Hsuan Hua, Medicine Master Sutra commentary, p68-69Because Medicine Master Buddha knew that living beings have many bad habits and faults and are prone to make mistakes, he made the fifth great vow, saying: I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, when I become a Buddha, I shall enable limitless and boundless numbers of sentient beings, which includes you and me, who cultivate Brahmā conduct within my Dharma to perfectly uphold the three clusters of precepts without exception.” Brahmā conduct refers to pure conduct, to the strict observance of the precepts. Medicine Master Buddha vows that whoever practices the Buddha-dharma will be able to perfectly uphold the pure precepts. Pure upholding of precepts can be compared to a perfectly round, full moon.
The Three Clusters of Pure Precepts
- The precepts for gathering in living beings
- The precepts comprised of wholesome dharmas
- The precepts comprised of the rules of discipline and deportment
Since it’s not easy for people to uphold the precepts, Medicine Master Buddha vowed, “Should there be any violation, upon hearing my name, they will regain their purity. In the event of having violated the precepts, if one hears my Buddha-name, one will return to the origin and not fall into the lower destinies. One will not fall into the hells, the realm of hungry ghosts, or the animal realm.”
In the “three clusters of pure precepts,” each cluster is a collection of many precepts. Just as there are said to be “three hundred rituals and three thousand modes of awe-inspiring deportment,” the precepts comprised of the rules of discipline and deportment are also a large collection of rules.
Wholesome dharmas refers to innumerably many kinds of dharmas. The precepts comprised of wholesome dharmas tell us to “do no evil and practice all good.” The precepts for gathering in living beings encompass all living beings. One wants to take all living beings across to Buddhahood. The three clusters of precepts are very many and therefore not easy to cultivate. What should we do if we accidentally transgress them? Medicine Master Buddha’s vow says, “If sentient beings transgress the precepts, after they hear my name, they will attain purity. They won’t fall into the lower destinies.”
Think it over. Medicine Master Buddha works so hard to gather in living beings. Shouldn’t we acknowledge his compassion? Shouldn’t we cultivate the precepts seriously and stop relying on his aid? Don’t think, “Medicine Master Buddha has vowed to save me even if I violate the precepts, so I don’t have to worry.” If we violate a precept unintentionally, without realizing it, he can help us regain purity. On the other hand, we cannot violate the precepts on purpose and think that the Buddha will save us.
Category Archives: Hsuan Hua
Medicine Master Buddha’s 7th Vow
Below are quotes from Master Hsuan Hua‘s commentary on The Sutra of the Merit and Virtue of the Past Vows of Medicine Master Vaiḍūrya.
Hsuan Hua, Medicine Master Sutra commentary, p72-74Sūtra:
“The seventh great vow: ‘I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, if there are sentient beings beset by many illnesses and who are poor and wretched without aid, without a place to turn, without a doctor, without medicine, without relatives, and without a family, upon hearing my name, they shall be cured of their illnesses, be peaceful and happy in body and mind, gain a family and relatives, acquire abundant property and wealth, and eventually realize unsurpassed Bodhi.”Commentary:
Many newcomers still don’t know who Medicine Master Vaiḍūrya Light Tathāgata is. I shall tell you a little more about this Buddha. He is a great king of physicians who cures people without using medicine. Living beings only need to hear his name, and their illnesses will be cured.Chinese physicians use the methods of observing, listening, inquiring, and feeling the pulse to diagnose a patient’s condition. Physicians are classified as “spiritual,” “sagely,” “skillful,” or “clever.” The “spiritual” are the very best, while the “sagely” are not quite as incredible. “Skillful” refers to those who have to apply some skill and effort before they can know a person’s condition. The “clever” can know in an ingenious way. In general, the “spiritual” know by observing; the “sagely” know by listening; the “skillful” know through inquiring; and the “clever” know through feeling the pulse. Ordinary doctors must use these four methods to diagnose sickness.
Medicine Master Buddha, however, doesn’t use these methods. He can cure people as long as they sincerely recite his name. That’s his special way of helping people. Such formidable spiritual power comes from the following vow.
The seventh great vow: “I vow that in a future life when I attain Bodhi, if there are sentient beings beset by many illnesses who are poor and wretched without aid, without a place to turn, without a doctor, without medicine, without relatives, and without a family. They have no one who can help them, and no safe place where they can take refuge. Being sick is the greatest suffering. They are poor and alone and beset by hardships.
Upon hearing my name, they shall be cured of their illnesses. If they hear my name, ‘Medicine Master Buddha Who Quells Disasters and Lengthens Life,’ they will be cured of all disease, without having to take medication or get shots, X-rays, or CAT scans. There’s no need for electrotherapy, acupuncture, or any other treatments or operations. However, this passage doesn’t mean that doctors will be out of business, so doctors should not worry.
These people will be peaceful and happy in body and mind, gain a family and relatives, acquire abundant property and wealth. They will fully regain physical and mental health. They will not be alone in the world, nor will they be poor.
And finally, they will eventually realize unsurpassed Bodhi.” All living beings have the Buddha-nature and can become Buddhas. The Buddha didn’t say, “I alone can become a Buddha, and no one else can.” Buddhism is very democratic. The Buddha is just the same as us, except that he has great wisdom, so he doesn’t say or do confused things. We study the Buddha’s teachings in order to learn to live in harmony, be good people, and ultimately, become wise Buddhas. However, if we do not behave properly, we will never become wise.
Next: Medicine Master Buddha’s Mantra
Medicine Master Sūtra
Below are quotes from Master Hsuan Hua‘s commentary on The Sutra of the Merit and Virtue of the Past Vows of Medicine Master Vaiḍūrya.
Hsuan Hua, Medicine Master Sutra commentary, p84-85Reciting the Name of Medicine Master Buddha
At the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, we recite the name of Medicine Master Buddha in the morning and dedicate the merit to the Dharma-protectors of the City, praying that they will be safe from disasters and will enjoy long life. At noon we recite “Namo Fundamental Teacher Śākyamuni Buddha” in order to repay the kindness of Śākyamuni Buddha, who taught the Dharma to us. In the evening we recite the name of Amitabha Buddha, vowing to be born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, where the three lower paths do not exist. In the Sahā world, we are troubled and afflicted every day, but in the Land of Ultimate Bliss and the Vaiḍūrya Land, there is only happiness.The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is a new monastery, and we recite the names of three different Buddhas in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. In this respect, we differ from monasteries in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, and other countries where they follow the Chinese Buddhist tradition and recite Amitabha Buddha’s name all the time. When monastics from other places visit the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, they think that we do everything wrong and do not understand the rules.
We do not claim that what we do at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is correct. However, when we rise in the morning, we should emulate the vows of Medicine Master Buddha Who Quells Disasters and Lengthens Life. This will give us the fresh, youthful energy of dawn; an invigorating vitality like that of trees reviving after a drought or a spring bubbling forth from the ground. When we rise at dawn, the fire of our life burns brightly and everything is auspicious. At noon, we should be grateful to Śākyamuni Buddha for all the Dharma and sūtras that he taught us. At night, our thoughts return to the Land of Ultimate Bliss, the final haven where we wish to be reborn.
Hsuan Hua, Medicine Master Sutra commentary, p23-24Two Buddhas, East and West
Śākyamuni buddha came to the Sahā world in order to help living beings resolve the problem of birth and death. He was born into a royal family, but he renounced the wealth of the kingdom and left his home in order to pursue the Truth. After he attained Buddhahood beneath the Bodhi Tree, he contemplated the conditions of living beings in the Sahā world and discovered that we have the deepest affinities with two Buddhas – Medicine Master Vaiḍūrya Light Tathagata in the East and Amitabha Tathāgata in the West. …Although Akṣobhya (Medicine Master) Buddha is in the Vaiḍūrya Land and Amitabha Buddha is in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, both of these Buddhas teach and transform the living beings of the Sahā world. They have deep affinities with each and every one of us. Medicine Master Tathāgata is also known as “Medicine Master Buddha Who Quells Disasters and Lengthens Life;” Amitabha Tathāgata is known as both the “Buddha of Limitless Life” (Amitāyus) and the “Buddha of Limitless Light” (Amitābha).
If you are mindful of Medicine Master Buddha, he will bestow blessings and long life upon you and save you from disasters, illnesses, and offenses. He fulfills the wishes of all living beings. Amitabha Buddha enables beings to be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. If you wish to be reborn in that land, simply recite Amitabha Buddha’s name. If you wish to be born in the Vaiḍūrya Land, then recite the name of Medicine Master Vaiḍūrya Light Tathagata.
Hsuan Hua, Medicine Master Sutra commentary, p60Magnetic Vows
Every Buddha and Bodhisattva, before achieving Buddhahood, makes infinitely many great vows to benefit and help living beings. When he becomes a Buddha, his vows come true, and, like a magnet, they attract living beings from the ten directions. If his vows are great, then the power of the magnet is great, and no matter how many living beings there are and how heavy their karmic obstacles are, his vows can draw them in. Living beings, despite their ignorance, can sense that he wishes to help them, and so they feel especially close to him. Deep down in their souls they intuitively sense this affinity. In the past, Medicine King Bodhisattva burned his body and gave up his life as an offering to the Buddhas. We, in contrast, can’t even bear to burn a finger, let alone our whole bodies.
Hsuan Hua, Medicine Master Sutra commentary, p62Ordinary Origins of Great Vows
Medicine Master Buddha made this vow in his past lives when he was still cultivating as a bhikṣu; he was no different from you, me, and other living beings then. But because he made great vows, he was able to achieve Buddhahood very quickly. We still haven’t become Buddhas, because we are too selfish, greedy, and quarrelsome, and we don’t want to make great vows.
The Medicine of Buddhism
On March 25, 2020, Ryusho Jeffus Shonin sent a card to my wife and me. On the cover was a blue print of a linoleum block carving Ryusho had done of Medicine Buddha. This was at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. At this time, shelter-at-home mandates had been issued for both the state of New York, where Ryusho lived, and California, where we lived.
I placed the Medicine Buddha card among my “decorations” (see this explanation) and put a generic Buddha incense burner in front of it to represent Medicine Buddha. Hung above this area of my “decorations” is a 16-inch long Medicine Buddha prayer flag garland that my son and his girlfriend brought home from one of their trips.
Each morning and evening I begin gongyo offering light from a burning incense stick to my “decorations” – Kannon and Jizo bodhisattvas, the Shichi Fuku Jin (Seven Happy Gods) and the Funjin Sho Butsu (Śākyamuni’s replicas). The Medicine Buddha card and statue and a Tibetan prayer box and flags represent the Buddhas in manifestation who appear in Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures.
I bring this all up because I recently purchased and read the Medicine Master Sūtra with commentary by Master Hsuan Hua. I’m going to place the book behind the card so that the statue, card and sutra create Medicine Buddha “decorations.”
Having this year discovered Hsuan Hua’s 14-volume commentary on the Lotus Sutra, I’ve been reviewing the other sutras that he’s left commentaries on. For me, as a Nichiren Buddhist – as someone who holds that the Lotus Sutra is the Buddha’s highest teaching – I consider these other sutras as the expedient teachings that all flow into the ocean of the Lotus Sutra.
While Medicine Buddha can bestow blessings and long life upon believers and save them from disasters, illnesses, and offenses, his powers pale in comparison to the benefits of offering devotion to the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra.
In Chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra, Śākyamuni says, “I am leaving this good medicine here. Take it! Do not be afraid that you will not be cured!”
In Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva, Śākyamuni says, “Just as a torch dispels darkness, this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma saves all living beings from all sufferings, from all diseases, and from all the bonds of birth and death.”
And later in Chapter 23, the Buddha tells Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva to use his supernatural powers to protect the Lotus Sūtra: “Why is that? It is because this sūtra is a good medicine for the diseases of the people of the Jambudvipa. The patient who hears this sūtra will be cured of his disease at once. He will not grow old or die.”
I welcome the addition of Medicine Master Vaiḍūrya Light Tathāgata to my practice, but for me it’s more like the guy who wears both suspenders and a belt to hold up his pants.
Next: Medicine Master Sūtra
Vajra Sutra: The Equality of Emptiness and Existence
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p187-188“How can you say emptiness is existence and existence is emptiness? That is too confused,” you may say.
Is it the principle that is confused, or is it you, or I? When you are confused you think that emptiness is emptiness and existence is existence. When the confusion is cleared, you know that emptiness and existence are equal. Do not attach to either annihilationism or eternalism. The equality and non-duality of emptiness and existence is called the Middle Way. Here true emptiness does not obstruct wonderful existence and wonderful existence does not obstruct true emptiness. True emptiness is wonderful existence; wonderful existence is true emptiness. When there is existence, then emptiness manifests; when there is emptiness, then existence is apparent. There is no emptiness, and there is no existence. They are not two. The non-duality of emptiness and existence is the equality of emptiness and existence.
Vajra Sutra: No Sudden and No Gradual
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p184-186When I was sixteen I wrote a matched couplet upon reading the Sixth Patriarch Sutra. Having lectured to the place where the text says “Dharma is not sudden or gradual, confusion and enlightenment are slow and quick.” I thought, “How can there still be a sudden and a gradual? What is sudden? What is gradual? Are sudden and gradual different? Are they two?” So I wrote the following:
Although sudden and gradual are different,
Upon completion they are one.
Why make divisions of North and South?Sagely and common are parts of the one:
The basic nature is absolutely the same.
Do not discuss East and West.“Although sudden and gradual are different, upon completion they are one.” Sudden refers to instantaneous realization of Buddhahood; gradual refers to slow cultivation to Buddhahood. Sudden and gradual are two distinct methods, but when one finishes the work, there is no sudden and no gradual in evidence. They no longer exist. …
When I read the Sixth Patriarch Sutra, I thought that the reference to Sudden and Gradual lacked equality, so I wrote the line, “Although sudden and gradual are different, upon completion they are one.” What is the origin of sudden? Although one suddenly attains enlightenment, one cultivates life after life for a long time within the Buddhadharma prior to that enlightenment. When one reaps the fruit of that long process of cultivation, that is called sudden. Gradual refers to the long process of cultivation, but the day the cultivation is complete, there is sudden enlightenment. For that reason I say there is no sudden or gradual. …
“Sagely and common are parts of the One.” Sagely refers to the Buddha; common refers to living beings. The world is divided into these two types, but “the basic nature is absolutely the same.” Buddhahood is the realization of the Buddha-nature. Living beings can also realize their Buddha-nature.
Vajra Sutra: Five Aspects of Equality
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p184The marks of the dharma are spoken of by the Tathagata as no marks of the dharma; therefore they are called the marks of the dharma. They are merely given a false name.
The Vajra Sūtra expresses prajña, the wonderful principle of true emptiness, and also expresses the dharma door of equality found within the wonderful principle of prajña. In general there are Five Aspects of Equality evident in the sūtra.
- The equality of living beings and Buddhas,
- The equality of emptiness and existence,
- The equality of all dharma,
- The equality of one and many,
- The equality of all views.
Most people do not understand equality dharma doors, so they put a head on top of a head, add marks to marks, and change what is basically equal to what is unequal.
Vajra Sutra: The Merit of Small Deeds
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p178-179If we travelled by rocket for a great length of time, we would only cover a short distance compared to the extent of three thousand great thousand world systems. Although those world systems are big, they are created from motes of fine dust. The largest things are created from the smallest. Although one mote of dust is small, many of them together become a great thousand world system. In the same way, the merit and virtue we do comes from small deeds. By doing many good deeds we become adorned with ten thousand virtues. You should not think you need not bother doing small good deeds or that you can get away with doing small bad ones. Many seemingly inconsequential good deeds will accumulate into great goodness. Although you may only do minor bad deeds, many will accumulate into great evil. In just the same way, a whole world comes from a collection of small dust motes.
Vajra Sutra: Seeking The Middle Way
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, p168-169The deviant path of grasping at the sight or the sound of the Buddha leads one into the extreme of clinging to conditioned existence. When one is not in accord with the Middle Way, one cannot see the Tathagata. The Avataṃsaka Sutra says: “Response and transformations are not the true Buddha.” The thirty-two marks belong to the response and transformation bodies, and certainly not to the Buddha’s dharma body. One who holds to annihilationism views everything as doomed to extinction. One who holds to permanence views everything as eternal. Both views are biased and not the Middle Way. If one seeks the Tathagata’s dharma body by some path other than the Middle Way, it will be impossible to find it.
Once Mahāmaudgalyāyana wanted to see how far the Buddha’s voice carried, so he used his spiritual penetrations and went as far east as he could. He passed through thousands of ten thousands of millions of Buddhalands – 70,000 times farther than a rocket can go in space. But even when he had travelled that great distance, the Buddha’s voice was still as clear as if he were speaking dharma right into Mahāmaudgalyāyana’s ear. That is a case of searching for the Buddha in sound.
Vajra Sutra: Seeking Without the Thought of Seeking
The Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra, pp149-150Let us look further into the five eyes. Are they produced from within or do they come from outside? The five eyes are not produced from within; nor do they come from outside; nor do they exist in the middle. Cultivate, use effort, and when your skill is sufficient you will have them naturally. Before sufficient skill is attained, no amount of seeking will cause them to function. Seeking is false thinking. Seeking without the thought of seeking brings a response.
In what way does one make an effort to open one’s eyes?
You need to be wise in managing affairs, and wise in cultivation. It is wise to recognize what is good and then courageously and vigorously work towards it. The characteristic of wisdom is to recognize and vow to cut off and cast out what is bad. Realizing something is good and yet not acting in accord with it is the characteristic of stupidity. It is stupid to recognize that something is bad business and still go ahead and become involved in it. If you are stupid, it is not easy to obtain the five eyes. In order to obtain them, everything you do must be done extremely clearly. You must be very precise and cannot be confused.