Medicine Buddha

Here's the version I had mentioned in the other thread - I find it really beautiful on its own (without background music), but this background music is quite sweet (to my ears):

Here's the version I had mentioned in the other thread - I find it really beautiful on its own (without background music), but this background music is quite sweet (to my ears):

This is one of my favorites! :)

Simply wonderful! Thank you for sharing!

(this is finally bringing me to tears. thinking of my dog who very sick)

possibilities said:

(this is finally bringing me to tears. thinking of my dog who very sick)

Possibilities - I'm so, so sorry to hear about your dog. My sister's kitty of 18 1/2 years just passed away a few days ago.

Singing some Medicine Buddha for both of them now. Hope your friend will feel better very soon and recover!

Thanks very much, @Sile. I try to keep it together so as not to upset him, but tears are good at times :-). It's been a while..... I guess compassion cuts deep - hmmm. What am I saying?? :-)

Possibilities - my own kitty, Maggie, really loved (or that's how it seemed to me, lol) listening to this mantra/music. I first found out about Medicine Buddha practice, in fact, when she went thru a mysterious illness; she made a great recovery and lived another 6 years! In her last days, she would lie peacefully near the laptop when this mantra was playing.

And yes, I believe tears are good - it's always seemed to me that animals understand when we're sad.

Wonderful about your kitty's recovery at the time - and I'm afraid in my pain I forgot to say I'm sorry about your sister's cat. 18 yrs! That is Old ! I bet she had a wonderful life.

I listened to this chant again after listening to several others and AGAIN it got to me! There must be something very "soulful" in this rendition that speaks directly to one's instincts. There is also some sadness, I think, in the tune. This rendition may be more more heartfelt than another one that I also like - by Imee Ooi, who has a "heavenly" voice.

Do you have a translation to the words? (You can tell I'm new to this :-) ) I looked but didn't come up with anything.

Then I went back to listen to another one by Khenpo Pema Chopel Rinpoche, though they don't seem to be giving him credit:

---posted below, embedding didn't work....

Thanks again for posting Medicine Buddha - it was soothing, setting up a different dimension for the day.

Yes, I don't know what it is about this version of the mantra; or maybe it's the effect of the mantra itself.

I've seen people who are avowedly unreligious (even anti-religious) end up gravitating to the song and singing it for someone who was dying, without any sense of discomfort. I'd love to know where this particular version came from - what it's story is.

As for the words, the meaning has been given as follows:

Tayata: OM bekandze, bekandze, maha bekandze, radza, samungate, swoha
Thus: OM healing suffering, healing suffering, ultimate healing of all suffering, King of Healing, perfect enlightenment, bless all

tayata - thus
OM - sacred sound representing body, speech and mind
bekandze - healing suffering
maha bekandze - ultimate healing of all suffering
radza - king (of healing, in this case)
samungate - perfect enlightenment
swoha - bless all

Note: bekandze (Sanskrit "bhishajya," almost certainly from abhi + sanj)

The Tibetan, far from being a mispronunciation, preserves the "n" in the old "sanj" source-word.

भिषज् bhisaj - related to English "physic," as in "physician"

@Sile, thank you for the translation :-) - it is much appreciated. Also, I just found your post in the other thread.... wow.

@Sile @possibilities The version of the Medicine Buddha mantra was recorded by Khenpo Pema Chopel as a kind of teaching and blessing of protection during the SARS epidemic. The CD included a short teaching by HH Penor Rinpoche, and the mantras of 4 healing deities: Padmasambhava, Medicine Buddha, White Tara, and Parnashavari.

Thank you for this, Dorje!

Wonderful audio teachings on Medicine Buddha, by Yangsi Rinpoche



Morning: http://goo.gl/KRCx1
Afternoon: http://goo.gl/rys9r

Interesting science on blue light and it's effect on body & mind:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/10/27/health.blue.light.moods/

For quite a while now I've been wanting to look more closely at the imagery of Medicine Buddha. My mind seems to always wander first to the myrobalan [Tibetan arura] plant:



There are various myrobalans used in Tibetan/Ayurvedic medicine, but generally the myrobalan depicted in the Medicine Buddha imagery is said to be terminalia chebula[Sanskrit: haritaki; Tibetan: a-ru-ra]:



Design from a Tibetan medical text showing the three "rivers" of Indian, Chinese and Tibetan medicine flowing into one great lake of knowledge, from which arises the Arura, king of remedies:

Tibetan medicine also includes the ancient Greek medical knowledge, and old Persian medical tradition. In the 1990's researchers at the Academy of Science in Tajikistan found some old manuscripts, and upon translating them, were astonished as to how relevant the ancient medical knowledge still is today.

The film, "The Knowledge of Healing", with interviews by one of the DL's doctors, with the DL himself, and a visit to the Tibetan Medicine Institute in the Buryat Republic in Russia, is one of my favorite movies.

Dakini said:

Tibetan medicine also includes the ancient Greek medical knowledge, and old Persian medical tradition. In the 1990's researchers at the Academy of Science in Tajikistan found some old manuscripts, and upon translating them, were astonished as to how relevant the ancient medical knowledge still is today.

The film, "The Knowledge of Healing", with interviews by one of the DL's doctors, with the DL himself, and a visit to the Tibetan Medicine Institute in the Buryat Republic in Russia, is one of my favorite movies.

Still haven't watched this - thank you for the reminder!

Another picture showing the pink fruit