lamrim and tantra.
So where do you want to live? You know? Do you want to be in in saṃsāra? And then we say, well, of course not. But we’re not seeing things in a different way.
So if you can see your home as the mandala, and then, it’s Medicine Buddha in the mandala, then every activity becomes the activity of a Buddha rather than, dirty clothes, having to wash dirty clothes. We need to use the power of the mind to transform the activity, and then that will help with the visualization. I think it’s a switching between one activity and another. You know, I noticed when I’m in the monastery, everything seems so much easier. When you come out of the monastery, it’s like you’re in a different realm.
But that’s my problem. I put myself into a different realm. The monastery is not pure, just like no nowhere else is pure in that sense because it’s all samsaric. It’s all created by karma and delusion, even though it’s a positive place. I would transform the house into the mandala, and then when you go home, you think I’m entering the gate of the mandala, and then the Medicine Buddha is in in there above the house.
And then with the energy of the Medicine Buddha coming down, you can do the same for the hospital, you know, when you’re visiting the hospitals. You can do that where the Medicine Buddha is over the hospital, and the energy is coming down into the hospital and blessing all those who are in it, removing their pain and their suffering. That’s a very nice visualization to do. Rather than to go into a hospital and think, oh, pain and suffering, you know, It’s all being created by the mind. So if we use the mind in a more positive way, the experience will be more positive.
Is that okay? Okay. Right. Well, the difference between a bodhisattva and a buddha is a buddha is enlightened. Bodhisattvas also can manifest in numerous forms.
First level bodhisattva can manifest a hundred forms, so it can manifest in all different ways. But Lama Lhundrup said particularly Buddhas. But it’s true that we’re not supposed to be able to see Buddhas, but the Buddhas appear through Nirmānakāya, through an emanation body, which is the Rinpochees. And so they can appear in forms, But, you know, there’s this story about a Sanga, and the Sanga, was in the cave for twelve years. And then when he came out, he saw a dog, which is full of maggots.
Right? And so Maitreya was appearing as the dog. Right? And then then Maitreya appeared as Maitreya. And then he said, I’ll take you all around the village.
And Maitreya said, most people will only see a dog. You know? So, maybe that’s what Lama Lhundrup was referring to is that maybe we see dogs. We don’t see Maitreya. We don’t see Medicine Buddha.
We see dogs and cats. We see lower lower beings. This is created by our mind. So this is why also within the Lamrim, it says we should behave as if everybody is a Bodhisattva or a Buddha, because how do we know? How can you prove somebody’s not a Buddha?
You know? You know. For yourself, you know, but nobody else knows. So we should behave in a certain way, which is respect and kindness and love and compassion towards all beings, not the ones who appear on the lotuses. Right?
So we’re using Medicine Buddha to inspire us to behave in a certain way. Right? To get a certain feeling. And we get that feeling in the meditation, and then we carry it over into our life. So instead of in the Lamrim, angry person, is difficult, we say, oh, angry person.
Oh, this must be my teacher, Medicine Buddha. So then this one, we’re transforming each time into Medicine Buddha. Above the crown of our heads, thank you very much. You know? I’ve been praying for a guru, so Medicine Buddha is back.
So, each practice is valid depending on the level of mind. So it’s good to think all dogs, Buddhas. Yeah? So then we have refuge, bodhicitta. I think not much I need to say, but the Dharma, the sublime community.
So usually we say Sangha, but there’s a little bit of a confusion about Sangha. There’s ordinary Sangha and Sangha with realizations. So sublime community is relating to Sangha with realizations, not not just the ordinary Sangha. Okay? So the realization of emptiness.
Go for refuge and and I from the virtuous merits I collect by practicing giving and other perfections. So this is talking about the six perfections. The practices of a Bodhisattva, once you take Bodhisattva vows, the path that you’re on is the six perfections. Giving, so generosity, morality, patience, joy, concentration, wisdom, emptiness. They’re the six perfections.
So where it says by practicing giving another perfections, it’s referring to the six perfections. In order to lead each and every sentient being into that unsurpassable state, which is enlightenment. Then the four immeasurables. So I’ve mentioned this before. Basically, I like to work with the first two when you have problems thinking, may you be happy, and then, also another day, may you not suffer.
So if you start to feel that sentient beings are irritating, it’s good to think, may you not suffer. Because if you’re irritable, you can make others be irritable. You can make them suffer. So it’s really good to remind ourselves that what we’re about is not to make them suffer, to make them happy. So may you not suffer is compassion.
May you be happy is love. So these first two, I think, are really important. On a daily basis, where throughout the day, everybody that you see, you think, may you be happy. And on another day, may you not suffer. And in this way, you’re you’re planting seeds of love and compassion in your mind stream.
Then, the result of that would be, may all sentient beings never be separated from the happiness, which is without suffering. You should investigate what that actually means. Happiness without suffering. It’s not ordinary at all. You know, it’s talking about something extraordinary.
So we should think about that. Well, what would that be? Is there a happiness without suffering? Could there be a happiness without suffering? Then how do we have that happiness without suffering?
Then it gives the answer, you need to start with equanimity. Because we’ve talked about love, we’ve talked about compassion, we’ve talked about nirvana, enlightenment, but where’s all that going to come from? Equanimity. So the very foundation, the basis is equanimity. In this other prayer, it started with equanimity.
And in some prayers, it starts with the result, and then it says, but how do you get that result? It’s like the four noble truths. Truth is suffering. So suffering, cause, cessation. Then how do you achieve something?
Then it talks in the fourth fourth noble truth, path. So what’s your path? Out of suffering. So here, it’s saying, you want this, you want this, and you want this, then how are you going to get it? So the fourth one is how you get it.
You start with equanimity, which means free from attachment and hatred, holding some close and others distant. So sometimes this works. You know, when you talk about the positive, oh, I’d like to be loving. I’d like to be compassionate. I’d like to have incredible happiness without any suffering.
But hang on a minute. How am I going to do that? And then it says, well, you’ve got to start with equanimity. And sometimes it helps you to do it the other way around, starting with equanimity and then the result of equanimity. So both ways works.
Then we have special bodhicitta, especially for the benefit of all sentient beings. I will quickly, very quickly. So this is saying, on the ordinary sūtra path, it would take me three and a half countless eons to become enlightened. It’s a long time. Right?
Sentient beings are suffering. They cannot hang around waiting for me, or they shouldn’t be waiting for me to become enlightened. So now I’ve got this feeling of energy. I’ve got this feeling of, I really must get on with this because they’re suffering. It’s not for me.
It’s for them. So you see how it changes your motivation from me to you. Right? Before, I was thinking I’m suffering, and I need to get out of my suffering. I need to liberate myself.
But with this, it’s saying, I need to become enlightened because others are suffering, and they don’t deserve to suffer. I don’t want them to suffer, so I need to give them something. I need to help them. But I can’t do that without me being enlightened. So it gives you a very strong feeling of I must get on with it.
So quickly is the ordinary path, and then very quickly is the extraordinary path. You know? So this is the the Lamrim and then the tantric path. So quickly, very quickly. It’s not that tantra is separate is separate from Lamrim.
You have to have the basis of Lamrim to practice tantra. Without Lamrim, you can’t practice tantra. So what tantra is for is to give you realizations of the Lamrim. The destination is the same. The vehicle is different.
So, how can I explain? With the Theravadans, you can say, they’re using a bicycle to get to Melbourne. Alright? It’ll take time, but it’s safe, hopefully, as long as nobody knocks you down. But you’re gonna get there eventually.
With the Lamrim, the Sūtra path, it’s going faster. You’re driving a car, but it’s a little bit more dangerous. Not much, but it’s a little bit more dangerous, but it’s much faster. With the tantric path, you’re flying an airplane, but it’s you flying it, and you’ve never taken flying lessons, and there’s nobody helping you, and the plane’s going loopy loops, and and it’s going all over the place, but you can get to Melbourne really fast. So the difference is not in the destination so much as the vehicle.
So what we’re talking about is the speed of the vehicle. With the tantric path where you’re visualizing the result, you’re saying, Medicine Buddha now, not later. Right? So if you can do that visualization of Medicine Buddha now, it’s the result, not the cause. With Lamrim, we’re thinking about the cause and then later the result.
There’s the three and a half countless eons. You’re creating causes, and there’s going to be a result a long way in the future. But with this, we’re saying, it’s not the future. It’s now. Right now.
Right? And then the mind’s gonna say, hold on a minute. I’m not Medicine Buddha. Let’s get real. You say, but I am.
No. And that’s where you get the problem with the negative mind saying, I’m not. And that’s why you need Lamrim. Because when the negative minds arise, you need the antidotes from the Lamrim. And then you need the visualization, perfection, instead of imperfection.
So that’s how you combine the two. When you’re sinking perfection, imperfection will appear. And it’s not enough to just say, go away. You have to have the antidote, the medicine for it to go away. And that’s where you have the Lamrim and Tantra.
You understand? Sometimes I don’t know if I’m telling you too much. Am I telling you too much? No. Sure?
Yeah? Okay. I thought you came in with straight hair. And it was just it was just gradually going curlier and curlier. Any questions about that?
So then, in the so still special bodhicitta, it says, I will practice the yoga method. It doesn’t mean Hatha yoga or Stanga yoga. It means yoga of the mind. It’s the yoga of, transforming the mind from being unfit into being fit. You know, we think of yoga as being something of movement, isn’t it?
It’s usually a physical movement, but there’s also yoga of the mind. So we’re transforming that mind into Guru Medicine Buddha. No problems? As I go through, instead of just going on and on and on and on, and I lost you two hours ago, it’s better if I just tell you little bits, and then I I make sure you’re clear, and then I go on. Okay?
So just I’ll keep stopping and saying, are you okay? Oh, something fell down. Then seven limb prayer. I prostrate to guru, medicine, Buddha. So, again, if you have a guru, you’re not putting the guru together with the medicine, Buddha.
So when you think guru, you think medicine, Buddha. So that’s why it says guru, medicine, Buddha because you want to have the two indivisible. When you’re thinking Medicine Buddha, you’re thinking guru. This, helps to cultivate respect for your guru’s qualities, the Medicine Buddha’s qualities, and it helps you to reduce your pride. Pride’s a difficult one, you know.
And you have to, I think, you have to think about low self esteem, low self confidence, and pride. I hear this a lot in Mexico, where the big problem is low self esteem, low self confidence. So, when we say you shouldn’t have pride, then they start to get that mixed up with low self esteem. So if you can’t have pride, they go to low self esteem or low self confidence, and it doesn’t mean that. But it also doesn’t mean separating yourself from others and inflating your qualities because that’s what pride is.
It’s an exaggeration. It takes something, and then it exaggerates it into something that is hard to believe. I’m the most incredible. I’m the most amazing. I’m the best.
So pride separates you from others, Whereas, what we want to be is with others on the bodhisattva path. We need others in order for us to practice love and compassion. Without them, we don’t exist. Right? So we can’t separate ourselves from them.
We can’t put ourselves up on the mountain, sitting on the top of the peak and thinking I’m the most amazing. We actually need to be with others. So we have to be careful about pride, thinking that we’re better than others. Oh, I do medicine, Buddha practice. You know, I’m much better than you.
Like that. And this is the delusion that can happen when you’re doing these practices. And this is why the practices are done in a certain way to keep the ego under control because it’s the ego that makes all the trouble for us. So pros to prostrate, when you say I prostrate, if you put your hands at your heart, it helps to remind you you’re about the heart being more open, isn’t it? If you put your hands here, then you feel something happen in the heart.
So not not in the head. Each and every offering, including those actually performed and those mentally transformed, I present to you. So this is, talking about the offerings that are made on the altar, so they’re actually performed, and then mentally transformed so we can visualize offerings as well as having offerings on the altar. So we usually talk about food, water, smell, beautiful form. So these are color, but also beautiful form.
When you offer flowers, you’re offering beautiful form. So it’s important to offer the flowers that you love, not the flowers that you wanna get rid of it from your garden. Right? Because if you’re giving something that you hate, I really don’t like these flowers. I think I’ll take them to the center and put them on the altar.
Can you see what what it would do to the mind? You know? So when you’re offering, it’s actually something very joyous from the heart in order to make others happy, in order to give something to them. So again, it’s not about me. It’s about you.
And so all these practices help to remind you, it’s about you. What can I do for you? So offering beautiful form, offering beautiful smell. If you don’t like Tibetan incense, you can offer French perfume. You can if you can offer Brut.
You know? I used to love the smell of Brut. Lama Yeshe used to say, you can spray perfume, or you could use aromatherapy, you know, drops or you could burn in an aromatherapy burner. You could burn, aromatherapy. So we have a traditional way of doing it, which made it easy for the Tibetans.
But we’re not Tibetans, and it’s often not easy for us to get the things that we want, like the right incense. I don’t know in Adelaide if you can get so easily. So if you can’t or if you don’t like it, offer a smell that you do like. Okay? Don’t burn something that you don’t enjoy.
The the point is offering good smell. Okay? This actual practice is to reduce miserliness and to delight in generosity. So when we’re reciting this verse, each and every offering, including those actually performed, those mentally transformed, I present to you, it’s to reduce miserliness, and it’s to delight in generosity. You have a rejoicing mind.
I’m so happy I’m able to offer. And this gives you more resources, which means you can be more generous. Yes, my dear. Yeah. Right.
Yeah. But are you transforming them? By by giving them to somebody else? By bringing them somewhere. Yeah.
Are you saying that you really hate these roses? I think you have to check what it does to your mind. I think if you can do that, of course, it’s the best thing. But if somebody had that sort of mind that said, oh, I hate these roses. I’ll take them somewhere virtually to get rid of them.
Like that. Yeah. Always, the best mind is the one that thinks to transform. This is the best. You know?
So if there’s something that you don’t like and you buy it, you know, say you don’t like roses, and you went to a shop and you looked at all the other things and you think, no. I’m buying roses because they’re the ones that are going to help me with attachment. Say you’re miserly and you don’t like roses, it might be the best to buy roses because then you could give them very willingly, very lovingly because you don’t want to hold on to them. Exactly. The the absolute best.
This could be the best way of transforming. But if you have that, sort of, oh, I really hate this, and I’m just gonna put that there because then not like that. But in your way, in the way of transforming, this is incredible. I was just thinking yesterday about how, you know, if we go to a cupboard, we look for a cup. We look for the cup that we like.
We don’t choose the cup that we don’t like. So how do we work on attachment if we keep looking for things that we don’t like? You know, we that we like. What are we doing? When we say, oh, I really don’t like this.
I’ll throw it out. I’ll give it to somebody, and then we’ll just keep the things that we like. We’re developing the mind of attachment, isn’t it? So it’s a good point. Then, if you can visualize, visualize all the things that you really enjoy, that you really like, and offer them.
So when I was with Lama Ösel, and we were doing mandala offerings, I think he was about five years of age. And, I said to Lama, now visualize all the things that you want to offer to Buddha. And then I asked him afterwards, so what did you offer? And he said, there was a mountain of ice cream and a mountain of chocolate. You know?
So he actually visualized a mountain, and he had all the cones, you know, up going up the mountain. If you like cappuccino, if you like anything particular, offer it. Because that’s what you really enjoy. You know? Or if you don’t like it and you can transform it, transform it.
But make sure that whatever you’re doing with your mind is something positive. This is what we’re checking. From every point of view, are we removing the negative and increasing the positive? I confess on nonvirtuous actions accumulated since beginningless time. So this is the antidote for rationalization.
You do something negative, and then you talk yourself out of it. That, oh, it wasn’t that bad. You know? Or wasn’t that harmful? So you know how you do something negative, and then you can talk yourself out of thinking it was negative.
Now we’re saying it is negative. It is harmful. And we don’t beat ourselves about it. We have regret, and we want to do something about it. So therefore, it becomes more fuel for enlightenment rather than something we sweep under the carpet.
You know, you can sort of lift the carpet, and you put the negative action under there, and you think, I’m sure that’ll be okay. And the lump is getting bigger and bigger. You know? So be careful of rationalization. Cultivate honesty and humility that, yes, I do make mistakes.
Haven’t become Medicine Buddha yet because, you know, we’re we’re just in the process. So this is ordinary human being with Medicine Buddha above, relating to Medicine Buddha qualities. Right? We’re going through all the negative minds that we could have before we become enlightened. So we’re not just sweeping it under the carpet and saying, oh, it doesn’t exist.
We’re saying it exists. Our anger exists. Our jealousy exists. Our pride. Our hatred.
Our attachment. We say it exists. Yes. I did do that, but I definitely want to purify it. I want to transform it.
Okay? As our guide, I request your Buddha to turn the wheel of Dharma until Samsāra ends. So, this is particularly oh, sorry. I think I missed that one. I rejoice in the virtues of both ordinary and noble beings.
I missed that out. This is to remove jealousy, and it develops delight in what others are doing. So it’s the virtues of ordinary and noble beings. So the noble beings, the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas, of course, they’re doing positive things. But the ordinary beings, if you go to a hospital, you can see many, many people doing incredible work, benefiting others.
So you rejoice in that. Like we said the other day, you know, the electricity, the water, the food, everything we receive comes through the kindness of sentient beings. So we rejoice in all the good things that they’re doing, the firefighters, the police. You know, you just keep rejoicing. And then when jealousy appears, the counteraction is rejoicing.
When we think, oh, why didn’t I get that? Why didn’t that happen to me? Why didn’t I, win the lottery or whatever it is? Instead of thinking, why not me? You rejoice in the fact that the other got it rather than me not getting it.
You know, the half cup full and half cup empty? This is the one. So this can really make you hurt. When somebody you don’t like gets the promotion over you, that can hurt. And then you think, well, why not me?
Why didn’t I get the promotion? And it it sort of goes, that does not guarantee you a better life or more promotions because now you’re you’re jealous and angry towards that one person, trying to undermine them all the time. It won’t make life better for you or for others. So rejoicing is a really nice practice. As our guide, I request you, a Buddha, to turn the wheel of Dharma until saṃsāra ends.
So this purifies the harm or the disrespect that you might have felt towards the Buddhas and the Dharma in the past, helps you to appreciate the Buddha’s presence, and then you’re saying, please, will you turn the wheel of Dharma? So, to keep things going. Okay. You know, I’m not I’m not such a great practitioner, but I need you. I need inspiration, and I need help.
This helps the the humility, you know, to put yourself lower, not not saying I’m useless, but saying I need inspiration. Right? That’s good for the humility. And then please live long. This is important, to say to your teachers and to keep your connection with teachers and with the Buddhas so that when you need a teacher, they’re there for you.
Because if you always say, oh, who needs teachers? You know? And and this day these days, it’s becoming more and more common because we have DVDs, CDs, books, then more and more people now say, I don’t think I need a teacher. And that’s going to result in teachers disappearing. And because Dharma is an oral lineage, it’s something passed on from teacher to student, and then the student becomes the teacher who then passes it on to the student.
Because it’s an oral lineage, if there are no teachers, there’s no oral lineage. The whole thing disappears. And so that’s why in this tradition, we always keep mentioning, please, may we have teachers? Because if not, what are we going to do? You know?
We can’t get the oral lineages from discs. It just doesn’t work. And then all virtues, both my own and those of others, I dedicate to the ripening of the two bodhicittas, the attainment of Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. So at the end of this practice, before we get angry, before we get irritable, we’re dedicating. Because as soon as you get angry or irritable, you lose all your positive energy.
Whatever’s not dedicated is lost. So that’s why dedication is very important. It’s like you take all your money, you go to the top of the building, and you throw your money off if you don’t dedicate. If you dedicate, you’re taking your money to the bank, and you’re saying, put this in the karma Bank, and it’ll be safe. So what should you dedicate for?
When you dedicate for the attainment of Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings, that merit will continue to give some positive energy until it happens. Until all sentient beings are enlightened, that energy will work for you and for others. But if you dedicate, may I become enlightened, not all sentient beings, just me, when you become enlightened, the energy is finished. So that’s why it said the best is for me and for all sentient beings. Then it keeps giving you can say it’s like putting in the bank and it’s getting interest until the end of saṃsāra.
Okay. Any questions? Two Bodhicittas means conventional and ultimate bodhicitta. So conventional is the six perfections, and then ultimate is the emptiness of the perfection. So when you’re practicing generosity, you think I am being kind to you with this gift, But that’s not true.
I is empty, you are empty, and the gift is empty. So that’s ultimate bodhicitta, the emptiness of the bodhicitta. Otherwise, we think, well, look at me. You know? Have a gift.
You know? I’m so incredible. And there goes the ego again. We inflate the ego, and we’re becoming further and further from enlightenment rather than closer and closer to enlightenment. So we don’t want to have bodhicitta as the cause for more ego.
That’s why we need the emptiness of bodhicitta. So the actions that we do to benefit others and then thinking of the emptiness of the action. Yeah. Jack. You can.
You can say also you can say, you know, I’m going to liberate all sentient beings by myself alone. May they all be liberated from all their suffering and unhappiness. You can write it in a way that reflects you. I think this is important because often we have these ways of putting things which are rote. You know?
It’s something that we use over and over. Because as a way of reading it, we can read it together. But when you’re doing a practice at home, I think it’s good it reflects your mind. So you can write it, in a way that makes you feel excited about what you’re doing rather than it’s not quite right, but you don’t want to do anything about it because that’s how it says it here. You can adjust it.
You can change it. You know? As long as you’re saying enlightenment for you and for all sentient beings. And I think, yeah, it’s good to say as quickly as possible because we don’t want them to suffer even one more second. Lama Zopa says, not even one more second.
Because somebody experiencing pain and suffering for even one more second is unbearable. For you as a bodhisattva, it’s unbearable. You know? So we have to get that feeling of I must get on with it rather than, ah, it’s okay. You know?
Suffering doesn’t really exist anyway, does it? You know? Try telling that to somebody who’s suffering. You know? It doesn’t really exist anyway.
Or, you know, oh, it’s empty. This is a misuse of of emptiness. Oh, it’s empty. It doesn’t really exist. It’s not like that.
You know? For those people who are experiencing suffering, they are experiencing it. They are in pain and suffering. And so can I stand that feeling for one more second of seeing them in pain and suffering? Of course not.
So then you get that strong motivation. I want to liberate them from that suffering right now. You know? So write it the way you like. Anymore?
Yes. Yeah. You can do it two ways. One is that you could put your guru in their heart, or you could have your guru with Medicine Buddha in their heart. You can do it either way around, or you can see your guru as Medicine Buddha.
So it would be your guru’s face with Madsen Buddha’s body. Whatever whatever feels good for you. I think it it often feels good to see your your guru as Medicine Buddha. You know? I used to have problems with seeing Lama Zopa as Tārā.
You know? Then you can see your guru with Tārā in the heart, or Tārā with your guru in the heart. That’s the way around it. You know, if you find there’s an obstacle to the visualization, there’s always another way. Yeah.
Okay. T. So I think we’ll start again at twelve.