Advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche regarding Medicine Buddha
If you can recite Medicine Buddha mantra as much as you can every day (good to do at least 5 malas), this will purify negative karma and will help you never to be reborn in the lower realms.
TADYATA OM BHEKHANDZYE BHEKHANDZYE MAHA BHEKHANDZYE (BHEKHANDZYE) RAJA SAMUDGATE SVAHA
Medicine Buddha said that even if an animal hears the Medicine Buddha mantra it will never be reborn in the lower realms.
If you don’t purify negative karma, even dying, having cancer, still you have to die because of negative karma, because it is not purified, so you will be reborn in the lower realms as a hell being, hungry ghost or animal, and again and again without end have to suffer. Therefore, you need to purify the negative karma now. If you cannot bear the sickness now how can you bear the suffering of the lower realms? Especially because of the incredible length of time that beings have to suffer in the lower realms. It is a billion times more suffering than all the human problems put together.
Medicine Buddha mantra prevents you from experiencing all these things. So it is much more precious than skies of gold, diamonds and wish-fulfilling jewels—all this wealth means nothing because it can’t purify all the negative karma. Even if you own that much wealth, this one Medicine Buddha mantra is much more precious because it leaves imprints of the whole path to enlightenment in your mind; it helps you to have realizations of the whole path to enlightenment. It ceases all the gross and subtle defilements and makes you achieve enlightenment.
Besides the benefits you receive from reciting Medicine Buddha mantra, also these are the benefits just from hearing the mantra. So therefore this mantra is much more precious than the whole sky full of diamonds and infinite jewels. With the Medicine Buddha mantra you can liberate numberless sentient beings from oceans of suffering and bring them to enlightenment. Therefore, again, reciting even one mantra or hearing just once the Medicine Buddha mantra is much more precious than the sky filled with gold, diamonds, wish-fulfilling jewels and zillions and zillions of dollars.
So with full trust in Medicine Buddha you recite the mantra, knowing that Medicine Buddha will completely take care of your life, heal you. With full trust know how Medicine Buddha is always with you, in your heart, on your crown, in front of you. There is not one second that Medicine Buddha does not see you or have compassion towards you.
One student in Hong Kong does Medicine Buddha practice daily and she had a very heavy brain operation. During the operation she actually saw Medicine Buddha. She had a miracle recovery, as it was a very risky operation, but she surprised all and was able to recover and is still alive. So Medicine Buddha looked after her.
Also one person in Taiwan, he is not Buddhist, he could not move his body, could not get up and he didn’t have any helpers around him. He very badly needed to take his medicine and the medicine was far away in the bathroom. Next to him was a Medicine Buddha statue and when he turned his head he saw that the Medicine Buddha statue was holding his medicine. So he was able to take his medicine. Later he passed away and when he passed away he was able to put his hands in the mudra of prostration at his heart to show that he remembered Medicine Buddha; he passed away peacefully.
So, if you can, do the Medicine Buddha practice.
Also a short way to practice is by reciting the refuge and bodhicitta prayer: “The purpose of my life is to free all beings from suffering and lead them to enlightenment, therefore, I am going to do the Medicine Buddha practice, especially to purify the negative karma, defilements, disease and spirit harm, as well as to do healing, so that I can have a healthy and long life to offer service and actualize the path.”
Visualize Medicine Buddha on the crown of your head or in front of you [at the level of your forehead.] Nectar beams emit from Medicine Buddha and enter your own body and mind like water. It pushes away all the dirty things, like pouring water into a glass pipe; all the dirty water flows out the top. All the disease, spirit harm, negative karma and obstacles are completely purified.
Also think that all sentient beings are in your heart on a moon disc, especially people who have cancer. Think that the nectar is purifying the four things (disease, spirit harm, negative karma and obstacles). All are purified, including your sickness.
If you are doing the practice for someone else, visualize is the same except that you visualize Medicine Buddha above their heads.
At the end dedicate the merits:
“Due to all the merits I have collected in the past and present and that I will collect in the future, may the wish-fulfilling, most precious, ultimate good heart bodhicitta, cherishing other sentient beings and letting go of the I, be generated in my heart and within the hearts of all living beings without delay of even a second. May the bodhicitta that is already generated be increased forever more.
“Due to all the merits of the past, present and future that I have collected and that others have collected, however many sick sentient beings there are may they be instantly liberated from their sicknesses and may sentient beings never get sick.
“Due to the merits of the three times, which exist but are empty from their own side, collected by me and all others, may I, who exists but is empty from my own side, achieve enlightenment, which exists but is empty from its own side, and lead sentient beings, who exist but are empty from their own side, to that enlightenment, which exists but is empty from its own side, by myself alone, who exists but is empty from my own side.
“I dedicate all the merits as the bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Manjughosha realized and in the way that the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the three times dedicate and admire the most.
“Due to all these merits, may I actualize completely the stainless teachings of Lama Tsong Khapa, which unify sutra and tantra in this life, and may those teachings flourish and spread in all directions.”
To get the whole practice:
http://www.fpmt.org/education/prayers/mbpujalttrbklt.pdf