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Are there prayers or meditations to heal sick family members in Buddhism?
Hi,
Are there Buddhist prayers or meditations I can do to heal sick family members? My parents are always very tired and they have low immunity, like they have been getting sick very often and say they feel bad and so old, I feel I attracted this negative energy to us because I have been so miserable and lonely for the past 10 plus years (I'm 27 with no friends, no job, no romantic partner, no real life) and because of this I have severe social anxiety and some depression and when I do go out of my house it's hard because of my anxiety.
I read that one's state of mind will attract that type of energy, and I think that's true in this case, and because of me being so miserable, confused, lost, and lonely for so long, I've attracted this bad, unhealthy energy to my household (I live with my parents) and now my parents feel horrible also.
I've been praying to G-d for a long time to heal my parents, but these prayers aren't working, so are there any Buddhist prayers or meditations I can do ( I'm not a Buddhist, but I'm interested in learning more about it) to help heal my parents and have them feel healthy again?
Thank You.
Are there Buddhist prayers or meditations I can do to heal sick family members? My parents are always very tired and they have low immunity, like they have been getting sick very often and say they feel bad and so old, I feel I attracted this negative energy to us because I have been so miserable and lonely for the past 10 plus years (I'm 27 with no friends, no job, no romantic partner, no real life) and because of this I have severe social anxiety and some depression and when I do go out of my house it's hard because of my anxiety.
I read that one's state of mind will attract that type of energy, and I think that's true in this case, and because of me being so miserable, confused, lost, and lonely for so long, I've attracted this bad, unhealthy energy to my household (I live with my parents) and now my parents feel horrible also.
I've been praying to G-d for a long time to heal my parents, but these prayers aren't working, so are there any Buddhist prayers or meditations I can do ( I'm not a Buddhist, but I'm interested in learning more about it) to help heal my parents and have them feel healthy again?
Thank You.
0
Comments
A prayer link
Kuan Yin Prayer Request link
Healing Chant found here
We should find the compassion within ourselves to help others to the best of our ability, but also the discernment to know that which is only wishful thinking. If we are honest, then we need not take up an exercise in futility and may direct our effort toward more helpful actions to help those in need.
But, in point of fact, an enlightened student of Buddhism would realize that Buddhism is a huge matrix of ideas that allows a lot of latitude in how people pragmatically approach the business that is their lives. There is no nihil obstat or imprimatur in Buddhism. For many Buddhists since the 7th or 8th centuries CE in China, the cult of bodhisattvas such as Avalokiteshvara (Kuan Yin) promises not just rebirth in another world but favorable intervention with the concerns of the present life. The concept of samsara was arguably unheard of by many of them.
________________
EDIT:
Sorry that Cloud has taken such exception to my stone and bread analogy. I keep forgetting that even in the Christian colleges students don't know scripture anymore. What was I doing using Christian scripture on a Buddhist board, then? Go Figure!
I was alluding to the words of Jesus when he said that no father would give stones to his children when they are hungry and asking for bread.
I think that we too often are too eager to eschew error wherever it may be found and forget that our need to be right separates us needlessly from other people. Most of the time it is better to say nothing at all rather than to say the wrong thing. If I must address a wrong, let it be to defend a friend, not just to shore up some notion I have, however revered or time-honored it may be. I'd not betray a friend for a principle, but I would compromise on a principle if a friend was in great need.
A friend does not even have to be an acquaintance. That is why it is so important not to look askance at somebody asking for a simple gift of time or regard.
Although she is an 'entertainer' and not buddhist I really like her work. She has several CDs. This is one from 'The Embrace'.
It sounds as if you are feeling tremendous guilt which may be due to your depression rather than based in fact; but I hope that you and your family are feeling better soon.
Be well and I wish you luck in helping your family to be well again, Shana.
Namaste
.http://www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/meditation.htm#Tonglen
http://www.naljorprisondharmaservice.org/pdf/Tonglen.htm
Some examples include Sangye Menla, Garuda, Vajrakilaya, and several different forms of Tara.
Buddhism offers far more than we give it credit for.
Then wish all beings be free from suffering and go to enlightenment.
Then wish your loved one or your self gets relief from their pain.
It wakes up the heart in the short run and long.
Yes. You can pray and chant and do zazen all you want. Sickness and death happen, no matter how much you want it to be otherwise.
like I said, welcome to Samara, and enjoy your stay.
There are however a multitude of practices that can be done to lessen the suffering associated with sickness and death.
The practices also go beyond "praying, chanting, and zazen". There are diverse methods that are directly associated with sophisticated medical systems.
To claim that Buddhism as a tradition does not offer these methods is simply inaccurate and adds to the commonly held misconception that Buddhism doesnt offer services to the community in the same way as other traditions.
Tonglen pops directly into my mind. Perhaps Shana might investigate that?
you can't stop someone else's suffering. no way, no how. at best you can teach them how to practice zazen, and they can deal with their own suffering. If you're very lucky, and you do exactly the right thing at exactly the right time (neither of which, the thing nor the time, you can know until after you've done what you've done whenever you've done it), you can postpone someone elses suffering, but if it's not now, it's sometime soon.
Sure. I gave a few earlier but there are others. Chod and phowa are a couple more examples.
We can however lessen its immediate and future severity.
Another problem here is that you are giving your perspective and that is fine as long as you say you are. But to speak for the vast Buddhist traditions by stating that these methods and practices are unavailable is misleading.
If you're incredibly lucky and happen to do the exact correct thing at the exact correct time, neither of which you can know until after you've done whatever you've done whenever you did it, you can postpone someone's anguish. I said that previously. But they'll still have that anguish eventually. So no matter what you do, you can't stop it.
You may as well go down to Vegas and put it all on black. or they can practice zazen and lessen their own suffering to the extent that they can.
I was always taught the importance of respecting the religions of others and not to dismiss anyone out of hand. Let's please not forget that the OP is a request and not a position paper.
I'm gonna go say a prayer for world peace now.
What makes a prayer authentic? should it be in a foreign language you don't understand?
Make your own prayers, it's just to remind you and help focus your intentional energy..
something like that..
if you make a prayer and it's really from the heart.. that's what counts
By that reasoning doctors are pretty pointless too.
We might as well recommend from now on to ill people that rather than going to the doctor for treatment that they should just stay home, struggle to practice zazen, and die. Since treatment wont lessen their suffering at all they should just suck it up already.
There are methods both medical and "spiritual" that can provide suffering people (and animals) with at the very least temporary relief.
You can dismiss the benefit of temporary relief all you want. I will have to disagree with you there.
I guess the fundamental difference in our viewpoints is that I find the things you've listed to be baloney.
Saying you can pray to this thing or that thing...you are those things; so you pray to yourself to do something you can't do?
Its totally ok that you think the examples I have listed are baloney.
Thats not the issue. The issue is making claims for the Buddhist tradition in general that are inaccurate. The examples I provided are just that, examples of practices that are done in the Buddhist tradition to deal with illness and death and dying etc.
Also, the practices I mentioned have absolutely nothing to do with "praying to this thing or that thing". Thats not how it works at all.
I am on medications for my anxiety and they do help a lot but they only help so much and the doctor won't give me anything else other than what I'm taking. I also see a psychologist but she isn't helping much and I'm probably going to change to another one. There was a time for a few years when I refused to go on meds, and I think it was during that time when I was the worst that I attracted all this negativity onto us.
Hi Shana,
One of the first things I would recommend that you work toward is to let go of this kind of guilt. In order to benefit your family you have to start with yourself, and the a great way to get started there is to be compassionate toward yourself. Try not to dwell on the idea that you have somehow attracted negativity and try to deal with the current situations in the most open and compassionate way possible. That compassion has to include you in order to really benefit.
I hope you find something useful.
Does Buddhism offer these things? Maybe. We don't bother with any of that stuff in my tradition. And here's why. You can't expect it to work. Give it a shot, say a dozen hail Mary's, and dance around in a circle. Whatever. So doing this and expecting it to do something, if only you do the correct things, it's totally missing the point Buddha was trying to get across.
Just like if you have brain cancer, you can't expect to be cured. you can give it a shot with chemo, and brain surgery, but you still have to accept the fact that things will be as things will be. so give it a shot; just don't expect it to work.
This is not the way of Buddha, or the Tao, or Krishna, or Jesus.
Be unattached to the results of our actions.
But Actions go on anyway;
nothing we can do can stop things happening. (On this point we two agree.)
The trick is to have prayerful action.
If you're too sick or distracted to sit 45 minutes in meditation, you can pray.
You can pray for anything wholesome.
That is still a "meditation."
Despair is just a passing thought.. Just like a blue moon ice cream cone. Both a passing thought. And both you can't bite into really in immediacy. They are just thinking.
You can read more here: http://www.sanskritmantra.com/what.htm
It isn't pure crackload.
Once I nearly got possessed and my years of meditation and knowledge of mantras helped me. I wouldn't say too much, for you have to experience its potency yourself. (:
It' not just just about the meaning of the thought, its the way you make the sound, and how it rings out. Of course, it still sounds supernatural, but how do you prove something like that?
Perhapes you under credit them, From all Intention comes action, Prayer is positive intention in this case for the well being of others creates the karmic causes for that to come into fruition in the future, Mixed with a mind of Great compassion and focused upon an indivual or group of people it can actually have astonishing results in normal circumstances, In Buddhist practise there come many forms of healing prayers and meditation because of the accomplished nature of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and so forth it is not beyond impossibility of help being received, Tonglen for example I remember stories of a friend who goes to a centre up in liverpool whom had cancer numerous times and each time purified what looked like to be terminal cancer via that practise.
Tayata
Om Bekandze Bekandze
Maha Bekandze
Radza Samudgate Soha
The mantra means:
May the many sentient beings
who are sick,
quickly be freed from sickness.
And may all the sicknesses of beings
Never arise again.
Cpaul, If it wasn't for Lord Shakyamuni being moved by compassion, he would not have taught the dharma at all and you wouldn't have zazen to practice. You would have to go back to kicking dogs and pulling the wings off of flies. Have some gratitude, man.
I never said Buddha wasn't moved by compassion. or anything about kicking dogs and pulling the wings off of flies.
In your case, I'm seeing you burden yourself with a lot of blame and guilt and shame for your own illness and for bringing these very natural (and common!) feelings of tiredness and illness upon your parents. I'm seeing language that reminds of the "law of attraction" which claims that you attract negativity into your life by being negative and positivity into your life by being positive. On one level, this is true. We notice most what we focus on. If we focus on finding the negative, we will likely only notice the negative, and thus become depressed, disillusioned, and de-motivated from taking positive actions; this can lead to a vicious cycle. On the other hand, this sort of belief can be quite harmful, and cause one to expect that we should be happy at all times for fear of bringing misfortune on ourselves or others. This leads to denial of our own suffering (the opposite of the path of the Buddha), and blaming ourselves for things that oftentimes, are completely out of our control. Misfortunes happen. Bad things happen to good people every day. Don't blame yourself for your parents' situation.
For one thing, notice how exactly blaming yourself makes you feel. Does it make you feel more motivated to take constructive action? Or does it only make you feel shameful, hopeless, and de-motivated? IME, it's usually the latter. If you want to be a force for positive change in the world, start with yourself. The Buddha said, "You can look the whole world over and never find anyone more deserving of love than yourself." Forgive yourself for your own human frailties and simply do what you can do.
I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Philadelphia. One of the running jokes among the kids in our neighborhood was that something occurred in middle age to make Jewish people miserable. We noticed a lot of the middle-aged and elderly people there were always complaining about something or other physical ailment. Years later, I was surprised to find a similar experience from meditation teacher Larry Rosenberg in his book Living in the Light of Death, remarking at how different the old people he met in Asia were from those he knew growing up: