Our project on the Medicine Buddha.

Our latest project is to build the Medicine Buddha to help the suffering beings. The Statue will be casted of bronze, 108 inches at the knees (approx.3 metres) and will be housed in a Vihara on the southern side of our garden in the back of the temple.

In 1997 Ven. Dhammananda, then Chatsumarn Kabilsingh saw a large stone Medicine Buddha in Chinese style in her meditation, and ever since she has paid particular interest on the Medicine Buddha. The statue will be casted according to the vision she had and sketched to help the artist to work on the wax model.

The first text on the Medicine Buddha was discovered in the 4th Century A.D. There are at least 15 texts translated into Chinese with mention of this Buddha in 3rd, 4th and 5th Century.

Dr.Chatsumarn Kabilsingh also translated and brought out the first Thai version of this Sutra in 1986. The full Sanskrit name is Bhaisajyaguruvaidulyaprabha Tathagata Sutra.

There are many versions of this sutra but the most popular version is that of the Chinese monk, Hsuan Tsang.

There is a book on The Healing Buddha, by R. Birnbaum which came out in 1979 by Shambhala, Boulder, U.S.A. the material below is an excerpt from this book.

In this Sutra, it is explained that when the Medicine Buddha was a spiritual youth first set out upon the Bodhisattva path, he made twelve vows to aid sentient beings. This moving act was a fundamental step in the course of his development, serving to spur him onward with a great sense of purpose. It is held that this desire to help others is a significant factor which motivates the young bodhisattva in his zealous striving. The Bhaisajyaguru's twelve vows are summarized here:

1. May a radiant light blaze forth from my body after enlightenment, brightening countless realms, and may all beings have perfect physical form, identical to my own.

2. May my body be like pure sand radiant lapis lazuli, with a radiance more brilliant than the sun and moon, illuminating all who travel in darkness, enabling them to tread upon their paths.

3. By my limitless insight and means, may I enable all beings to obtain the necessities of life.

4. May all beings be shown the path of enlightenment, and may adherents to the sravaka or pratyekabuddha paths become established in Mahayana practices.

5. May all beings be aided to follow the precepts of moral conduct. After hearing my name, those who have broken the precepts will be aided to regain their purity and prevented from sinking to a woesome path of existence.

6. May all who are deformed or handicapped in any way have their deformities removed upon hearing my name.

7. May all who are ill be cured upon hearing my name.

8. May women who, be set by woes, seek to become men be reborn as men in their next life.

9. May all who are caught in Mara's net, entangled in negative views, be caused to gain correct views and thus practice the Bodhisattva Way.

10. May all who are to be punished by the king be freed of their troubles.

11. May those who are desparately famished be given food, May they ultimately taste the sublime t eachings.

12. May all who are destitute of clothes obtain attractive garments and various adornments upon concentrating on my name.

Those who are reading these vows with gender awareness cannot help but noted vow no.8.It is apparent from remarks in the standard version of the Sutra that the text was composed in a region where women had low status, where life as a woman was accompanied by many sorrows. Interestingly the version from the court of Ta-Li Kingdom in Yunnan in 1170 has a replacement as follows:

For the sake of all simple and limited sentient beings, I shall proclaim the Marvelous law. They shall be caused to gain passage to escape (from the cycle of birth, old age, sickness and death). They shall enter the Gate of Wisdom. I shall cause all things to be clear to them, so that they shall no longer have doubts.

John Blofeld wrote in the introduction to the book that the Buddhist concept of healing marvelously anticipates the growing realization in the West that most illnesses, however physical their symptoms, are in fact psychosomatic disorders, or arise therefrom. So this Medicine Buddha vowed to help all sentient beings to uproot the real illness of the defilement of the mind.

In the process of building the Vihara and casting the Medicine Buddha, the members at the temple hope to diligently practice to increase our own insight in order to overcome the true illness rooted in the clinging on to the self.

This is a 3-year project, but already every 8th and 15th day of the waxing and waning moon we are out in the garden chanting 108 times the Medicine Buddha verses.

May all the readers share with us the merit we are working to help the suffering sentient beings.