"gSoba Rig-pa" Tibetan Medicine: A Healing Science

Spiritual Dimensions of Healing

Since the mind is considered to be the origin of all illness and spiritual afflictions, much of the healing that the Medicine Buddha promises lies within the mind. Every Tibetan physician vows to “regard medicine as an offering to the Medicine Buddha and all other medicine deities” and considers his “medical instruments as holy objects.” The spiritual side of Tibetan medicine is integral to its practice and to creating the holistic balance to wellness.

Physicians

• Perform meditative rituals over pills, for instance the physician imagines himself and the medicine to be Hayagriva , a Buddhist diety. They are considered one inseparable entity.

• Medicines are further blessed with a mantra.

• Every morning the Tibetan physician reintegrates into his conciousness the spiritual, intellectual and practical teachings of the Medicine Buddha through visualization and prayers.

Patients

• with incurable diseases receive lessons on impermanence as a fact of the natural world.

• Those with curable illnesses are encouraged to meditate on the seven limbs (bojjhangas) of enlightenment: mindfulness, his teachings (dharma), striving, joy, tranquility, meditative trance and equanimity, which will help overcome the 3 Poisons.

In traditional Tibetan culture, practicing meditation and using prayer wheels, incense, prayer flags, building stupas, and going on pilgrimages all work together with Tibetan herbal medicine in healing illness and maintaining health.

Meditation

According to the Buddhist masters, we are not necessarily stuck with our neurotic anxieties. We can develop what Trungpa Rinpoche called 'Basic Sanity,' which is simply the ability to synchronize what our mind is doing with what our body is doing.

Shi-né (she nay) in Tibetan (Sanskrit shamatha ), is the most common form of meditation, not only in Tibet but in other Buddhist countries. It is the basis of Zen, of Theravadin or Insight Meditation, and of the Tibetan meditation practices involving visualization. It is most widely known in the West as “mindfulness practice” (sitting practice).

Other forms of meditation are tonglen (sending and receiving), and practicing visualization techniques on the deities Chenrezig, Green Tara, and Medicine Buddha.

Mantra

“Compared to any medical treatment or cure, the Six Syllables [ Om Mani Padme Hum ] are the strongest remedy against sickness and evil.

                                                                          -- Guru Rinpoche

A Tibetan Buddhist mantra can be thought of as a particular form of prayer: phrases in the ancient Sanskrit language are used to connect with the energy of a particular enlightened being. 

The most familiar example is Om Mani Padme Hum, the most widely used mantra in Tibet and in many other Buddhist communities. Tibetan Buddhists believe that saying this mantra, out loud or silently to oneself, invokes the powerful benevolent attention of Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

There are many special mantras for various purposes, including healing. However, the mantras most often used for healing are those associated with the enlightened beings Medicine Buddha, Green or White Tara, and Chenrezig.

Medicine Buddha Mantra

In the mantra the name of the Medicine Buddha occurs several times. After maha , it can be repeated either once or twice, e.g., either Maha Bhaishajye or Maha Bhaishajye Bhaishajye . It may be pronounced either as the original Sanskrit ( bye-sa-jee-yeah ) or as it came to be pronounced in Tibet , something like bay-cod-zay (at least in some dialects).

Prayer Wheels

"Just touching and turning a prayer wheel brings incredible purification and accumulates unbelievable merit."

"One idea I have is to use them for healing. Anyone with a disease such as AIDS or cancer, whether or not they have any understanding of Dharma, can use the prayer wheel for meditation and healing."

-- Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Spinning the written form of the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum around in a mani wheel (prayer wheel) is believed to give the same benefit as saying the mantra, and mani wheels, small hand wheels and large wheels with millions of copies of the mantra inside, are found everywhere in the lands influenced by Tibetan Buddhism.