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