The Healing Buddha (1979)

The Healing Buddha (1979)

Book

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

This book presents important discourses that deal with the Healing Buddha in his various manifestations and discusses the many symbols, colors, and deities that are used as objects of meditation. The accompanying photographs of sculptures, paintings, and mandalas demonstrate the importance of art and aesthetic experience in Buddhist healing practices. Also included is a history of healing in the development of Buddhism from the earliest texts and the famous Lotus Sutra to the Buddhism of Tibet, where elaborate ritual is used in the healing of body and mind. Some of the many herbs and medicines used to treat disease in the Buddhist cultures of Asia are described in an appendix. A new preface and a new essay on the search for long life in Chinese Buddhism have been added to this revised edition. (Source: Shambhala Publications)

Citation

Birnbaum, Raoul. The Healing Buddha. Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, 1979.

Publisher Link

https://www.shambhala.com/the-healing-buddha-699.html

Texts Translated

1. Xuanzang, trans. 藥師琉璃光如來本願功徳經 Yàoshī liúlí guāng rúlái běnyuàn gōngdé jīng (Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhasya pūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistarasūtra), T450, 14: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0450.html.
2. Yijing, trans. 藥師琉璃光七佛本願功徳經 Yàoshī liúlí guāng qī fú běnyuàn gōngdé jīng (Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhasya pūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistarasūtra), T451, 14: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0451.html.
3. Kālayaśas, trans. 觀藥王藥上二菩薩經 Guān yào wáng yào shàng èr púsà jīng (Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhasya pūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistarasūtra), T1161, 20: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T1161.html.
4. Dharmagupta, trans. 藥師如來本願經 Yàoshī rúlái běnyuàn jīng (Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhasya pūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistarasūtra), T449, 14: https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT2012/T0449.html.

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Translation of

 

Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabhasya pūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistarasūtraའཕགས་པ་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་སྨན་གྱི་བླ་བཻ་ཌཱུརྱའི་འོད་ཀྱི་སྔོན་གྱི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་རྒྱས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Blessed Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabha centers on the figure commonly known as the Medicine Buddha. The text opens in Vaiśālī, where the Buddha Śākyamuni is seated with a large retinue of human and divine beings. The bodhisattva Mañjuśrī asks Śākyamuni to teach the names and previous aspirations of the buddhas, along with the benefit that buddhas can bring during future times when the Dharma has nearly disappeared. The Buddha gives a teaching on the name and previous aspirations of the Buddha Bhaiṣajyaguruvaiḍūryaprabha, and then details the benefits that arise from hearing and retaining this buddha's name. (Source: 84000)

Text

Other editions

 

The Healing Buddha (1989)

This book presents important discourses that deal with the Healing Buddha. This revised edition includes a new preface and essay on longevity in Chinese Buddhism.

Book

• Foreword
• Acknowledgements

PART ONE The Divine Healer in Buddhism: A Study of the Lapis Lazuli Radiance Buddha, Master of Healing

• I. Concepts of Healing in Early Buddhism3
• II. The Bodhisattvas of Healing24
• III. The Lapis Lazuli Radiance Buddha, Master of Healing, and His Buddha Brothers52
• IV. Images, Meditations, and Ritual Worship77

PART TWO Translations from the Chinese Buddhist Canon

• I. Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha on the Contemplation of the Two Bodhisattvas, King of Healing and Supreme Healer,
  from the Chinese version of Kālayaśas (ca. 424). T. XX, 1161115

• II. Preface to the Sūtra on the Merits of the Fundamental Vows of the Master of Healing Tathāgata, by Hui-chü (617),
  T. XIV, 449149

• III. Sūtra on the Merits of the Fundamental Vows of the Master of Healing, the Lapis Lazuli Radiance Tathāgata,
  from the Chinese version of Hsüan-tsang (650). T. XIV. 450151

• IV. Sūtra on the Merits of the Fundamental Vows of the Seven Buddhas of Lapis Lazuli Radiance, the Masters of
  Healing, from the Chinese version of I-ching (707). T. XIV, 451173

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt सूत्र  Tib མདོ།  Ch 佛经  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Sūtra'