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they appear as Deities, sometimes as humans, sometimes as non-humans. Sometimes they appear as Buddhist Teachers, sometimes non-Buddhist Teachers, sometimes as crazy people or evil people, and sometimes even as inanimate objects. Emanations of Enlightened beings pervade the whole world, but because our mind is covered by ignorance we do not recognize them. We cannot say who or what is an emanation of a Buddha. Medicine Buddha is an Enlightened being who has unbiased compassion for all living beings. He protects living beings from physical and mental sickness and other dangers and obstacles, and helps them to eradicate the three poisons - attachment, hatred, and ignorance - which are the source of all sickness and danger. He is a Buddha Doctor. At one time, Buddha Shakyamuni was staying at a place called Vaishali with thirty-six thousand Bodhisattva disciples. At that time, Manjushri was appearing as a Bodhisattva disciple. Through his compassion, Manjushri realized that in the future the Buddhadharma would degenerate, and the beings of this world would find it very difficult to practise pure Dharma and gain pure realizations. He understood that it would be very difficult for those beings to control their minds, and so they would naturally engage in negative actions such as killing, stealing, and holding wrong views. As a result they would experience horrific illnesses and unbearable mental pain. The world would be full of problems, dangers, and adversity. Finding the thought of all this suffering impossible to bear, Manjushri asked Buddha: "In the future when your Dharma and general spiritual practice are in decline, when the human beings in this world are spiritually impoverished, when their attachment, anger, and ignorance are so strong and difficult to control that they experience continual physical suffering, mental pain, fears, and dangers, and especially many incurable diseases, who will release them from this suffering and protect them from danger? Who will help them to overcome the three mental poisons?" In response to Bodhisattva Manjushri's question, Buddha expounded the Sutra of Eight Thousand Verses Principally Revealing the Instructions on Medicine Buddha. Many beings heard this teaching. In addition to the thirty-six thousand human Bodhisattva disciples, millions of other Bodhisattva disciples came from many Pure Lands, together with beings from other realms such as nagas and givers-of-harm, or yakshas. To this vast assembly of disciples Buddha explained all about Medicine Buddha - his special qualities, his Pure Land, and how in the future by relying upon this Buddha and just hearing his name, living beings could be cured of heavy mental and physical sickness, especially the sickness of delusions. He also explained how to make a connection with this Buddha, the benefits of relying upon him, and how to practise the Medicine Buddha instructions. While Buddha was giving this teaching, Manjushri realized with his clairvoyance of knowing others' minds that some of the humans and gods in the audience were developing doubts, finding it difficult to believe the Buddha's explanation about the existence of Medicine Buddha. Therefore, again he rose from his seat, respectfully circumambulated Buddha three times, made three prostrations, and then with his left knee on the ground according to tradition, requested Buddha: To remove doubts from the minds of disciples, please show clearly how this Buddha exists, where he exists, and what his good qualities are. Buddha immediately entered into an absorption of concentration, and from his heart emanated light rays inviting the seven Medicine Buddhas to Vaishali so that everyone could see them. Medicine Buddha came with his two main disciples, Radiance of the Sun and Radiance of the Moon, as well as a vast retinue of thousands of other disciples. The other six Medicine Buddhas also came with their retinues. Everyone could see the seven Medicine Buddhas with their retinues directly, and their doubts were immediately dispelled. Buddha introduced each of the Buddhas, saying for example "This Buddha is Medicine Buddha. He comes from the eastern Pure Land called Lapis Jewel Land. This Buddha Land is the nature of wisdom with the aspect of lapis lazuli. The entire ground of that Pure Land is illuminated by this Buddha's light," and so on. Buddha then gave instructions on how to recite the mantra for oneself and for others, for sick and dying people, and so forth, and how to perform many different healing rituals. Everyone rejoiced and developed deep, unchangeable faith. It is said that through hearing these instructions seven million non-human givers of harm gained a direct realization of ultimate truth and promised to help future followers who sincerely relied upon the practice of Medicine Buddha. Twelve chief givers-of-harm who were present later attained Enlightenment, and are included within the fifty-one Deities of Medicine Buddha’s mandala. The practice of Medicine Buddha is a very powerful method for healing ourself and others, and for overcoming the inner sickness of attachment, hatred, and ignorance. If we rely upon Medicine Buddha with pure faith we shall definitely receive the blessings of these attainments. (From 'A Short Teaching on the Medicine Buddha' by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso)
Medicine Buddha (Healer of Outer and Inner Sickness)
Medicine Buddha is a fully Enlightened being. To understand who he is, what his nature is, what his function is, and so on, we first need to understand what an Enlightened being is. Generally, 'being' means any being who experiences feelings - pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Thus we are beings, and animals are beings; but houses and plants are not beings because they do not experience any feelings. There are two types of being: sentient beings and Enlightened beings. A sentient being, or living being, is a being whose mind is afflicted by the darkness of ignorance. An Enlightened being is a being who is completely free from the darkness of ignorance. Just as sentient beings have many different aspects, so do enlightened beings. Enlightened beings emanate countless different forms for the benefit of living beings. Sometimes
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finally came upon the singer of the songs, he saw that she was a beautiful fair young woman, and immediately fell in love with her. They became very friendly, and the king became the father of the firewood woman's child. Later, he explained how he had gotten lost in the forest, and convinced her that he was indeed the King of Benares. She gave him directions for getting back to his palace. The king gave her his valuable signet ring, and said, "If you give birth to a baby girl, sell this ring and use the money to bring her up well. If our child turns out to be a baby boy, bring him to me along with this ring for recognition." So saying, he departed for Benares. In the fullness of time, the firewood woman gave birth to a cute little baby boy. Being a simple shy woman, she was afraid to take him to the fancy court in Benares, but she saved the king's signet ring. In a few years, the baby grew into a little boy. When he played with the other children in the village, they teased him and mistreated him, and even started fights with him. It was because his mother was not married that the other children picked on him. They yelled at him, "No-father! No-father! Your name should be No-father!" Of course this made the little boy feel ashamed and hurt and sad. He often ran home crying to his mother. One day, he told her how the other children called him, "No-father! No-father! Your name should be No-father!" Then his mother said, "Don't be ashamed, my son. You are not just an ordinary little boy. Your father is the King of Benares!" The little boy was very surprised. He asked his mother, "Do you have any proof of this?" So she told him about his father giving her the signet ring, and that if the baby was a boy she should bring him to Benares, along with the ring as proof. The little boy said, "Let's go then." Because of what happened, she agreed, and the next day they set out for Benares. When they arrived at the king's palace, the gate keeper told the king the firewood woman and her little son wanted to see him. They went into the royal assembly hall, which was filled with the king's ministers and advisers. The woman reminded the king of their time together in the forest. Finally she said, "Your majesty, here is your son." The king was ashamed in front of all the ladies and gentlemen of his court. So, even though he knew the woman spoke the truth, he said, "He is not my son!" Then the lovely young mother showed the signet ring as proof.
Again the king was ashamed and denied the truth, saying, "It is not my ring!" Then the poor woman thought to herself, "I have no witness and no evidence to prove what I say. I have only my faith in the power of truth." So she said to the king, "If I throw this little boy up into the air, if he truly is your son, may he remain in the air without falling. If he is not your son, may he fall to the floor and die!" Suddenly, she grabbed the boy by his foot and threw him up into the air. Lo and behold, the boy sat in the cross-legged position, suspended in mid-air, without falling. Everyone was astonished, to say the least! Remaining in the air, the little boy spoke to the mighty king. "My lord, I am indeed a son born to you. You take care of many people who are not related to you. You even maintain countless elephants, horses and other animals. And yet, you do not think of looking after and raising me, your own son. Please do take care of me and my mother." Hearing this, the king's pride was overcome. He was humbled by the truth of the little boy's powerful words. He held out his arms and said, "Come to me my son, and I will take good care of you." Amazed by such a wonder, all the others in the court put out their arms. They too asked the floating little boy to come to them. But he went directly from mid-air into his father's arms. With his son seated on his lap, the king announced that he would be the crown prince, and his mother would be the number one queen. In this way, the king and all his court learned the power of truth. Benares became known as a place of honest justice. In time the king died. The grown up crown prince wanted to show the people that all deserve respect, regardless of birth. So he had himself crowned under the official name, "King No-father!" He went on to rule the kingdom in a generous and righteous way.
The moral is: The truth is always stronger than a lie.
Little Prince No-father [The Power of Truth].... Once upon a time, the King of Benares went on a picnic in the forest. The beautiful flowers and trees and fruits made him very happy. As he was enjoying their beauty, he slowly went deeper and deeper into the forest. Before long, he became separated from his companions and realized that he was all alone. Then he heard the sweet voice of a young woman. She was singing as she collected firewood. To keep from being afraid of being alone in the forest, the king followed the sound of the lovely voice. When he
True Love... Some of you might think 'Oh, I want to have nothing to do with Jesus, nothing to do with the Bible'. This is a very angry, emotional attitude to have towards Christianity. If you really understood, you would recognize that what Jesus taught was 'Love!' It is as simple, and as profound, as that. If you had true love within you, I am sure you would feel much more peaceful than you do now. How do you normally think of love? Be honest. It is always involved with discriminations isn't it? Just look around this room and see if anyone here is an object of your love. Why do you discriminate so sharply between friend and enemy? Why do you see such a big difference between yourself and others? In the Buddhist teachings, this falsely discriminating attitude is called dualism. Jesus said that such an attitude is the opposite of true love. Therefore, is there any one of us who has the pure love Jesus was talking about? If we do not, we should not criticize his teachings or feel they are irrelevant to us. We are the ones who have misunderstood, perhaps knowing the words of his teaching but never acting on them. There are so many beautiful sentences in the Bible, but I do not ever recall Jesus ever said that without your doing anything whatsoever - without preparing yourself in some way - the Holy Spirit would descend upon you, whoosh! If you do not act the way he said you should act, there is no Holy Spirit existent anywhere for you. What I have read in the Bible has the same connotation as the Buddhist teachings on equilibrium, compassion and changing one's ego attachment into love for others. It may not be immediately obvious how to train your mind to develop these attitudes, but it is certainly possible to do so. Only our selfishness and closed-mindedness prevent us. With true realizations, the mind is no longer egotistically concerned with only its own salvation. With true love, one no longer behaves dualistically: feeling very attached to some people, distant from others, and totally indifferent to the rest. It is so simple. In the ordinary personality the mind is always divided against itself, always fighting and disturbing its own peace. Cheek up inside now and discover how you look at your neighbors. Visualize first a friend and then an enemy and see how your mind reacts. Instinctively we feel attachment for the one called 'friend' and aversion for the one called 'enemy', but such reactions are the opposite of peace. They are negative and do nothing but produce suffering. The teachings on love are very practical. Do not put religion somewhere up in the sky and feel you are stuck down here on Earth. If the actions of body, speech and mind are in accordance with loving kindness, you automatically become a truly religious person. To be religious does not mean you attend certain teachings. If you listen to teachings and misinterpret them, you are in fact the opposite of religious. And it is only because you do not understand a certain teaching that you abuse religion. Lack of deep understanding leads to partisanship. The ego feels 'I am Buddhist; therefore Christianity must all be wrong'. This is very harmful to true religious feeling. You do not destroy a religion with bombs but with hatred. More importantly, you destroy the peacefulness of your own mind. It does not matter whether you express your hatred with words or not. Words do not mean anything. The mere thought of hatred automatically destroys your peace. Similarly, true love does not depend on physical expression. You should realize this. True love is a feeling deep in within you. It is not just a matter of wearing a smile on your face and looking happy. Rather, it arises from a heart-felt understanding of every other being's suffering, and radiates out to them indiscriminately. It does not favor a chosen few to exclusion of everyone else. This is true love. Furthermore, if someone hits you and you react with anger or great alarm crying, 'What has happened to me?' this also has nothing to do with a mind knowing the meaning of true love. It is just the ignorant preoccupation of the ego with its own welfare. How much wiser it is to realize, 'Being hit does not really harm me. My delusion of hatred is an enemy that harms me much more than this'. Reflecting like this allows true love to grow.     (By Lama Thubten Yeshe)
difficult to evaluate: such a census has never been performed; nor would it be consistent with legal regulations and ethical norms in many countries. However, one can speak of approximately 400 million lay practitioners and 1 million Buddhist monks and nuns in the world. Buddhism emerged in India more than 2.5 thousand years ago as a religious and philosophical teaching. It has created manifold religious institutions and canonical literature, which is unique in its scale and diversity. Broad interpretation of the philosophical doctrines of Buddhism contributed to its symbiosis, compromise, and assimilation with various local cultures, religions, and ideologies, that allowed it to penetrate each and every sphere of social life from religious practices and arts to political and economical theories.  Depending on the point of view, Buddhism may be considered as either a religion, a philosophy or an ideology, as well as a cultural complex or a lifestyle. The term Buddha is not a personal name but a mere designation meaning the Enlightened One, The Awakened one. His personal name was Siddhatta (Siddhartha) and the family name Gotama (Gautama). He belonged to the Sakya clan and warrior class, and lived in North India in modern Nepali in the 6th century B.C. He was born in Lumbini. His parents were Suddhodana and Maya. (Mahamaya). At that time Suddhodana was the ruler of the kingdom of Sakyas, which followed a republican system of government. His mother died when he was just one week old and he was affectionately brought up by his maternal aunt, who married Suddhodana. Being the son of a rich and important family Siddhatta had a comfortable childhood. Tradition records that he was a very sensitive and a studious child who mastered the relevant Subjects with much ease. According to the custom of the time, he married at the age of 16, the beautiful young princess Yasodhara, whom tradition describes as his first cousin.  The young couple led a happy married life in full luxury for 13 Years. All these luxuries failed to veil the realities of life with which he was struck and overwhelmed. This made him renunciate everything, even his new born son Rahula and leave household life and enter the state of homelessness, leading an ascetic life in search of a solution to the problems of life. At that time he was in his prime of youth - just 29 years of age. During his quest for a solution which lasted for six years he wandered about learning under famous teachers of the time. With his usual brilliance he mastered all the current philosophical and religious thoughts, but none satisfied him. He followed the most accepted traditional practices the severe ascetic practices which only left him physically battered. He resolved to break away from traditional extremes and follow his own way. Firmly resolving to reach his goal, one day he sat under the Bodhi - tree, in Gaya near modern Bihar. Before the following dawn he realized, through his own higher wisdom, the truth, the problem of life and its cessation. This was his Enlightenment and since then he was called the Enlightened One, (The Buddha). He started his mission, first preaching to five ascetics, his former colleagues, and continued his missionary activities for 45 years. During this period he toured on foot a fairly wide area in North western India, meeting people of all walks of life and preaching to them and guiding them to see the truth. Soon there grew a large group of disciples who took this message to the people. The Buddha's great compassion and wisdom, his unique qualities as a teacher, his unblemished character, frankness, straightforwardness and simplicity and many other simple human qualities won the hearts of the people. This comparatively young teacher soon over-shadowed his senior contemporaries.  Novelty of his Dharma with its liberal philosophy had a great appeal in the people. Just as the Buddha himself, his disciples also dedicated themselves tirelessly in the task of spreading the message for the welfare of the people. Soon people of all classes, kings, ministers, nobles, millionaires and even beggars and outcasts - became the followers of the Buddha's teaching. His teaching was open to all those who wished to do so.  The Buddha continued his missionary activities to the ripe age of 80 years, till his feet could not carry him any longer. His compassion was such that even in his death bed he preached to those who sincerely approached him to learn. He was on one of his usual barefoot tours, in his 80th year, when he fell ill with dysentery and passed away in the small town of Kusinara in Uttar Pradesh in India  Based on this historical Buddha there developed a Buddha - concept in which the human Buddha got gradually transformed into a super-human being and in later Buddhism ending up as a metaphysical concept, the ultimate reality of the world - the Dharmakaya.  The uniqueness of the virtues with which the Buddha was endowed, some explanatory utterances of the Buddha himself concerning his personality, the rich imagination of his devoted followers, analysis of the Buddha personality by his metaphysically bent disciples popular beliefs, specially, those pertaining to ‘Great Beings’ that were prevalent at the time and such other numerous factors contributed to this transition. This process of transition which started while the Buddha was living, got accelerated after his passing away.  Many other connected beliefs developed alongside the Buddha concept. Plurality of Buddhas, past and future Buddhas, Bodhisattvas (or Buddha aspirants) are some of those affiliated beliefs .The study of the personality of the Buddha in its transition from that of a human being into a universal principle and the other related developments, is a special area of study, and it is called Buddhology. The Buddha, unlike most of the other founders of religions, was a human being , one among us, who rose, from ordinary worldling level to that of a noble being. He, himself being a man, emphatically stated that man is supreme and that there is no higher being or power that controls and directs his deeds and sits in judgement over his destiny. Consequently the Buddha was able to present the teaching that man is a free being with a free will, freedom of thought and investigation. Hence Buddhism does away completely with dogmatism and adopt an
Buddhism is the most ancient of the four world religions. The majority of its followers live in south, south-east, and east asian countries, such as Sri Lanka, India, Bhutan, China (including the Chinese population of Singapore and Malaysia), Mongolia, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Cambodia, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Tibet and Laos. In Russia, Buddhism has been traditionally confessed by the residents of Buryatia, Kalmykia, and Tuva. In recent years, Buddhist communities emerged in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and many other cities of Russia. In the end of the 19th century and early years of the 20th century, Buddhists appeared in Europe and in the USA; so almost every oriental school of any importance is represented there today. The total number of Buddhists in the world is
open minded attitude. This Buddhist attitude makes Buddhism discard the 'This only is true, all the rest is false' outlook and adopt a more sympathetic, understanding and tolerant approach to other views, beliefs and religions. This open minded attitude of Buddhism helps also to break away from the shackles of regressive traditions, not only with regard to matters pertaining to religious sphere but also with regard to social, political, economic and such other related spheres as well.  This explains how Buddhism succeeded in evolving a new world view and presenting a clear philosophy and dynamic religion. The philosophy lays beare the problems of man while the religion presents a very practical and realistic method of solving them. This is why Buddhism is relevant to all climes and times.
Updated: December 9, 2004