Explanation of some of the Teachings, Classes, and Practices of Open Mind Sangha
MEDICINE BUDDHA PRACTICE Normally people think that Medicine Buddha is for healing but it’s not only that! You can use the Medicine Buddha practice for ANY purpose, ANY problem, ANYTHING. The Medicine Buddha practice is so precious.
BENEFITS OF THE MEDICINE BUDDHA PRACTICE Any living being who hears the name of Medicine Buddha never gets reborn in the lower realms – that’s the benefit of just hearing the name, the mantra of Medicine Buddha. This is due to the great compassion of the Medicine Buddhas. It is very powerful for purification – it purifies any broken vows or precepts. It is very powerful for healing sickness. And not only that, it is also very powerful for success.
Many eons ago, seven bodhisattvas strongly prayed for the temporal and ultimate happiness of all sentient being and that their names would become wish-fulfilling in order to heal both the mental and physical sicknesses and diseases of sentient beings.
They vowed that their prayers would be actualized during these degenerate times when the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha are in decline. When they became enlightened, one of the ten powers of a Buddha is the power of prayer – that means that all the prayers that have been made get fulfilled. As the Buddha’s holy speech is irrevocable, you can wholly trust in their power to quickly grant blessings to help all sentient beings in these degenerate times.
They are called the Seven Medicine Buddhas. The main one is ‘Lapis Buddha of Medicine, King of Light’. Buddha Shakyamuni taught the teachings on the Medicine Buddha, and according to one tradition, is also considered as one of the Medicine Buddhas, and hence the Eight Medicine Buddhas.
The Medicine Buddha practice is the heart of Tibetan Medicine. Buddha, at Bodhisattva Manjushri’s request, taught in Vaishali the origin of the Medicine Buddha sutra of 800 verses. The tradition was brought to Tibet by the great Indian Buddhist master Abbot Shantarakshita (8th century) and was given to the Tibetan King Trisong Deutsan to promote health, prevent diseases, give protection against black magic and to stabilize the ecological system from natural disasters. From that very day it became the fatherly religion of Tibetan kings and spread to different Buddhist schools after the 10th century. It is of benefit for all physicians to practice the Medicine Buddha Prayers. The altruistic practice of love and compassion, empowered by this practice, develops into an instrument to remove pains caused by ignorance and disease. Therefore one should receive the traditional teachings on the practice, and recite the mantra as often as they wish. Because of samsara, we fall enslaved in fruitless business which creates a life without choice but the interested person can learn the Medicine Buddha practice and then earn spiritual and health benefit along with their daily life.
GREEN TARA
There are so many inner obstacles to the development of your mind, and these inner obstacles create many outer obstacles. Therefore, for the success of your Dharma practice, of your actualizing the graduated path to enlightenment, you must rely upon a special deity, or buddha, such as Tara. All the actions of the buddhas have manifested in this female aspect of buddha, Tara the Liberator, in order to help living beings to accomplish successfully both temporal and ultimate happiness. Tara is quick to grant success in obtaining the ultimate happiness of enlightenment. You receive much good merit, or cause of happiness; it prevents a suffering rebirth in your next life; you receive initiation from millions of buddhas; and you achieve enlightenment. Besides these, however, Tara practice has many other benefits. Reciting the Twenty-one Taras' prayer with devotion, at dawn or dusk—or remembering Tara, singing praises and reciting mantras at any time of the day or night—protects you from fear and dangers, and fulfill all your wishes. If you pray to Tara, Tara is particularly quick to grant help.
There are also many temporal benefits from Tara practice, either reciting the Tara mantra or the Twenty-one Taras' prayer. Tara can solve many problems in your life: liberate you from untimely death; help you recover from disease; bring you success in business; help you to find a job; bring you wealth. When you have a really serious problem, such as a life-threatening disease, if you rely upon Tara, very commonly you will be freed from that problem; you will recover from that disease. If you eat poison, if you rely upon Tara, the poison will not harm you. By doing Tara prayers and mantras, couples with difficulty having a child can have a child—and whichever they want, a son or a daughter. These are very common experiences. Through Tara practice, you can obtain any happiness of this life that you wish.
If you recite the Twenty-one Taras' prayer once every evening, it is said that you will never die of starvation. It is also a very common experience for lay practitioners, monks and nuns with financial difficulties to have such problems relieved by doing Tara practice. There have been stories and many instances of people who have prayed to and taken refuge in Green Tara and have been saved from the danger of untimely death and from disease without taking medicine.
[Disclaimer: please follow all Doctors' instructions. Do Not take this as medical advice)
LAMRIM – THE STAGES OF THE PATH
The stages of the path to enlightenment, or Lamrim in Tibetan, is the backbone of Vajrayana Buddhism. Lamrim is a special set of instructions that includes all the essential teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni arranged in such a way that all his Hinayana and Mahayana teachings can be put into practice in a single meditation session. It was compiled by the great Indian Buddhist Master Atisha, who was invited to Tibet by King Jangchub Ö in AD 1042, and who spent the rest of his life there spreading pure Dharma.
UNBROKEN LINEAGE
There is a completely pure and unbroken lineage of these Lamrim instructions from Buddha Shakyamuni up to our present day Spiritual Guides. Many great Kadampa Teachers have said that it is far more important to gain experience of Lamrim than it is to attain clairvoyance, miracle powers, or high social status. This is true because in previous lives we have often possessed clairvoyance and potent miracle powers, and many times in the past we have been in the highest positions in the human and god realms, but despite this we continue to experience uncontrolled rebirth and physical and mental suffering caused by anger, attachment, jealousy, and confusion.
FREEDOM FROM ALL SUFFERING
If we gain deep experience of Lamrim there will be no basis for these problems; we shall be completely free of all of them. First we must understand the value of Lamrim. Then by joyfully and patiently doing the meditations we shall gradually experience the fruits of Lamrim practice. Eventually we shall attain freedom from all suffering and the unchanging peace and happiness of enlightenment.
TWENTY-ONE MEDITATIONS
There are 21 Lamrim meditations, which are usually practiced as a daily meditation practice, they are:
Relying upon a Spiritual Guide
Our precious human life
Death and impermanence
The danger of lower rebirth
Refuge practice
Actions and their effects
Developing renunciation for samsara
Developing equanimity
Recognizing that all living beings are our mothers
Remembering the kindness of living beings
Equalizing self and others
The disadvantages of self-cherishing
The advantages of cherishing others
Exchanging self with others
Great compassion
Taking
Wishing love
Giving
Bodhichitta
Tranquil abiding
Superior seeing {Emptiness}
These meditations, along with instructions on how to practice them and essential background material, will be taught and discussed in detail in the Lamrim meditation classes. Please join us anytime to take advantage of these special instructions, to enhance your spiritual practice!