Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 22-minute session, Ven Robina Courtin offers a guided Medicine Buddha practice as a direct support for Lama Lhundrup, a beloved senior teacher who has recently passed away, and for Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who has suffered a stroke. She opens with the backstory of Lama Lhundrup’s decades of service at Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu, then leads a step-by-step visualization: settling the mind on the breath, imagining the Medicine Buddha as a radiant blue figure in monk’s robes holding a bowl of healing nectar, reciting prayers and mantra, and finally radiating light outward to purify the suffering of all sentient beings. She emphasizes that visualization is simply focused creative imagination—a skill practitioners already possess—and closes with the meditation dissolving into spacious clarity and a dedication of merit. Pitched at those already familiar with Buddhist practice and the lineage figures involved.
File metadata (for organising)
File: Robina Courtin – 03 – Medicine Buddha.mp3
UUID: 785915b4-d848-4d26-8cf0-c66545116577
Teacher: Ven Robina Courtin
Collection: Robina Courtin 2011 – too hard (Ven Robina Courtin)
Date: 2011 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 21.7 minutes
Words: ~2,769
This is how they talk. And so the one way the Buddha manifests Buddha mind, manifests as in this form of looks like the Buddha, but he’s blue. And in his bowl, he’s got kind of medicine plants. You know? He’s a medicine man, basically.
He’s the medicine Buddha, which is but it’s not just for healing, but it’s often used for something like this. So Lama Lhundup is this lama who was here in eighty six for three months. Some of you might have known him, and he’s been the abbot of Kopan monastery, is in Kathmandu, out of Kathmandu, which is the main monastery of Lama Zopa, Lama Yeshe, who are the lamas of this center, since they would be there since the seventies. And what happened was they Lama Zopa was ten years younger than Lama Yeshe. Was born in forty six.
Lama’s born in Lama Yeshe born in thirty five or something. And Lama’s from Tibet, and he escaped with the others. And then Lama Lama Zopa was from a Sherpa, actually, in Nepali. But he was in Tibet when the thing happened in in nineteen fifty nine, so he he went and escaped. So that he met they met up when Lama Zopa was about fifteen or something.
And then Lama Yeshe became Lama Zopa’s main teacher. But eventually they found their way to Kathmandu, and all the westerners, the hippies in the seventies met them. And then they started Kopan Monastery, which is just out, you know, forty five minute walk from Bodhunath, which is where a lot of the Tibetans were. And that would used to be where the king’s astrologer lived.
And then they started this monastery, is now this huge place with four hundred monks and four she said five hundred nuns down the road. And in seventy two, so Lama Zopa, he was a reincarnated Lama, he was said to be. And in his past life, was his great yogi. Right? And in his in his last life, he said they asked him to start a school.
He said he was too old. He’d do it in his next life. So in in nineteen seventy one, he took he fulfilled that promise after he’d been recognized, the little boys, the reincarnation of the past lama. So he said he’d now start so he called it Mount Everest Center. So there were about thirty monks in the beginning, and they’d come down in the summer to in the winter to Kopan monastery.
But then eventually, they moved there permanently. In seventy two, wrote to Lama Lhundrup who’d been one of his students in Tibet. He wrote to him, I think in wherever. He wrote to him. He was down south where all where the the Tibet Indian government incredibly compassionately had given hundreds of thousands of acres of just forest land to the Tibetans to build their monasteries, which is what they’ve done now. All their big monastic universities are down there, and hundreds of towns and villages of Tibetans and things.
And so Lama Lhundrup was down there helping continue Sera Monastery, which is from Tibet. And then in nineteen seventy two, Lama Yeshe wrote to him and said, come and help me up here. And the abbot Sera said, you go for three months to Lama Lhundup, but you come back. Well, he never left. So seventy two until now, he just passed away.
He was only seventy one or something. Sixty seven. Seventy maybe. He was seventy, and he got cancer recently. And then also Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who’s been traveling.
As you know, he was in Bendigo recently, he got he got a stroke in April. So he’s been back in Kopan, which I think is very marvelous for them because they haven’t had him there for months. He’s hardly been there for years and years except for brief periods. But now he’s been there for several months because he’s had this stroke. His own speech is a bit kind of back and not so good, his right hand and right leg.
So he’s getting all this. He’s got a physio. He’s got proper treatment. He’s on medicine. He’s doing lots of walking and circumambulating about the stupas, which he figured was a really good thing.
But maybe my sense is he’s also back there for, you know, for the monastery. Because he’s been their mummy for forty years. And he was he was renowned. If anybody’s been there, he’s renowned, he’s incredibly kind, very sweet. He would never say no to any monk who ever came there.
You know? He was extremely gentle and kind and loving. For forty years, he’s been like a mother and father to those monks that the hundreds of monks have been there and the nuns. So now he’s, in this moment, it seems, in meditation. I think he’s still in meditation.
In his after he passed away, these yogis can actually go through the process to their subtle mind and still be in the body before they’ve actually died. But they’re in meditation at this more subtle level, you know, which is a really advanced stage. And they’re all there doing these different prayers. And and has advised that we do medicine Buddha, among other things. Also, Śākyamūni.
So anybody knows the Śākyamūni mantra, you know, What is it? Thank you. That one. Then you say it after this. If you know the Medicine Buddha one, then you say one of, you know, those.
Just thinking in keeping in mind and also, he becomes healthy again, and we can see him around the teaching around the world teaching again. So this is very long and everything, this medicine Buddha. But I think if we just keep it simple, like imagine. Okay. Just meditate.
Okay? Just close your eyes for a moment, and we just meditate for a couple of minutes on our breath just to focus our mind. So bring all your awareness to just your nostrils, the sensation at the end of our nose. We can feel the air coming in and out. And with, you know, firm but relaxed mind, we simply watch that breath.
And you you you thoughts are there, the sounds are there, but you you have to practice the discipline of not following them. That’s what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to keep your mind on the breath. So you’ve got to wander off because that’s what it does. So part of you is watching like a hawk, and you bring the mind back to the breath, you know.
And that’s it. For two or three minutes, it’s a steady our mind. Just watch the breath. Just bring the mind back to the breath. And now we just do a little imagining, you know, visualizing, just imagining.
Actually, are eight seven medicine Buddhas plus Buddha. So no no never mind that. We’ll just visualize a medicine Buddha. So imagine in the sky in front of us, radiant light body, not substantial like a statue, radiant light, and this dark blue, looking just like the Buddha, same style, you know, in the monk’s robes with the the pointy thing on his head. As Robert Thurman said, Buddha’s got a lot of brain, so they’re popping out, you know, that that they call it.
On his head, he’s got these long ear lobes. He’s got these very radiant face, sweet red mouth, red from giving teachings to benefit others out of compassion. His eyes looking very peaceful. And he’s sitting there with his two I think he’s where he’s got his one hand at his heart in the mood of giving giving realizations. I think it’s in his heart, the fingers pointing up.
And his ring finger and his thumb, I think, was, yeah, touching. And then his left hand’s in his in his in his like in a meditation pose in his his in his lap. And he’s holding a bowl. Think of it as full of nectar that completely purify all the illnesses, our own illnesses, all the illnesses of all others, and bring long life and, you know, health. Think like this, and all the realizations.
So his radiant dark blue body in the robes of a monk sitting on a lotus, and everything is radiant, made of light. Blissful face, radiant, full of energy, full of love. And also think of it as like a mirror image of our own potential, this indestructible enlightened consciousness, full of wisdom, full of compassion, effortless ability to benefit others for as long as time exists. This is the meaning of Buddha, and this aspect of the medicine Buddha. And if we have a spiritual teacher, a lama, you know, a guru, a lama, spiritual teacher, we think it’s their mind manifesting in this aspect for the benefit of beings.
Makes it very personal. And so we think we’ll just do a little prayer here of just and thinking, to the Bhagawan, the Tathāgata, the Arhat, the fully enlightened Buddha, medicine guru, king of lapis light. I prostrate, I make offerings, and I go for refuge. Please may the pledges you made ripen upon myself and all sentient beings right now. May all my pure aspirations, my prayers succeed immediately.
So we just think we want all the wishes of our own selves to be fulfilled in this life, all the illness to go, all the ill health, all the problems, all the suffering, all the dramas in our own lives, in the lives of all other sentient beings. May they be utterly removed. Think like this. Wanting this. Having the courage to never give up in our life, to continue to grow our amazing potential and our ability to benefit others.
Imagine this. Blue in color, and with the mudra of granting the supreme who accomplishes with all the prayers, majestic with the glory of two accumulations. Glorious one of the Buddha field, lapis light, I prostrate to the medicine guru, king of doctors. Bhagawan with equal compassion for all whose name, when merely heard, dispels the suffering of all this all the realms, the dispeller of disease and the three poisons, I prostrate to medicine, Buddha, lapis, light. I make every collection of offerings actually arranged and emanated.
And through the force of mantra, samadhi, and aspiration, I confess I I acknowledge all negativities, and I rejoice in all my virtues and all the virtues of others, and request and beseech and dedicate such virtues as these to the great enlightenment. And so now we imagine from his heart light going out, and we think of Lama Lhundrup, we think of Lama as all the holy beings, his holiness the Dalai Lama, or any of the marvelous powerful beings on this earth bringing peace and happiness to this world, you know, whoever we think. And all the suffering beings pervading space. Think of the whole universe pervading space. All these sentient beings.
Trillions of sentient beings. All with their own sufferings, all with their own struggles. The realms of existence, all the animals. All the suffering kangaroos, all the beings. Terrible, terrible sufferings, all the mental sufferings of humans, pervading space.
And we think of Lama Lhundrup there. And we, you know, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and then all the holy beings, his holiness, all our own teachers, our own lamas, our own special people right there in front of us. But we imagine behind us, above us, below us, as far as you can see, all the suffering beings. And then Buddha’s right there, beautiful blue. And we imagine from his heart going out light, powerful beams of white light, go out to all the directions, entering into the, you know, purifying completely all the suffering sentient beings, making all the holy beings healthy and strong so that we can continue to receive their teachings.
Strongly imagining this, wanting this. Just imagine this for a moment. Don’t see it very well. Doesn’t matter. Just think it.
Wanting it. The heart wanting it. Wanting them to stop suffering. Wanting them to be full of happiness. All the suffering beings.
And so as we continue thinking this, imagining this, and these types of meditations, be very relaxed. You know? All they are is using our creative imagination. We do excellent visualization all day. When you’re upset with somebody, you’ve got single point of concentration imagining all their bad qualities, never stopping.
If you’re if you’re in love with somebody, you can be in the middle of the football, the MCG during the grand final. You’ll single pointedly not lose concentration on this divine new boyfriend. So we know how to concentrate, and we know how to visualize. So we’re just using our creative imagination here, imagining the medicine Buddha radiant and powerful, imagining all suffering beings, sentient beings, and imagining light going out, purifying every single one, bringing happiness to every single one, wanting this. It’s just using our minds, you know, thinking, wanting this.
So the holy beings, has passed away, so we just make strong, you know, wishes that completely, as soon as possible, take a new rebirth and come back and continue to teach us. And for, his holiness, all the others, to continue to be long and healthy, see them as shining and beautiful and healthy, so that they continue to teach us and continue to guide us to help us become enlightened so we can be like them, so we can benefit sentient beings. Wanting all this, you know. So now as we continue to visualize all this light going out and transforming everybody, we can say the mantra a few times of the Medicine Buddha. So we just if you get used to it as you hear it, you know.
If you know it already, just join in and we recite it together. And if you don’t, you just get used to it and hear it, and you’ll learn it. So it’s So imagine his holiness and all the other holy beings, fat and shining and healthy and strong and living for a long time to teach us. So delighted. And then I’m gonna make making the aspirations that he take a new rebirth as quickly as possible to teach us.
And all the other suffering sentient beings you now imagine you’ve removed all their suffering, they’ve experienced all their own potential, how marvelous. All turned into medicine Buddha. So now you think of all these trillions of medicine Buddhas dissolving into into blue light, powerful blue light from above, below, behind, and all coming and absorbing into us, enhancing even more marvelously our own enormous Buddha nature. All these billions of medicine Buddhas, all the suffering sentient beings transformed into medicine Buddha now dissolving into blue light and all absorbing from all directions into oneself, making one even more radiant and blissful as the Buddha. And so now we can do a little meditation on on sort of like it’s beyond it’s like space.
No thoughts. So just visualize around you now. Nothing. Just big vast space. Think like this.
No manifestations. No chatter. Imagine vast, limitless space. And then just abide in this space with no thoughts. Clear, blissful, calm mind.
And even just imagine it, you know, this bigness and vastness. Think your mind is as big as the universe, not this tiny thing locked up in this body. Blissful, clear, vast, pervading space. Just abide in that without thoughts for a few moments. And now we just dedicate, thinking even this tiny meditation, these few and the essence of it is, if you think of it, is these positive thoughts we’ve had.
Every thought is a karma. Every thought, therefore, sows a seed in the mind that ripens similar to that seed. So here we’ve done had these marvelous thoughts of enlightened energy, wanting to benefit all sentient beings, sending out light, saying mantra, purifying. All these seeds we planted are fantastic. So may we may we continue to nourish the virtue in our own hearts from moment to moment, our wisdom, by dealing with our lives, whatever arises in front of us, developing this wisdom, developing this compassion, so we really can become this marvelous potential that Buddha says we all have.
So we really then can be of actual, perfect, wise benefit to sentient beings. For as long as time exists, Buddha says. And make compassion, bodhicitta, grow and grow in the hearts of all. Okay. Thanks, everybody.
Short and sweet.