Medicine Buddha

Iconographic Art

I remember reading iconographic art speaks to the mind that does not use the spoken or written word to communicate, this is where insight comes from. Each object, color, position of the object related to other objects means something more than the literal object. The observer of symbolism must let go of the ego to truly understand the symbolic meaning of iconography. There is a saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words."

Buddhism and Buddhist Art

Medicine Buddha's Bowl

The begging bowl is carried by all monastics. It is a tradition that ties the community to the monks and nuns through providing food for the monastics. In return for the communities support the monks and nuns teach the laypeople how to free their mind from attachment, aversion, and ignorance. The monks and nuns must eat what ever is put in their begging bowl.

I've always felt the begging bowl represents our karma. What ever we experience in this life, you cannot reject your experience, you must accept your choices and actions, they must be eaten and digested or you will be forever searching for more food, a hungry ghost.

A tantric empowerment, also known as an initiation or a wang in Tibetan, is a ceremony that activates our potential to become a Buddha. It does this by stimulating our Buddha-nature factors – the basic working materials that we all have that can transform our ordinary body, speech, mind, actions and good qualities into those of a Buddha – helping them to develop further, and planting other “seeds” of potential. The factors that we all have include:

Wang, Empowerment, Initiation - Berzin Archive

The Meaning Of Devotional Objects In Buddhism

If one understand the inner meaning of the images one sees in Buddhism and other religions, ones growth in insight regarding reality as it is-not as one wishes will grow. Getting stuck in literal meanings and history is a waste of time. When a student goes to an oral teaching called an empowerment in Tibetan Buddhism, the teacher will give the inner meaning of the images a student focuses on during practice. A student will be hard pressed to find intimate teachings on inner meanings in Dharma books.

The Cause Of All Illness is Ignorance, Hatred, And Greed

I've read from many text in all traditions that Buddha is the greatest healer of all times because he treats the causes of illness. The student must then heal themselves by eradicating the 3 poisons.

The Top Knot On Buddha's Head

The bump on the Buddha's head is represented through all three traditions, Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana's iconographic art. The symbolism behind the bump on the head has evolved over time as the Dharma spread from culture to culture. In the beginning Buddha was represented by an empty chair, a wheel, or footprints.

Hundreds of years after Gautama's death as Buddhism spread and evolved artist started portraying Buddha as a person. The topknot represents the hair tied up even though many ancient stories tell of the Buddha having a shaved head and wearing monastic robes. The Buddhist movement was a revolt against Brahmanism, the greedy institutions and empty rituals used for profit. The Brahmin priest had a tuft of hair on the back of their head. Also shaving the head in monastic Buddhism means letting go of ones worldly concerns.

The first representations of the Buddha in the 1st century CE in the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara also represent him with a topknot, rather than just a cranial knob. It is thought that the interpretation of the ushnisha as a supernatural cranial protuberance happened at a later date, as the representation of the topknot became more symbolic and its original meaning was lost.

Sutra Of Medicine Buddha

The Bump On Buddha's Head

As red Amitabha is the Buddha of the Western Pure Land, blue Medicine Buddha is often considered the Buddha of the Eastern Pure Land. His color is lapis lazuli blue, the hue of the dark, gold-threaded stone called lapis for short -- lapis is Latin for stone -- has been associated with healing at least since the time of Sumerian goddess (>Mt. Sumeru = Meru) Inanna (Ishtar) who descended to the Land of the Dead to revive her brother/lover, and then returned. Interestingly, ashi- is the Sumerian root for heal; in Tibetan amchi is a healer.

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu’s Keynote Address and coverage of the ATMA Conference at the Rubin Museum NYC – July 25-27, 2014 July 27, 2014

When talking about medicine, medicine in the teaching is also very important. We can really understand the sense of medicine, for example, in that the name of Buddha Shakyamuni is “Great Physician.” This is one of the names of the Buddha Shakyamuni. This doesn’t mean the Buddha is diagnosing illnesses, giving medicine etc. But it relates to the meaning in Tibetan of ring rgyu (long distance cause of disease, or the 3 poisons) and nye rgyu (short distance cause of disease, 3 humors). ring rgyu means the original cause is the three emotions. nye rgyu means disordered rlung, mkhris pa, bad kan. Why disordered? Because they are related with the three emotions: attachment, ignorance and anger. So these are the original bases of illness. Buddha’s teaching is for overcoming that.

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