【Description】

There is a great buddha who made 12 great vows. Each of the 12 vows is intended to meet the needs of all sentient beings, liberating them from poverty, illness, sufferings, and pain.

He is the Medicine Buddha; he is also called Medicine Master of Lapis Lazuli Light, the Buddha of Healing, and the King of the Eastern Lapis Lazuli Pure Land.

Let’s follow Grandmaster JinBodhi in learning the 12 great vows and feeling the Medicine Buddha’s all-compassionate love for each and every sentient being.

【Content】

Sutra of the Medicine Buddha: The Buddha told the Gentle Glory Bodhisattva that Medicine Buddha made 12 vows to help all beings get whatever they need.

A sacred Buddhist holiday is coming. It is the birthday of All-Compassionate Medicine Buddha from the Eastern Lapis Lazuli Land. Before obtaining buddhahood, he was practicing just like us. Having been inspired by Buddha’s compassion, he made 12 great compassionate vows. I will go through the 12 great vows briefly.

The first vow goes like this: “In the future when I shall attain unsurpassable complete enlightenment, may my body shine as beams of brilliant light on this infinite and boundless world.” You can visualize the sun brightening up the boundless Universe. Do your best and visualize it being as boundless as possible. What about the “32 marks of a great man”? Does it mean there are 32 men? Nope. In the sutra, this refers to the 32 great qualities of a buddha. May all beings, inspired by him, have the 32 great qualities of Buddha.

Next. “May my body be like lapis lazuli, transparent throughout, pure and flawless, with extensive brightness and majestic merits.” First of all, what is lapis lazuli? If one’s body is transparent throughout, that is lapis lazuli. If the human body were like that, it would be in perfect health, without ailments, the “5 Poisons” or bad karma. A person with the Divine-Eye would describe a body without ailments like this: “So clear and pure!” A person with this kind of body will have great wisdom and longevity. So, we will be healthy if our body is “pure like lapis lazuli.” Only a transparent substance fits that description. Rays of light have no problem shining through. Why? Because no cloudiness blocks the light.

For the third vow, let’s go through the following line first. “In the future when I shall attain unsurpassable complete enlightenment…” After enlightenment, he could “…employ countless, boundless skillful means of wisdom to render all beings in possession of inexhaustible things of comfort…” So, who are the “beings”? “Beings” means all sentient beings. To be more accurate, they are “beings of thoughts and feelings.” In other words, beings are those who feel love and friendship.

To sum up, the third vow says: After enlightenment, with his enlightened great wisdom, Medicine Buddha will fulfill all needs and wants of all sentient beings. What could the “needs and wants” refer to? It could be anything; health, for example. You could also wish to benefit your parents. If you are married, you could ask for a child. If you are younger, you might want a partner to marry. For students, it could mean good grades. Everyone has their own wishes, and it is not wrong. That is the third vow; with his wisdom and dharma powers, he will fulfill all needs and wants. It is just that not all wishes are realized at the same time.

For the fourth vow, he will lead those who have gone astray back to the path of righteousness. The Bodhi path means the path of righteousness. There is more: “… and establish securely those who practice Sravakayana or Pratyekabuddhayana in Mahayana.” These terms are branches of Buddhism. Practitioners of Sravakayana and Pratyekabuddhayana achieve enlightenment through listening to teachings and practicing on their own. For example, do no evil and meditate in a cave for decades. The thing is, how many decades can you meditate? It is not wrong, since they vowed to do no evil, which is good. But they didn’t help all beings. Thus, their cultivation is not perfect. The fourth vow has 2 parts: bringing evildoers back to the righteous path and leading the “lone buddhas” to the path of preaching and helping others.

For the fifth vow, “May all beings who cultivate pure conduct in accordance with my teachings breach no precepts and fulfill the 3 cumulative precepts. ” This is a vow to make sure all practitioners obey the precepts. This is important. Breaking precepts counts against our cultivation and enlightenment.

For the sixth vow, “May all physically inferior sentient beings attain proper features, become smart, with all senses wholesome, and become healthy upon hearing my name.” This is about physical defects we’re born with. It could be deafness, muteness, blindness, missing limbs, etc. These physical defects are common. As humans, we sympathize with those who weren’t born with a perfect body. Therefore, Medicine Buddha vowed that people with these defects could recover upon hearing his holy name. This is not easy. This is a vow made out of Medicine Buddha’s compassion.

For the seventh vow, he vowed to relieve all pain and poverty of the very sick and poor; may the sick be cured, the helpless be helped and the poor be assisted. It means that upon hearing Medicine Buddha’s holy name, people are no longer sick. They become healthy and wealthy, and even attain unsurpassable complete enlightenment too.

Let’s do some revisions. What are the spiritual “5 Poisons”? Do you remember? Greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt. What are the 4 physical tortures? Birth, aging, illness and death. So, this one is about people who are seriously ill. They don’t have family members to care for them. For example, orphans, elders, homeless and abandoned people. Usually, these people are poor and lonely. If you are lonely but rich, it is not a problem because you can hire your own caregivers. We don’t expect old, homeless people to be rich. Without money to support their health, they appear sick, frail and malnourished. These people are usually neglected by society. That is worse than being sick.

Upon hearing Medicine Buddha’s name, may these people be liberated of illness. Not only that, they will be provided with all necessities too. For example, a shelter with an abundance of food and clothing. They are even blessed with a chance to practice to be enlightened. Thus, Medicine Buddha’s vow is realistic. I bet everyone here has wished for perfect health, wealth and a partner. (Yes.) Yes, people always ask for more.

For the eighth vow, he vowed to help women who are undergoing sufferings and tortures and seeking to be transformed into men. Through hearing his name, paying homage and praying, their wishes will be granted and ultimately they will attain buddhahood. Does anyone wish to become a man? (Yes.) Practice hard and you will become a man in your next lifetime. (Got it.) Practice hard and you will become a rich, handsome wise man in your next lifetime. This is everyone’s dream guy. (Got it.) So, practice. You can achieve this if you want to.

For the ninth vow, he vowed to free all beings from evil thoughts and their control. “All evils” means everything that is not righteous. Evil, corrupted thoughts count too, OK? “If they are trapped in dense forests of perverse views, he will lead them back to right views and the bodhisattva ways. With help, they will soon attain unsurpassable complete enlightenment.” It means that people have evil thoughts, whether they be family-influenced, self-taught, etc. These thoughts usually deviate from the righteous path and are attached to certain beliefs in a corrupt way. The Medicine Buddha wishes to lead people back to the righteous path, cultivate their compassion and also help them to achieve enlightenment.

For the 10th vow, he vowed to save prisoners who have genuinely repented, and victims of natural disasters.

Examples of legal punishments are lashing, prison, death penalty, etc. He will bless those who are sincere and free them from sufferings with his merits and virtues. Do you understand this one? This one’s easy, right? So, one could be sentenced to jail, death, whipping, etc. Being jailed is not like going on holiday. You don’t get to complain if you’re not happy with your cell. You could be beaten by the guards. You could be thanking the Buddha on any day you’re not beaten. So, the compassionate Medicine Buddha vows that those who hear his holy name shall be liberated from these legal punishments.

The 11th vow: “May all who accumulated evil karma while obtaining food, upon hearing and repeating my name, be sated with food and drink, after which they enjoy the flavors of dharma for ultimate peace and joy.”

This is easy. People might lack food due to poverty. We’re not talking about skipping meals to lose weight, OK? All beggars look skinny. This vow shows Medicine Buddha’s awareness of poverty and food scarcity. Knowing this, we should stop being picky eaters. Who suffers when you’re a picky eater? It’s you! You’re picky because your life’s been good. To show gratitude for having food, don’t waste food and don’t be picky. The pickier you are, the unhealthier you are. So, eat a balanced diet to stay healthy. What does that mean? I’ll just skip this, you figure it out.

The 12th vow: “Those who are without clothing, tormented day and night by mosquitoes, wasps, cold and heat, upon hearing and repeating my name, shall obtain wondrous clothing just as they desire. They will also obtain all kinds of jeweled ornaments, floral garlands, perfumes, drums, music, and dancers; whatever they desire will be manifested.”

The first part is about clothing. The second part is about the insects, cold and heat. I think it refers to the discomfort of alternating between cold and heat. On the Tibetan Plateau, you could get frostbite in winter. I had that when I was little; my hands and feet would just crack. The cracks would be so itchy in springtime. That is what the harsh winter brings. In the summer, it is really uncomfortable with the sweating and the mosquitoes. The heat would keep me awake at night. It was that bad. People could just die from the heat and the harsh cold.

“The clothing” here means proper clothing for the harsh weather. We didn’t have heaters back then. Heaters need fuel which costs money too. So, the thing is, you still need a job to keep yourselves warm. Just like you need money for food. That is how you survive winter and summer. What about “wondrous clothing”? With proper, presentable clothes, you won’t embarrass yourself. As a CEO, can you give a speech in your pajamas? No way, your employees wouldn’t respect you. So, wearing proper attire to suit different occasions is important. Apart from appearance, we need to take climate changes into consideration too.

Look at the vows of the All-Compassionate Medicine Buddha. Everything is related to all humans’ basic needs. The first part is about our spiritual wellbeing. He vowed to illuminate all sentient beings and free them from darkness. The second part is about health. That includes physical and mental health. Have a clear, transparent and pure body, while evading the evil path. One who has fallen into evil shall be guided back onto the path of purity and compassion. The fourth part is about humans’ defects at birth. Our defects could be due to illness or heredity. It could be physical or mental. Medicine Buddha vows to perfect it. Finally, it’s about financial wellbeing. Our basic necessities are supported by money. So, no money means no food, no clothes, no shelter.

These 12 vows aim to solve our problems in these 5 categories. These are 5 basic needs of human beings. When he attains unsurpassable complete enlightenment, he will perfect human lives when his holy name is heard. Even if these vows are not fulfilled, we should be grateful to have such a compassionate buddha. The 12 Vows of the Medicine Buddha Shine as beams of brilliant light on the world, and expel darkness. Enable all beings to obtain physical, mental and spiritual health. Lead those who have gone astray back to the right path of cultivation. Enable all beings to be perfected in body. Help all beings become financially sufficient for daily life.