Comments on: Bhaisajyaguru (Medicine Buddha) Mantra

By: cal

cal — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:56:37 +0000

hi bodhipaksa, it seems that the divided sections may have been done by BDEA, because i’m reading the sutra translated by master Hsuan-tsang and i’m quite certain there are no divided chapters in the version itself. most of east asian buddhists (especially chinese buddhists, including myself) who have read the Medicine Buddha sutra are reading the Hsuan Tsang’s translated version.
on the other hand, if you can refer to vajrayana tipitaka, you may find this sutra to be one of the chapter of the sutra of 7 Medicine Buddhas (tibetan version).

By: Bodhipaksa

Bodhipaksa — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:41:57 +0000

Hi Cal, You're right about it having been Shakyamuni who expounded the vows at Manjushri's request. As for divided sections, it seems that Srivandana is going by Hsuan-tsang's translation, which is divided into chapters, one of which is "The Importance of Faith." The sutra is available here (PDF).

By: cal

cal — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:44:04 +0000

it does wow me whenever i read buddhists made Buddhism sound so beautiful. same here when i read srivandana’s article on Medicine Buddha. the only sutra i have read about Medicine Buddha is the sutra in Chinese Buddhism – the Sutra on the Merits of the Fundamental Vows of the Master of Healing Tathagata. srividana made the practice of Medicine Buddha (based on Vajrayana’s practice) sound very beautiful, sometimes poetic; if one were to read only this sutra, one only learns about the merits of reciting the Medicine Buddha’s name or the only included long version dharani as well as some straight teachings about kamma. i do recommend everyone who has interest in learning the Medicine Buddha’s practices to have a wider range of sources, especially from both Vajrayana and East Asian Buddhism, so that one can maximise the benefits from the practice.

p.s. to srivandana, in the Sutra on the Merits of the Fundamental Vows of the Master of Healing Tathagata, Manjusri Bodhisattva did not recite the 12 great vows of Medicine Buddha. he only requested Shakyamuni Buddha to talk about Medicine Buddha and his great vows and the merits of his practices for our benefits. it is Shakyamuni Buddha who preached the 12 great vows of Medicine Buddha.
Also if srivandana is refering to the above sutra, there is no section entitled “the importance of faith”. the sutra itself does not have any divided sections, unlike the Diamond Sutra. the whole sutra is one whole sermon on faith in Medicine Buddha.

By: Sigi Sonnleitner

Sigi Sonnleitner — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:38:39 +0000

Können Sie mir bitte die vollst.Medizin Buddha Meditation in Text zukommen lassen.Herzlichen dank

By: Medicine Buddha Mantra « Musing By Moonlight

Medicine Buddha Mantra « Musing By Moonlight — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:44:14 +0000

[...] Link here to translation. [...]

By: jayarava

jayarava — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:46:25 +0000

Visible Mantra Bhaiṣajyaguru page now updated with the introductiory text in Siddhaṃ. Also improved Tibetan, and added देवनागरी. Thanks for the spur Bodhipaksa! Got to keep up with the Pakṣas :-)

By: jayarava

jayarava — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:56:00 +0000

Yes, we’re all confused! In the case of arhate it has a stem in -t and you can’t just arbitrarily use a -t form for bhaiṣajya which is a participle declined as a masculine noun in -a. JR

By: Bodhipaksa

Bodhipaksa — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:34:38 +0000

I’m relieved it’s not just me who’s confused. I’d wondered if the -e was a dative form, which it is in some cases, like arhate, so it might be “hail to Bhaisaja.” Not that that would be grammatically correct in Sanskrit, but as you say there might have been an importation from some form of Prakrit. Anyway, I’m looking forward to your blog post.

Incidentally, Srivandana tells me that in Raoul Birnbaum’s The Healing Buddha the mantra is given with the -a form. I haven’t read or even seen the book. Unfortunately Amazon doesn’t have a “look inside the book” feature for it and on Google Books the search feature is very limited.

By: jayarava

jayarava — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:08:49 +0000

Hi Bodhipaksa.

I think we might just have to accept that mantras don’t follow the grammar of Classical Sanskrit. -a is the stem form for instance which doesn’t appear except in compounds…

I’ve see a number of explanations of the -e ending and they all seem to be ad hoc. Some people (Conze, Kern) see them as feminine vocatives of nouns in -a (this would include participles such as ‘gata’ which are declined like nouns in -a). The -e words are, in this view, invocations of feminine deities – gate = “O (she who is) gone”. It works in some ways and not in others. Actually it seems quite weird now I think about it.

I was sparked by your question, and having been reading about the language of Aśoka recently, to explore the idea that they are legacies from Prakrit which, in Māgadha, had the nom sg. in -e. I’m writing a blog post on it which needs some more research.

Cheers
Jayarava

By: Bodhipaksa

Bodhipaksa — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:54:57 +0000

Thanks. The note you’re talking about would be the one in the Medicine Buddha Sutra, which I was actually reading just as your comment came in. I’d agree that the “long” version includes what’s effectively an introduction. The game’s given away by the fact that the intro ends with “thus:” It’s rather anomalous that the “thus” sometimes gets chanted as part of the short mantra.

I think it would be great if you included the long version on VM – especially if you could figure out the grammar. What’s with all the “e” endings? Actually this applies to the short version as well. In the FWBO the endings in this mantra are always “a” (an anomaly I forgot to point out, given that Srivandana uses the “a” declension). I get the sense that this mantra is not grammatically sound. What do you make of it? Sorry for the disjointed comment — my wee girl woke up way too early this morning and I’m severely sleep-deprived. I can only think in disjointed fragments!