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Healing

NirvanaNoobNirvanaNoob
edited December 2005 in Buddhism Basics
I have heard that if one mediatates on the medicine Buddha they can be healed. Does Buddhist healing really work? And if it does can it also heal not just phyiscal pain?

Comments

  • XraymanXrayman Veteran
    edited December 2005
    Ah now I'd just be careful about this one.... You must choose the right medicine for your illness-for instance taking St. Johns Wort wont fix a broken arm....
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited December 2005
    I agree with Xrayman on one level..... seeking healing like this, in the general sense is a potential minefield, fraught with problems.....
    Invoking the Blue Medicine Buddha through a Mantra is beneficial, providing we can do it with the Right: - View, Intention, Awareness, Meditation, Mindfulness and Effort.
    Sometimes, we can want something so badly, that our Desire clouds our Reasoning.....

    However, Meditation - any kind of Meditation, which centres our Awareness and is done with Awareness - is beneficial.
    All I can say is that I offer an Invocation daily, for all those who suffer, and are in pain - be it physical or otherwise.... :)
  • FrizzerFrizzer
    edited December 2005
    I'd say most emphatically that yes, Buddhist healing does work.

    I know I've mentioned it before but I'm a qualified Reiki Master/Teacher (I don't like the term Master though). Reiki has it's roots in Tendai Buddhism and Shintoism and although not originally designed as a healing system it can and is used as such. :D
  • SangeMenlaSangeMenla
    edited December 2005
    Hi,
    I wrote stuff on one of the other threads, but I have been reading "Seekingg the Medicine Buddha" by David Crow. Its hard going as I know little of Buddhism (Tibetan) and nothing about the Hindu Stuff. Thought this might help, its a really great book....if you understand Buddhism and esoteric stuff.

    Ross:rocker:
  • XraymanXrayman Veteran
    edited December 2005
    Another interesting point, My good friend David is very much into health/vegetarianism and some other stuff. His mother was riddled with cancer, Bone cancer it started out as breast and metasisized(changed)-I saw the Nuclear Medicine scans. He tried to get her to sleep on a magnetic blanket to "cure" her, of course this didn't happen, she died 3 months later-the point is, to take your medicine as appropriate to your disease. If it is mental/psychosomatic then perhaps meditation is the best medicine.-I'm no expert, it's just my opinion.

    P.S. If you think the magnet theory works, I worked with MRI (A HUGE Magnet) and no one was ever "cured" while laying in there, it is 15,000 times stronger than the earth's magnetic field-if any magnet is going to work it would be these-but sadly no it doesn't.
  • buddhafootbuddhafoot Veteran
    edited December 2005
    Xrayman wrote:
    Ah now I'd just be careful about this one.... You must choose the right medicine for your illness-for instance taking St. Johns Wort wont fix a broken arm....

    Dang.

    I wish someone would have told me this before.

    -bf
  • TreebeardTreebeard
    edited December 2005
    magnet therapy goes back to the 1800's when people were experimenting with electricity, magnetism, and phrenology as medicine. but it's all been disproven, especially magnetic therapy.
  • FrizzerFrizzer
    edited December 2005
    I know people that have and do use magnets, including my wife. They all claim that they have more energy, can sleep better and it helps some of them with general aches and pains. Those that exercise regularly said that they seem to recover faster.

    Is this just down to a placebo effect then? I've not read any of the studies regarding magnet therapy.

    I've only used a magnet wrist band once and that was to try and help a finger that I broke and dislocated while snowboarding. I'd been left with limited mobility in it. After wearing the magnet I soon regained nearly full movement in it (after 2 years of being limited). I'm happy to keep an open mind about it though, and I suppose wearing the magnet may have given my the confidence to force my finger to move more, thereby helping to free it up.

    Either way, whether it was due to the magent or not it sorted my finger out which at the end of the day is the main thing! :)
  • DhammasaavakaDhammasaavaka
    edited December 2005
    The truth is if you are sick please see a doctor. The Buddha even taught this. A statue will not help you. Meditating can aid in your health, but you really need to see a doctor. Even Monks of every tradition go to the doctor.

    Buddhism is not a mystical or magical system. Though some have made it out to be so. Nor is it New Age though it has become somewhat of a fad.

    So please, if you are ill consult a doctor.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited December 2005
    But wear blue, and carry a lucky rabbit's foot..... :D
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited December 2005
    Having witnessed with my own eyes a number of miraculous cures, yes, it does work. For example, we built a stupa at our temple in Maryland dedicated to hopeless causes, like terminal cancer, AIDS, that kind of thing, and packed it with relics of Migyur Dorje, the terton (treasure revealer) on whose termas (hidden treasures) our particular lineage was founded. Shortly after the consecration of the stupa, we held a practice at the stupa - I remember it was a bitterly cold December day - for one of our members, a physician who had been suffering from AIDS for some 15 years and who was deteriorating rapidly. He had Kaposi's Sarcoma that was untreatable, his abdomen was distended, and he really had only a very short time to live. So we did this practice for him with our lama present as well as his partner, and we really practiced our buns off for him despite the cold. Well, he went in for a checkup the next week, and his HIV count dropped from over a million to zero. Shortly thereafter his Kaposi's Sarcoma began to recede, and they were able to do skin grafts due to his greatly improved condition. His other symptoms gradually disappeared as well. This was about 9 years ago. He's still alive and well and living in San Francisco with his partner.

    This is just one story of many I could relate that are equally unbelievable (at least to their attending doctors), so yeah, prayer does work.

    Palzang
  • buddhafootbuddhafoot Veteran
    edited December 2005
    Palzang's story is quite amazing and heartening to hear.

    I know my mother, who has been an devout Bible thumper her whole life, told me that when I was either a baby or before I was born - that she developed breast cancer, was prayed for by the church she attended - and it miraculously went away.

    My mom "told" me this.

    While these sorts of miracles may occur - I think I would have to go with Dhammasaavaka on this one - if you're sick - see a physician. What's it gonna hurt?

    -bf
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited December 2005
    Or take a trip to Maryland and circumambulate the Migyur Dorje stupa until you hit bedrock!

    Palzang
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