Medicine Master Sutra
with Commentaries
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PART 3
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Sutra: The Buddha told Manjushri, “Passing from here to the east, beyond Buddhalands numerous as the sand grains in ten Ganges rivers, is a world called ‘Pure Vaidurya.’ The Buddha there is named Medicine Master Vaidurya Light Tathagata, Of Proper and Equal Enlightenment, Perfect in Understanding and Practice, Well Gone One, One Who Understands the World, Supreme Lord, Regulating Hero, Teacher of Gods and Humans, Buddha, Bhagavan. Manjushri, when that World Honored One, Medicine Master Vaidurya Light Tathagata, was practicing the Bodhisattva path in the past, he made twelve great vows that enable all sentient beings to obtain what they seek:
Commentaries: The Buddha told Manjushri: Passing from here to the east, beyond Buddhalands numerous as the sand grains” Buddhalands is the Buddha country; “in Ten Ganges rivers” is the ten galaxies. “is a world called ‘Pure Vaidurya.” is meant to imply a pure, transparent world like a cup.
“The Buddha there is named Medicine Master Vaidurya Light Tathagata“. In addition, like other Buddha, he also has ten titles, including: Tathagata; Of Proper and Equal Enlightenment (meaning the Righteous Enlightenment); Perfect in Understanding and Practice (His cultivation and wisdom reached fullness); Well Gone One (Good wisdom and understanding all things of the world); Supreme Lord, Teacher of Gods and Humans (teacher of heaven and people); Buddha, Bhagavan.
“Manjushri, when that World Honored One, Medicine Master Vaidurya Light Tathagata, was practicing the Bodhisattva path in the past, he made twelve great vows” According to the Buddha told the Manjushri, in the time when he was not yet a Buddha, ie the period humanity, he was cultivating the Bodhisattva, The Medicine Master Vaidurya Light Tathagata established twelve great vows. All spiritual practitioners need to take a vow, a righteous vows that come from the mind, and then follow it to cultivate.
The Venerable Master’s vow is vowing “that enable all sentient beings to obtain what they seek:“. Today we practice relatively easily compared to Shakyamuni, because he had to undergo three major period lives as a monks, meaning countless lifetimes, austerities to attain Buddhahood. The Venerable Medicine Master Vaidurys Light Tathagata also. As we now only need to rely on their vows and their legacy, the idea is that the Dharma is contained in the Tripitaka, The Twelve parts.
Can we accept this inheritance? That is something that we have to ask ourselves, to see if we are a true faithful Buddhists or not? Assuming our merit is not good enough, we do not really want to be a true Buddhist, we cannot inherit the legacy of Buddha, this kind of supreme protection.
Now, the Buddha Liu Ly Quang has taken the twelve great vows, so all sentient beings can pray for something that they wanted. We can based on the line of “all wish comes true” (whatever you want), you will see whatever you wish, you will be satisfied, you will soon become a Buddha. The Buddhas in the past used to pray like this and, thanks to their great vows, we can achieve much more with minimum efforts, we can achieve high attainment with not much effort. So encountering this dharma, we have to be very diligent, be happy in our mind and we can achieved greatness in the the joyful dharma.
The Twelve Great Vows
Sutra: “The first great vow: ‘I vow that in a future life, when I attain anuttarasamyaksambodhi, my body will shine with dazzling light that will illumine measureless, countless, boundless worlds. My body will be adorned with the thirty-two heroic features and the eighty subsidiary characteristics, and I will enable all beings to become as I am.’”
Commentaries: Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the past used to take immeasurable amounts of vows to benefit sentient beings. When they became Buddhas, those vows became real, so all beings were in ten directions of the universe can received. Vows can be like magnets, and beings are like iron. The greater the magnetic force, the stronger the attraction. Helping so many beings in all ten directions, even with their bad karma will still have the attraction of their vows.
Because his will are make to help sentient beings, there are special attraction between the two. Therefore, though ignorant beings obscure, their mind and heart can feel these magnetic attraction.
In the past, the Medicine Master Bodhisattva had burned himself to make offerings to the Buddha, sacrificing himself like that, and we today, do dare to say self-immolation. Even burning a finger, we would not dared to consider. The first great vow“: How did the Medicine Master give his first vow?
“I vow that in a future life, when I attain anuttarasamyaksambodhi“. He said that he hoped that in the future, when attained Enlightenment, that is the final stage of the Buddha; At that time, “my body will shine with dazzling light that will illumine measureless, countless, boundless worlds.” His body will be bright, brilliant, illuminating to countless, infinite, boundless worlds; “My body will be adorned with the thirty-two heroic features and the eighty subsidiary characteristics”
“and I will enable all beings to become as I am.” that is, the bodies of all sentient beings are also full of heroic features like him and also shining throughout countless, infinite, boundless world. His great vows is like that. He is not only want to become Buddha, but want all sentinel being to receive his divine light shines upon, and also able to have a boday like his.
Because of the Medicine Master had made that great vows in the past, we, even in the present, hear this sutra, we also have the opportunity to have a bright body like him.
May our power be like that, we do not want to be alone as a Buddha, our own light, but want that the beings we illuminate will also have the same body as us. We should not disregard ourselves. Don’t say that you do not need to have a body that is bright or not bright. Is it good to have a body that is not bright?
Sutra: “The second great vow: ‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, my body will be as bright and clear as vaidurya, flawlessly pure, vastly radiant, majestic with merit and virtue, abiding at ease, adorned with blazing nets brighter than the sun and the moon. Beings dwelling in darkness will be illuminated and will succeed in all their endeavors.’”
Commentaries: “I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, my body will be as bright and clear as vaidurya“. The second vows is when I have reached the Wonderful Enlightenment stage, and become the Buddha, my body is be as bright and clear as the blue diamond. “flawlessly pure” means inside doesn’t have any flaws, any dirty spots. Outside is clean, complete spotless. “Vastly radiant” means you can’t tell the limit of brightness, just know that the radiant glow is huge. “majestic with merit and virtue abiding at ease” means my body is pure and there is no illness. “Adorned with blazing nets brighter than the sun and the moon” means the body glows brigher than the sun and the moon. “Beings dwelling in darkness” means the sentinel being resides in dark places “will be illuminated and will succeed in all their endeavors.”. All places will be lit up and they can come out and go wherever they want and everything they do will be completed as wishes.
We can see that Buddha is truely understand us, even a small chance that can bring benefits for all beings, he will not leave it behind. No one cares more and closer to us than Buddha
Sutra: “The third great vow: ‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, I will, by means of limitless, unbounded wisdom and skill-in-means, enable all sentient beings to obtain an inexhaustible supply of material necessities so they are without the slightest want.’”
Commentaries: “The third great vow” is the vows that Medicine Buddha had vowed that when he was a monk in the past. At that time, he is liked us, like all sentinel being. The only difference is that he had made the great vows, that is why he had became the Buddha. Not like us, we are too selfish, self-interest, greed, pursuit, dispute, not wanting to make a big vow. That is why, we have not become Buddhas yet.
He said: ‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, I will, by means of limitless, unbounded wisdom and skill-in-means.“. He will use all means thru his wisdom, limitless and boundless ways – this is the means through wisdom, not by means of stupidity. What is the means thru wisdom? That’s the means to bring beneficial for others, that ways is not necessary benefit for him. Any means that can bring benefits for other, he will use it to help them to cultivate. What is the stupidity way? That is the way not fit for righteous, opposite with the law, well fit for doing evil things, similar to evil dharma.
Similar to the evil way is like this: Take the example of being bitten by a mosquito, you accidentally smashed the mosquito, then defended yourself that it was a “way”, insignificant, not worth of calling it killing, it doesn’t violate the precepts. Just as in the case when we sees something good, we will lust, wait until people do not pay attention then steal it, then tell ourselves: “This is not a stolen device! Other people use it just as we use it, what’s the difference? ”In fact, stealing one’s good is not legal, similar to evil things, but then said that “means”, it is not that important !
For example, adultery, everyone knows that when a husband and wife are officially married, the husband’s adultery will not make his wife happy. When you’ve committed sexual misconduct, you still think that it doesn’t matter, it’s just a “mean”. Knowing that action is sexual misconduct but still trying to cover up, rationalize all arguments to defend yourself. Try to convince yourself thinking: “What is really interfering? Who will know!”
Think about it! Lying and drinking alcohol do have the same reasoning!
– “Oh! Drink a little alcohol, drink for fun! What’s important, I’m not drunk! ”
– “A lie like that is nothing to be afraid of! No one is dead so why take it so serious! ”
This is just a way to win for yourself, which is called evil means, foolish means. Returning to the literature, the Medicine Master said that he used his wisdom mean “enable all sentient beings to obtain an inexhaustible supply of material necessities “; that is to give all beings everything they desire, whatever they need. We see that Buddha has a great deal of generosity, he uses his power to satisfy the desires of sentient beings, what they desires, “so they are without the slightest want.'”, letting them have the thing they miss, everything is fulfill, everyone deserves to be satisfied, all good.
If you want all your wishes to be fulfilled, then quickly recite His title or chant the Sutra of the Merit and Virtue of the Past Vows of Medicine Master Vaidurya Light Tathagata, you will be satisfied.
Someone said: “I know! I recite the title of Medicine Master and then I go to the casino in Reno. If I win a million, then I will not gamble again. my wish is liked that. ” If you are honest, you will probably be satisfied; but if you are half-convinced, half-suspicious, then you will not be able to deceive the Medicine Master.
Sutra: “The fourth great vow: ‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, I shall lead those sentient beings who practice deviant paths to reside in the Way of Bodhi, and those who travel on the vehicles of the Hearer or Pratyekabuddha to abide in the Great Vehicle.’”
Commentaries: “The fourth great vow:” In this fourth vow, he wishes that all sentinel beings will all abandon evil behavior, leave ignorance to follow enlightenment, leave suffering to enjoy happiness; May everyone of the Theravada cultivate to the Mahayana, to develop the true mind of Bodhi, so that in the future they can attain Buddha-hood.
He vowed that: “May the life after I have attained the Bodhidharma”, that is, from the time I took the vow, when he had not yet become a Buddha; He talked about his later life, after he reached Enlightenment. “If there are sentient beings” this is covering all beings. In general, among the sentient beings, the righteous being is very little, but the one who has the wrong evil view is abundant: Speaking of the righteous Dharma, few people understand, accept and practice. On the contrary, talking about evil, the type of mind-blowing, or something that seems mysterious, and seems easy, people immediately rush to follow. Therefore, it is said that “cultivating wrong path,” referring to the practice of pagan dharma, does not pray for righteousness. When it comes to types like evil spells, poisonous thought, spiritual bridges, etc., people believe immediately; While teaching the sutras, speaking the dharma they don’t seem to see the goodness in it. If you tell them: “You will have an accident like this. In order to avoid it, he had to do this and that, ” that they believed immediately, but when preaching the Buddha Dharma, no one wanted to listen.
“To reside in the Way of Bodhi.” Although they cultivate according to the evil religion, but the Medicine Master also tries to use the appropriate means, causing them to abandon the evil and return to the way of enlightenment, to return to the sensory path, to abandon and follow the righteous path, to stop the circle of birth and death, to develop the mind of Bodhi. Reside in the Bodhi religion. Reside here means leaving the wrong path, no longer going back to the wrong path to stabilize the righteous path. The path is the truth wisdom. If you have wisdom, you will go the righteous way; you don’t have the wisdom – foolishness – you will enter the smaller path, the path of the outside, the pagan. Now, the pagan adherent is saved by the Medicine Buddha by means of returning to the righteous path of Buddhism.
“And those who travel on the small vehicles of the Hearer or Pratyekabuddha” Hearer is the dharma of the Four Noble Truths, including the Suffering, Practice, Destruction, Path. And the Pratyekabuddha is the way of meditation through the twelve conditioned causes ; That method is summarized as follows: ignorance, dispositions, consciousness, name and form, six sense organs, contact, feeling, craving, grasping, becoming, birth and death. All beings are due to these twelve conditions that arise, because these twelve conditions lead to death; As in the poem: “the actions are impermanent, that is the law of birth and death; being eradicated, passing away is truth happiness” (impermanent acts, being destroyed by the Dharma; being eradicated, final death brings happiness). If enlightened to be able to practice the twelve conditions, then leave the maze and reach enlightenment, then leave the small vehicle and head towards the great. Aborting small towards the great vehicle is the way of cultivating the Six-fold path.
The twelve conditioned causes: because of ignorance, we reborn to life, meaning from the blurred maze we are born. Ignorance is the root of defilement, the root of life & death, also the root of all troubles, all troublesome problems. What is cultivation? Cultivation is to break the ignorance. Ignorance makes you dim, not understanding what you do. That is called ignorance. Ignorance break your normal behavior, made you go crazy, confuse, live in a dream, die in the nightmare, craving things like money, lust, fame, eating and sleeping (talent, colors, names, realities, lobes).
When there is ignorance, it is expressed by behavior. What behavior? That is, do something you don’t understand, or just understand a little bit but don’t understand all of the details. If there is an act, there will be traces, there will be a things left behind. If there is action, there is evidence, and evidence must have a name.
During the action is taken place, the mind does not initiate discrimination. When the act has completed, there is consciousness, the mind of discrimination, called the known , the knowledge . When you start discrimination, the four things will appear immediately: the items, you, others, the receiving. This consciousness is the mind consciousness and its effects bring about name and color, that is to say the object. Objects transform into picture through the six sense (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind).
Through six sense, the body made contact with things outside. At that time, touch will bring feeling, with the mind of discrimination the touch brings the feeling of good and bad, comfort and irritation. From that bring forward love. Love comes to life. That is why we said, touch bring feeling, feeling brings love. A sequence of events continue from there forward.
When there is love, there is the thought of attainment, pointing toward selfishness, the I. That will lead to the next life (rebirth), follow that route, the body slowly age and die. The twelve conditioned causes above describe the cycle of life that all being follow in the continuous life and death cycle.
The Pratyekabuddha is the monk that understand this cycle of life. They see that conditioned caused follow each other like a cycle, without beginning and ending. That is why they cultivate so they can escape the cycle of life, escape the reborn cycle.
Hearer and Pratyekabuddha is the two small vehicle in Buddhism, it is call the two small vehicles. The two small vehicles is not truly a path to Wonderful Enlightenment. Whoever meditate these methods will ended the cycle of life, but have not ended the final life & death cycle. That is why the Medicine Buddha took a vow “to abide in the Great Vehicle.” meaning that he will lead them from small vehicle to great vehicle, so they open their mind to achieve greatness, to become the Buddha, the Enlightenment One.
Sutra: “The fifth great vow: ‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, I shall enable limitless and boundless numbers of sentient beings who cultivate Brahma conduct within my Dharma to perfectly uphold the three clusters of precepts without exception. Should there be any violation, upon hearing my name, they will regain their purity and not fall into the evil destinies.’”
Commentaries: Today we don’t fall into the three dangerous realms (hell, ghost & animal realms) because the name of the Medicine Buddha has saved us. If his name doesn’t exist in this world, the people on this earth will fallen to hell, or as a hungry ghost, or reborn as animals. It will be hard to have the human body. It is true, with his vows, even if you have committed the 10 evil acts, killing and breaking the precepts, don’t do the right things, if you hear his wonderful and enormous amount of good deeds name, Medicine Buddha, all of your bad karma will disappeared, suffering will ended, attain happiness, and have a chance to escape the cycle of life.
That is why from the time the Medicine Buddha start his meditation, he has already known that all sentinel beings would not uphold the precepts, live in the life of good and bad without distinction. Like water mixed with dirt to become a cloudy dirty water. Water represent the clear mind, Dirt represents the ignorance. Holding the precepts is the way to return to root, a way to recover your wisdom that you already have and forgotten. Not holding the precepts means throw dirt into the water, add ignorance to wisdom.
Although, upholding the precepts is not an easy things to do. The Medicine Buddha has already known the bad habits and the mistakes of us, that is why the fifth vows, he made is:
‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi“, the after life when I become the Buddha, “I shall enable limitless and boundless numbers of sentient beings”. That’s include all of us – I and you are included in this list of sentinel beings. “who cultivate Brahma conduct within my Dharma“. Withing my dharma means the Buddha dharma, the dharma of all Buddha, “to perfectly uphold the three clusters of precepts without exception.” With all of beings whose want to cultivate, my vows will help them to uphold the precepts, fulfill like the full moon without any blockage. The three cluster of precepts include the following:
Help all being from doing evil things
Help all being do good things
Help all being upholding the precepts
Keeping the precepts is a difficult things to do. That is why his vows is: “Should there be any violation, upon hearing my name, they will regain their purity and not fall into the evil destinies.’” If precept has been broken, after hearing my name, that person can return pureness, without falling into the evil ways like hell, ghost or animals realms.
Why do they called the three cluster of precepts? Cluster means gathering, also the word “cluster” bring up the meaning of not all precepts are alike. For example: when keeping the precepts referring the 300 rituals, 3000 proper conducts. The word “upholding” means gathering all of rituals and conducts. For example when saying upholding all good dharma, means all of the good dharma, if naming all of them out would be enormous amount of good dharma. As for upholding all beings, means all of sentinel beings. And for upholding this vow is to help all being to reach enlightenment, gather all of being without leaving any one behind.
The three cluster of precepts is a lot. It is not easy to uphold. Then what do we do if we can’t uphold the precepts? The Medicine Buddha has already made a vow that if any of us violated the precept, and if we hear his name, we will return to our self nature and that person will return to the position before violating the precepts, you don’t have to worry about reincarnate into the evil paths.
Think about it, the Medicine Buddha treat all of us so special, careful in every ways, we can’t forget his compassion, forget to cultivate, forget to uphold the precepts? We can’t twisted and say “No need to uphold the precepts, keep breaking the law, either way the Medicine Buddha has already made the vow to save us if we break the precepts.” Thinking like that is a big mistake, we can’t intentionally break the precepts and depend on him like that.
Sutra: “The sixth great vow: ‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, if there are sentient beings whose bodies are inferior and whose faculties are imperfect, who are ugly, dull, blind, deaf, mute, deformed, paralyzed, hunchbacked, or afflicted with skin disease, insanity, or various other sicknesses and sufferings, upon hearing my name they shall all become endowed with upright features, keen intelligence, and perfect faculties, and they shall be free of sickness and suffering.’”
Commentaries: This sutra talks about the vows of the Medicine Buddha, the vows in his past life, in the era of creation or so called the humanity era. At that time, what was his vows? So what results had those vows made? How is their effect?
When we take the vow, which is sowing. When it is fruitful? what is the cause of that result, good sowing will result good result., bad sowing will result bad result. Which are the good vow? The vows that doesn’t bring benefits solely for yourself. The Medicine Buddha took the vows for all sentinel beings. Haven’t seen any Buddha take a vow like this: “I vow when I became a Buddha. I will be blessed with the benefit like this, enjoy luxury like that.” and forget all other beings. Buddha will not do any thing like that. The most joyful Buddha witnessed, Buddha did not want to enjoy alone but wanted to share with all living beings. Buddha vowed to achieve such good karma, in the eternal life, practicing the Bodhisattva way, benefiting people, enlightening themselves, then enlightening others. In short, the vows of the great Bodhi vows. The Bodhisattva all took the good vows, vows to complete these good works. And to complete these good vows, and these good vows is the seed to become Buddha. Becoming a Buddha doesn’t mean to be the only One, reside of the top. To become a Buddha is to have a mind above others, leave ignorance and return to enlightenment, leave all other crazy thoughts.
As for the being like us, every action is a action of creating karma. It is a bad karma, instead of good karma. Sometime, we create a good karma, but these good karma can’t overcome those bad karma. Therefore all of our karma are all mixed up, good mixed with bad karma. If we use a computer to list out all of our karma, the bad karma will far exceed the good karma. From one life to another, each life it gets worse, adding more drift. Each life encounter doesn’t go as planned. Why does it become like this? Because we don’t create any good karma, don’t make a vow like the Buddha, don’t practice any good deed, so these good karma will result in good results. We do want to make good vows, but afraid because of our egoistic spirit, we only want to take care ourselves, not worrying about others. Maybe, a few things we do for a group, but in reality we buy ourselves a little of recognition, in hope others will remember our name. That is why we create all kind of mixed karma. Bad karma is heavier than good karma, resulting the bad results. Because of that, we are reborned, enjoying a little of happiness, but also suffer a lot, and in general, suffer more than pleasure.
In reality, this is not a true pleasure. It must be a enjoyment coming from our own true nature. As for our personal pleasure, it doesn’t last long, it doesn’t have last forever. Our ego is not forever, our peace is also not forever. The forever enjoyment of our own true nature is the enjoyment of peaceful, not the enjoyment of the dancer, drunker or the movie goer or the enjoyment of the person that turn their back to enlightenment and toward mundane – in short being crazy.
Somebody said: “Master said these things, is that mean there is no enjoyment on this earth?” Think carefully! What is real pleasure? Talk about food and clothes. Everyone wants to wear beautiful clothes, an expensive and precious outfit, what is it really? It is the shackles of shackles, making us walk unnaturally, sitting unnaturally. For what reason? Because we always have to take care of and keep that beautiful outfit. The human being is all the spirituality, the superior class in all species, but end up being a slave to our clothes?
Talking about eating, eating this delicious thing, eating more that delicious things, eating to the point of vomiting! As for living space, as people say: “The house is big as thousands of feet, sleeping not more than eight yards; Good rice big as thousand fields, eat no more than three meals a day.
So what is the urgency of life with dress and shelter so that we have to be busy all day, no time to rest? Impermanence suddenly came, death follow, then said: “My work is not done yet, I have not taken care of everything! Please, please, Pluto, postpone my death for a period for me to straighten it, I will go, can I? “The devil will shake his head and say,” No way! I cannot let you live any longer.” That is the end of life! Think about it! In the end, what else is good? It is not because we do not recognize all things clearly, so we follow the hopelessness, the fame, the benefits are all illusion. Our mind is always full of worrisome. That’s why we are different from Buddha.
For Buddha, all things are clearly perceived, the Buddha looks beyond and lets go, so he is always free. Realized these things, the Buddha took those vows, those vows aim to benefit sentient beings, in order to practice the Bodhisattva way.
Therefore, the Medicine Buddha has just made those great vows. His sixth great vow – “the sixth great vow” – is “Later life”, vow that in the future, to come later. . . Some people do not believe in the next life. If in fact there is no future, you can go on killing people, burning people’s houses, and want to do whatever you want. In fact, because there are consequences in the next life and everything has consequences, you cannot be act irresponsibly but have to act properly, and you can not do this and do that, regardless of results . You might ask, “Why am I not sure about my past life and my next life?” “You don’t know? So when you sleep, do you know anything about the time when you were awake? You don’t know. Because in this life, you don’t remember anything about the past events. Buddha taught that:
Want to know your past life
Look at your current karma
Want to see your future
Look at your current action.
Meaning that if you want to know your past life, then look at your current life, your karma, because the karma that we received is the result of our past actions. If you want to know how is your future, then look at the actions that you have taken in this life, because planting the seed in this life will result the fruit for the next life. This is the law, cannot change.
Buddha understand this effect that is why he vowed that life after “I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi“, mean that he has attained the Wonderful Enlightenment, that is to become Buddha; “If there are sentient beings “, the sentient beings, embrace all species with blood; “whose bodies are inferior , poor body, meaning those who have ugly, unsightly imagery.
There are people who look unusual, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, for example, do not grow in the right place, they look ridiculous, ugly. You said, “I have never seen anyone like that.” Haven’t you seen one? You should not imitate what they do. In short, there are those who carry the appearance of a dog, a cat, a mouse, a bear, a horse, a deer, a lot of that! A lot, not with a pretty sight! Those are the lowly, lowly generals.
Not only that, some are born with missing organs or limbs. “the body is not complete, or there is only one eye, only one ear, nose has a hole; or fake limbs that do not move normally; or fake eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind, not getting along well, are also called inadequate. Some limbs are there but seems not long enough.
Afraid we do not understand all the thoughts of the sutra: “whose bodies are inferior” so the next paragraph the sutra further clarifies; “ugly, dull“. Ugly means unsightly and Dull is stupid, doesn’t understand what other saying. You say that two with two is four, the fool answers that one with two is three, how can it be four. In short, it’s foolish.
“blind, deaf, stuttering, mute,” blind can’t see. Deaf is a person with eyes and ears but cannot hear. Stuttering is a speech problem, when speaking, the sound is like hanging in the throat, sounding like a mosquito scream, speak but no one understands; Mute is completely soundless. Blind, deaf, stuttering and mute people are really miserable! How is retribution resulted so bad? Because in the previous life, they was skepticism when listening to the Buddha Dharma, not paying attention, so now it was deaf. Meet the Dharma without realizing result in blindness. Being able to study the Dharma but without obeying the words, becoming more stuttering and the worst it could turn into mute. these diseases were all caused by karmic retribution.
“Deformed, paralyzed, hunchbacked“. Deformed is to have twisted arm, can’t straighten out. Hand with grasping fingers that cannot open. Paralyzed is losing ability to feel. Hunchbacked is having back deformed, bend. “or afflicted with skin disease, insanity,” Skin disease is the white or red skin spot, like a patches on the face. Insanity is the disease of the abused children, the disease of the self-biting, torturing, cursing. The reason was because they vilified Lotus Adornment Sutra, vilified the Mahayana Sutra, vilified the Dharma. Summarize “various other sicknesses and sufferings” of such diseases.
“Upon hearing my name“. After these being hears my name, “they shall all become endowed with upright features,” their body will return to normal state. Their figure will no longer ugle, unpleasant to look at. “Keen intelligence,” bright, intelligent, “and perfect faculties,” all of their eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind are completed and useful.
“And they shall be free of sickness and suffering.’” all illnesses, all suffering are removed, no need to use medicine, no need for a physician to cure. You see, is that a miracle? Just by hearing the title of Medicine Buddha, all sicknesses, the suffering is dissipated. That Medicine Buddha treated all being with such precious humanity! Every action and gestures are directed to the benefit of sentient beings, there is no disadvantage for us, he does not want sentient beings to encounter karmic retribution. what he wishes is for all to fulfill their heart desired, be happy, His will is like that.
Sutra: “The seventh great vow: ‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, I shall cause sentient beings who are oppressed by many illnesses and who are without aid, without a place to turn, without a doctor, without medicine, without relatives, and without a family, who are poverty-stricken and filled with suffering to be cured of their sicknesses upon having my name pass by their ear, so they are peaceful and happy in body and mind. They will have a family and relatives, and acquire an abundance of property and wealth, and even realize unsurpassed Bodhi.’”
Commentaries: A lot of you come here to hear the dharma, but haven’t known the Medicine Buddha. Since we are here, let me explain a little more. He is the great medical king. As a king in the world of medicine, he cure sickness without using medicine. All sentinel being have to do is to hear his name, and all sickness will vanish.
All other doctor often talk about treatment thru viewing, listening, asking, taking pulse. Viewing is to look at the patient body. Hearing is to listen to the patient’s voice. Asking is to ask the ask the patient symtom , any headaches, foot aches, toothaches, the eye, tongue symptom. Ask the symptom? Taking pulse is to listen to the heartbeat. Those treatments does have its limitation. God treatments are transcendent, inconceivable; Angel treatment is a rank lower, but still inconceivable. Energy is to use your own internal energy for treatment. And careful is the use of selected treatment. Treatment through viewing is exceptional as god. Treatment through hearing is considered exception as angel. Treatment through asking is considered a energy. Knowing the symptom through taking pulse is clever.
Normally, physicians all have to apply the above four methods and also consult the eight principles of the standard disease (the four diagnostics). For the Medicine Buddha, the methods are not necessary. Once you chanted out his name, the disease immediately dissipates, so this vows must be considered a special point in his vows to benefit sentient beings. That miracle arises from “The Great Seventh Vow,” his seventh great vow. His vow is:
“‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, I shall cause sentient beings who are oppressed by many illness“. He vows that in his future life when he attain the stage of the Buddha, if any beings – including all sentient beings – who have sickness that caused tremendous pain, “who are without aid, without a place to turn,” Without a place to turn means that person doen’t have any place or location to go for help. “Without a doctor, without medicine“means there isn’t any physicians around for treatment, no medicine around. “Without relatives, and without a family, who are poverty-stricken and filled with suffering to be cured of their sicknesses upon having my name pass by their ear.” Just to able to hear his name passed by the ear, the name “Medicine Buddha” all sickness will vanished.
You see! No need taking medicine, no need injecting drugs, no need X-rays, Radiation, or running electricity, using wormwood or needles for acupuncture, yet all diseases are gone! “so they are peaceful and happy in body and mind“, both body and mind are peaceful.
The doctors who heard this passage might afraid and would not be happy. They are afraid of their occupation being robbed. Let assured, don’t afraid of losing your customers!
“They will have a family and relatives, and acquire an abundance of property and wealth, and even realize unsurpassed Bodhi.’” In the end they can attained Bodhi, which is becoming a Buddha. It is worth repeating that Buddhism advocates that all beings have Buddha nature, all have the potential to become Buddhas. Buddha never said: “I am the only Buddha and no one can become a Buddha.” Buddhism is a religion of equality, Buddha is like us, but more than us at he is more wise. Buddha was a wise man, so he won’t say anything that is not meaningful. We learn Buddha, we learn not to be crazy, not to be foolish, not to do things that only benefit us while harming others, do not destroy our society, sincerely obey the rules and law, learn to be a honest person, so later you can have enough wisdom to become a Buddha. If you don’t keep rules, you absolutely can’t attain wisdom. Having wisdom will help you to keep the rules. By not having wisdom, even if you tell us to keep the rules, you will protest immediately.
Sutra: “The eighth great vow: ‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, if there are women who give rise to a deep loathing for their female body and wish to renounce it because they are oppressed and disturbed by the myriad sufferings of being female, upon hearing my name, they will be able to turn from women into men who are replete with male features and ultimately realize unsurpassed Bodhi.’”
Commentaries: Why do you need to turn women into men? Please do not misunderstand. Saying that, being a women are not considered bad. In this country, there are some activities in the women liberation movement discuss the Amitabha Buddha, claiming that he is a maleist, because in his world, there are only men and no women. . This is not true. Amitabha Buddha does not discriminate based on physical body, male or female, He does not distinguish between men and women, not unaware, only without a distinguished figure.
So why are there no women in the Great Bliss world but only men here? The fact is the body of women sometimes not pure, and at those ‘menstrual period’ times, they suffer a lot of pain, and pain is very inconvenient. So people do not want to reborn with the female body because of these inconveniences, also called “evil”. Saying a hundred evil, sometimes even more, speaking of a hundred is just to symbolize that plural, a lot of troublesome problems, many times the female body is not pure. Because of that, many times austerities feel that carrying a female body is very troublesome, want to have the male body to be more convenient.
Women, every menstrual period are often uncomfortable. Some people have pre-menstrual pain, some suffer after menstruation, sometimes they cannot bear it. Or sometime they have a long-term, unrelenting period, or pretend to turn off periods, which means all kinds of illnesses. How much inconvenience these circumstances bring? For that reason, people want to reborn as a male.
Moreover, it is also necessary to mention the question of sexuality between men and women. The era now has a lot of strange things, demons all appear, dragging many troublesome things, especially homosexual things!
“The eighth great vow“, the eighth great vow, the Medicine Buddha vows that: “‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi“, I vow that later in life, when we become a Buddha; “if there are women who give rise to a deep loathing for their female body and wish to renounce it because they are oppressed and disturbed by the myriad sufferings of being female“, if the women, seeing hundreds of suffering, are bored and want to leave the female body; “upon hearing my name,they will be able to turn from women into men who are replete with male features and ultimately realize unsurpassed Bodhi.’” finally attaining the stage of the Buddha.
Sutra: “The ninth great vow: ‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, I shall liberate sentient beings from the nets of demons and the bonds of external sects. If they have fallen into the dense forests of evil views, I shall lead them to have proper views and to gradually cultivate the practices of Bodhisattva so they will quickly realize unsurpassed, proper and equal Bodhi.’”
Commentaries: “The Ninth Great Vow” – the ninth great vow. In the ninth great vow, the Medicine Buddha aimed to destroy the nets of the Ghost King and Paganism. He said: “‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi“, Vowing later in life, when he become a Buddha; “I shall liberate sentient beings from the nets of demons“, helping the sentient beings escape from the network of ghost and demons; we are born in the world today is close to the Demons and Ghost King, and further away from Buddha. To be a demon, we want to do it any time. However, if we want to become a Buddha, we have to eliminate all kinds of evil thoughts and wrong views, to cultivate the right view of the right mind, we might hope to escape from the net of ghosts. The nets of ghosts are very difficult to break, they are subtle but very strong. Once we enter, it will be difficult to escape and from then on we become the slave of Ghost Kings and Asuras
If we get angry, let the fire of ignorance ignite, that is, we have put ourselves in that ghost net. As we go fishing, for example, every time we catch fish in the net, we cheer: “Oh! Catch the big fish, shall get a good meal! ”. So is the ghost, when we get caught in its net, they will also happy and tells themselves: “Another person is caught in a net to let us use”. Want to escape the ghost net? There is an incredibly simple way, that is, don’t get angry, don’t get hot temper, don’t burn the fire of ignorance. The ghost king cleverly used evil art to control our minds, causing us to lose our mind and righteous view, which is why it is difficult for people to escape the net of ghosts. Luckily, the Medicine Buddha has a great vow, helping us to escape this devil net.
“ and the bonds of external sects“, escape from the bondage of paganism. The pagan is a relative of the phantom species. Professional heathen controls people, causing people to lose their freedom because of their evil art. They even force people to use evil vows, poisonous vows, so that people never go out of their wrong direction or betray them, for fear of threats, natural enemies, fire ears etc. You know they are wrong and do not dare to protest. The bondage is there. It is like a rope that binds people, you want to untie it and not take it off.
“If they have fallen into the dense forests of evil views“, if you get lost in the forests of evil views, that includes all kinds of wrong views. These are too many, like a dense forest, restraining you, not letting you any free movement.
Buddhism is not a religion of controlling. I once told a group of Buddhists, in front of Cardinal Paul Yubin said: “If you find Buddhism too old-fashioned, want to follow a different religion, be more timely, now you have the opportunity! You can arbitrarily change your beliefs, because Buddhism is not a prison, something that is restrained, and keeps you in check. ”After saying that, I turned to ask Cardinal Yubin:“ Do you dare to speak? he shook his head and said, “Don’t dare.”
Why not dare? Because their religion dominates the disciples, they do not allow their disciples to be free. Whoever gives up will be considered a criminal. That is called the jungle of evil views, in which there is no light, because all evil deviant opinions cannot be made to discuss publicly.
For this kind of evil view, the Medicine Buddha’s vow is “I shall lead them“, He will lead; “to have proper views“, to teach the right view; “and to gradually cultivate the practices of Bodhisattva“, teach us the six Bodhisattva ways, “so they will quickly realize unsurpassed, proper and equal Bodhi” To witness the supreme path of Bodhidharma , to quickly attain the Wonderful Enlightenment, ie the Buddha.
Sutra: “The tenth great vow: ‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, I shall cause sentient beings who fall into the hands of the law and are bound, interrogated, whipped, fettered, imprisoned, sentenced to execution, or subjected to endless disasters, hardships, abuse, and humiliation so that they are torn by grief and distress and suffering in body and mind, to obtain, upon hearing my name, liberation from all worry and suffering by means of my blessings, virtue, and awesome spiritual power.’”
Commentaries: “The tenth great vow“, in the tenth great vow, he said: “I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, I shall cause sentient beings who fall into the hands of the law “, after we become a Buddha, if the sentient beings are trapped in the law justice, they are punished by the law. For example: you do not commit any crime, only got blamed by others; or unjust, or because you are accidentally committed crime unlawful, not deliberately; When you had fallen in legal trouble, you got arrested, punished, imprisoned, as in the sutras, saying, “are bound, interrogated, whipped, fettered“. Bound means tie, handcuffs. Interrogated means criminal investigation, take verbal notes. Whipped means hit. Fettered means beating with rope or stick
“Imprisoned” can means cuffing in three places, the neck has gongs, two hands and two legs are shackled, not allowing the prisoners to escape; Inmates are confined in prison, the outside cannot communicate with each other.
“Sentenced to execution” The word “execution” here means killing or death penalty, or if it is decapitated, then head off to the public, sometimes beaten to death, sometimes on electric seats etc …
“Or subjected to endless disasters, hardships, abuse” – countless punishments, countless accidents due to natural disasters or harms caused by the other people. “Humiliation” is disdainful and humiliated;
“So that they are torn by grief and distress and suffering in body and mind“. Grief and Distress feel like someone is burning you, causing both body and mind to suffer;
“Upon hearing my name“, if you hear my name – the title of the Medicine Buddha – “liberation from all worry and suffering by means of my blessings, virtue, and awesome spiritual power.‘” All are liberated, all worry”, all will be liberated from the scenes of anxiety, sorrow, suffering, and receive happiness.
Sutra: “The eleventh great vow: ‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, I shall cause all sentient beings who are so plagued by hunger and thirst that they create all kinds of bad karma in their quest for food, upon hearing my name and single-minded accepting and maintaining it, to be filled with delicious food and drink and afterward, by means of the flavor of Dharma, to settle in ultimate peace and happiness.’”
Commentaries: “The eleventh great vow: I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, I shall cause all sentient beings who are so plagued by hunger and thirst,” this is the eleventh vow, he vows later in life as a Buddha, if sentient beings – say all living beings – suffer from hunger and thirst, that is, without food and water. It may also be rice that cannot be eaten, and there is no water to drink;
“That they create all kinds of bad karma“, because of the need for food, the hunger is too crazy, regardless of the means, went on robbing, stealing or killing people, as long as the stomach is full. And from there they had created much evil karma.
So what to do? “upon hearing my name and single-minded accepting and maintaining it“. if you can hear my title, dedicated to maintaining the mind, reciting my title, and remember within you body and mind, the body carry his name, the mind reciting his title. You will “be filled with delicious food and drink and afterward“, which makes you full and not hungry; “by means of the flavor of Dharma” After that tell them the dharma, let them taste the wonderful flavor of the dharma, so they “settle in ultimate peace and happiness.” finally bring them to peace within themselves
Sutra: “The twelfth great vow: ‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, if there are sentient beings who are poor and without clothes so that day and night they are troubled by mosquitoes and flies, and by cold and heat, upon hearing my name and single-minded accepting and maintaining it, they shall obtain all kinds of fine and wonderful garments that accord with their tastes, as well as a variety of precious adornments, flower garlands, fragrant balms, and the enjoyments of music and various kinds of talents, so that all their hearts’ delights will be fulfilled.’”
Commentaries: Medicine Buddha certainly had met the poverty-stricken situation, so he vowed to eliminate those miserable scenes for sentient beings. In “The twelfth great vow“, he said: “I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, if there are sentient beings who are poor and without clothes“, I vow later time, when we become a Buddha, if the sentient beings – referring all sentient beings, regardless of country, of any nation – without clothing, which is very poor, of course there is not enough food to eat.
The eleventh vow speaks of those who are hungry, this section refers to the poor who have no clothes, so they suffer from “day and night they are troubled by mosquitoes and flies”, which are bitten by flies and mosquitoes, nothing cover your body, “and by cold and heat”, causing such suffering all day and night long.
“Upon hearing my name“, if I hear my title, “single-minded accepting and maintaining it“, and to concentrate on the mind, not to hear his title and then ignore it, for example, to kepp in one heart, thinking about it and not forgetting. Every evening, recite and receive in the body and mind, keep it close to your body, applying this method.
“They shall obtain all kinds of fine and wonderful garments“, things that you have long liked, what makes you satisfied, are all there; such as beautiful clothes, clothes of the highest class; Both dignified, precious, there are also all precious jewels made of seven jewels: gold, silver, glass, crystal, nacre, red jade, agate; “that accord with their tastes, as well as a variety of precious adornments, flower garlands, , fragrant balms, and the enjoyments of music and various kinds of talents, so that all their hearts’ delights will be fulfilled.’, flower bracelets with precious incense and music; Depending on what you like, you will be full, depending on your mind, your interests, you want everything to be as you want.