Tashi Deleks, all my dear Dharma Brothers and Sisters!
During the current terrible Corona Virus pandemic from China, all my disciples and Dharma brothers and sisters, please cease public gatherings and ceremonies, and do not go to them. As you know, always wash your hands and stay clean. I have temporarily cancelled teachings at Manjushri Dharma Center. That is because this bad virus is easily caught and swift to spread. The center is not only a gathering place, but for people from everywhere. Therefore we are temporarily suspending gatherings, but never stop your prayers and Dharma practice. In particular, while all Buddhas and Yidam Deities are good to practice, I feel it would be especially beneficial to do prayers and practice of Medicine Buddha at this time.
༅༅། །ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཀུན་ལ་སྙོམས་པའི་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
།མཚན་ཙམ་ཐོས་པས་ངན་འགྲོའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་སེལ།
།དུག་གསུམ་ནད་སེལ་སངས་རྒྱས་སྨན་གྱི་བླ།
།བེཌཱུརྱ་ཡི་འོད་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
thug-je kun-la nyom-pay chom-den-de
tsen-tsam tö-pé ngen-drö dug-ngel-sel
dug-sum ne-sel sang-gyé men-gyi-la
be-dur ya-yi ö-la chag-tsel-lo
O Blessed One with equal compassion for all,
Whose name, just hearing, dispels lower realms’ suffering
And heals sickness of disease and the three poisons,
Homage to the Medicine Buddha, Lapis Light!
ཏདྱ་ཐཱ། ཨོཾ་བྷྱེ་ཥ་ཛྱེ་བྷྱེ་ཥ་ཛྱེ་མ་ཧཱ་བྷྱེ་ཥ་ཛྱེ་རྭ་ཛ་ས་མུདྒ་ཏེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།
TAYA THA OM BE KHA DZE BE KHA DZE MAHA BE KHA DZE RA DZA SA MUD
GA TE SO HA
Recite the mantra as much as you can.
།བླ་མ་མཆོག་དང་སངས་རྒྱས་སྨན་ལྷའི་ཚོགས།
།མ་ལུས་འཁོར་བཅས་བདག་ལ་གསན་དུ་གསོལ།
སྔར་མ་གྲགས་པའི་ནད་དང་བར་ཆད་སོགས།
།མ་ལུས་ཞི་ཞིང་རྩད་ནས་བཟློག་པར་མཛོད།
la-ma chog-dang sang-gyé men-lhay-tsog
ma-lu khor-ché dag-la sen-du-söl
ngar-ma drag-pay né-dang bar-ché-sog
ma-lu shi-shing tsé-né dog-par-zod
Supreme Guru and Medicine Buddha Deities,
And Entourage without exception, please listen!
Pacify this previously unheard of disease and obstacles
Without exception and stop them completely!
།ནང་གི་ནད་ངན་བདག་འཛིན་ཉོན་མོངས་ཀྱིས།
།ཕྱི་ཡི་ནད་ངན་འབྱུང་བཞིའི་གཡོ་འཁྲུགས་དང་།
།ཁྱད་པར་སྔར་མ་གྲགས་པའི་ནད་ངན་རྣམས།
།མྱུར་དུ་ཆད་པའི་མཐུ་དཔུང་བསྐྱེད་དུ་གསོལ།
nang-gi né-ngen dag-dzin nyön-mong-kyi
chi-yi né-ngen jung-shi yo-trug-dang
khyé-par ngar-ma drag-pay né-ngen-nam
nyur-du ché-pay thu-pung kye-du-söl
All physical disease and disturbance of the four elements,
Caused by mental illness of self-grasping delusion,
And especially this previously unknown virus:
Please gather your might to swiftly stop them!
།ཉམ་ཐག་འགྲོ་བའི་ལུས་སེམས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྣམས།
།ཞི་ནས་འགྲོ་རྣམས་བདེ་དགའ་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཡིས།
།ཕན་ཚུན་བྱམས་བརྩེའི་ངང་དུ་འཚོ་བ་དང་།
།བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་སྐྱིད་དཔལ་ལ་སྤྱོད་པར་ཤོག།
nyam-thag dro-way lu-sem dug-ngel-nam
shi-né dro-nam de-ga gya-tso-yi
phen-tsun jam-tse ngang-du tso-wa-dang
ta-shi de-kyi pel-la chö-par-shog
May the suffering of destitute beings be pacified!
May they live in infinite oceans of joy!
May they have love and compassion for each other,
And enjoy auspiciousness and blissful happiness!
In the space before you amidst rainbow light, visualize Medicine Buddha, embodiment of all the three times’ Buddhas, blue in color, one face and two arms. He holds in his right hand thumb and ring-finger a fresh arura fruit with its leaves, which can cure hundreds of diseases. In his left hand he holds an alms bowl filled with nectar of immortality.
Meditating that his Body is as huge as a mountain, visualize yourself and all beings prostrating beneath his feet. As you recite Medicine Buddha’s name mantra, with reverence pray to Medicine Buddha to heal all sentient beings of the four hundred and two types of disease, and to dispel all obstacles and misfortune such as the 21,000 types of bad conditions; and especially, for all beings who are tormented by this new pandemic of Corona Virus throughout the world. In particular, pray to Medicine Buddha to grant blessings to quickly free from this terrible sickness the many tens of thousands in Wuhan, China for whom it is like hell has come to earth; as well as for all people of the world who have caught the Corona Virus.
Visualize Medicine Buddha, looking with eyes of transcendent wisdom and listening with all-hearing ears. At his heart on a lotus and moon cushion is a blue HUM encircled to the right by the name mantra. Visualize white milk-like nectar flowing from the HUM and dissolving into the encircling mantra garland. Then nectar pours from the mantra, down through Medicine Buddha’s Body, out through the toes of his feet, into the crowns of those under his feet, those surrounding them, all sick people, and especially those now suffering from this pandemic, wherever they are. Visualize that all the sickness is completely cleansed and purified that very instant. Do this visualization many times. You can also visualize Medicine Buddha above the places where the disease has spread. Visualize nectar pouring down and freeing all the people there from mental and physical suffering. Do the meditation and recitation in a relaxed manner, without any doubt, hope or fear.
Medicine Buddha especially prayed to benefit beings of our degenerate times when there are many sicknesses and untimely death. He is a special Buddha embodying the three mysteries of enlightened body, speech, and mind of all the Buddhas, who manifests as the antidote to sickness during our times. If we recite with faith, conviction and single-pointed focus it will be extremely beneficial.
Although center activities are temporarily cancelled, we never stop our practice of Dharma. As you stay at home, everyone put your body, speech, and mind to use in positive ways. It would be excellent if you could do a sort of private retreat. I also do a month’s retreat every year but have not had the chance this year because of being busy with Dharma center work. Now, using bad conditions as a support for Dharma practice, I shall take this opportunity to do my own retreat. I will be in retreat until it is feasible to recommence group activities. Everyone, please keep that in mind.
From my side I pray every day for all sentient beings, and especially Dharma friends with whom I have direct connection; so please, everyone, keep a positive state of mind.
~ Khenpo Karten Rinpoche. I wrote this brief Medicine Buddha practice to help against the Corona Virus on March 15, 2020, for my Dharma brothers and sisters throughout the world.
translation by Jampa Tharchin Tashi Deleks Sarva Mangalam
photo credit Miles McBreen
