Many ways have been offered to work with the five wisdoms in the west. All of these depended on some sense of container for the practice, such as relationship with a teacher, or sense of community. Here we use the benevolence and stability of our Menla practice as a way to hold the saga of our quest to realize these wisdoms in our ordinary daily life. Just as Menla always wants to help us, the wisdoms are always present in every situation, just waiting for us to see and take to heart. We may catch glimpse of the wisdom energies in any mind-opening situation, or we may see the wisdom as a sense of relief, joy or brightness after we untangle from some klesha attack.
We see that our kleshas (or emotional uprisings) are really a search for connecting with one or more of the five wisdoms that Menla has confirmed are already within. If not recognized as such, kleshas can seem problematic. But with the background of an ever aware, tolerant and available self-identity as Menla, we can see that kleshas are not the brave protectors they try but ultimately fail to be, but are really just flights into a fearful struggle to recognize our own true nature. No matter how intense they become, or how much damage they seem to do, there is always, lurking in their background, a wish to find the brilliant jewel of wisdom hidden at the bottom of what seems to be a threat. As Suzuki Roshi said in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, “It is wisdom which is seeking for wisdom.”
Thus, wisdoms are hidden in all of life, and we might find them in at least three ways.
just catching any moment of awareness that arises in any normal day.
waking up to the empty nature of stress. We accept our situation with full gratitude as a gift, and we let the light of that wisdom jewel meet our eye, even if the light arises long after the moment has passed.
a moment of awareness arising in any health-oriented encounter.
So, for Vajra, in the case of # 2 in the list above—klesha-resolution—first, study and contemplate the description of Vajra energy. See if it resonates with some part of your ordinary experience so that you can recognize it when it does. Then, if you find you have gotten angry, or simply felt some irritation difficult to handle, relax your grip on the war with yourself and let the Akshobya that Menla practice has confirmed is always within congratulate you on finding clarity in the midst of struggle. Rest with that wisdom in your heart and bring that congratulation out, perhaps in the form of a note that you as the Akshobhya within writes to the you that lives in the samsaric mess of ordinary life. The congratulation can also be any form that works for you—recalling a poem you like, finding a flower, a rock, or anything that reminds you that you are not as stuck as might seem to be at times. Record the transaction and repeat as needed. Meet obstacles with gratitude. Celebrate how while obstacles can be difficult, they also show a path to the clarity you seek and already have. Later we will discuss equanimity, discrimination, action and spaciousness.
We do this practice noting our small victories over doubt that wisdom is within, no matter how they occur, no matter how minor they seem, and no matter how long it takes to get an appreciation that the wisdom we are studying really is within. Then we will share our learning experience with others in our group.
This practice is about finding inspiration in ordinary life and is not intended to replace psychotherapy. We start by working with small issues. If something more intense appears, remember, Menla is happy to help you in the form of your health care provider and even let that person collect the fees.
The material on this site may seem complex, but it is really quite simple. The basic idea is that how we hold ourself is how we will live and be. Ordinarily we are caught in a kind of struggle with life. We want things to stay when they will eventually go. We want things to go but they stay. There are good times, but those are always impermanent. Because we hold on to this struggle, we feel pain, loss and morbid sadness. But if we align with a sense of health, things work as they should. We may get over our problem, or we may find a better...
In order to really address difficult issues in life, it can help to actually bring them into our practice. Therefore it can be helpful to do Medicine Buddha practice not only for people you like, but also for people you find difficult. And it can help to do this for difficult relationships, and parts of ourselves as well. We need to engage the real world.
There are three issues I would like to discuss here. First is that just doing Medicine Buddha practice puts us in touch with this wisdom. The second is that when we touch into this wisdom, doors open for healing to follow. An third is the idea that when we know space as space in being rather than being spaced out, our practice and our life can become joyful and nothing can stop our progress. To begin, when we practice Medicine Buddha, we hold a HUM in our heart. You can see a HUM syllable on our site...
Thrangu Rinpoche taught that compassion is the effort to reduce others’ sufferings, and love is the effort to support others’ happiness. While we suffer from getting what we do not want and losing what we do want, ultimately all of samsara is the arena of suffering. That is because even the most pleasant experiences are temporary. So there are two aspects of the relief of suffering. First is relieving the short term suffering of illness and problematic experiences, and econd is the relief from the overall experience of the...
Our challenges, however we encounter then, as long as they do not entirely overwhelm us, encourage us to nudge closer to the Dharma. For that we can be grateful. Medicine Buddha helps us both understand life and how to work with it better, and gives us the actual tools to do so. We can see our challenges as stepping stones to waking up. We can be grateful.
Once you have a good feeling for the practice of Medicine Buddha, as long as you honor the source and tradition of this practice and keep to the pure intent of being of service to others, you can modify how you use and do the practice to maximize the benefit to others. I do little snippets of the practice throughout the day when I hear of or encounter a situation of need. A friend of mine who is a bodyworker uses the Menla practice in his healing work. Here is the URL of his website: https://bodyworksvictoria.ca/medicine-buddha/. Look at the...
Medicine Buddha: A Transdual Self-model Meditation to Support Healthcare Practitioners J. Sacamano & D. Paproski Journal of Religion and Health volume 59, pages1597–1609(2020)Cite this article 153 Accesses Metrics details Abstract There is increasing awareness of the deleterious effect of the current work demands on a wide range of health professionals and of the benefits of contemplative understandings and practices in modern, secular settings, and healthcare environments. Here, we examine the theory and practice of a traditional...
Human life is ultimately very brief and precious. We have no way of knowing how long it will last. While our current pandemic is causing so much suffering, it is also a reminder that whatever time we are in, that is the best time to practice. And with Medicine Buddha, not only do we connect with the ultimate need to be on a path to full awakening, but by way of what is known as co-dependent origination, or the interconnection of all things, we also support whatever ordinary health we need. Please practice as best you can.
I had a powerful practice session last night that I would like to share. I was in a hospital room with an old friend who was dying. I got word this morning that he had died over night. I understand that in the past, meditators would spend time with dying people as a regular practice. I remember how Mingyur Rinpoche mentioned being with death as memento mori in his book, In Love with Life. Being with death opens one’s mind in a powerful way. Menla was there with me and I think helped me at least, and maybe my friend. It is great to read the...
The universe of health is within us all and at the same time beyond all boundaries. This big sense of health is Buddha Nature, which is our basic nature, the nature of just being awake. When we know Menla, we know this ultimate health in both a personal and a cosmic way. Just as this big health is natural to us, the tools we use to realize Menla—inspiration, mantra and visualization—are part of our normal life-experience shaping activities. We generally ignore these tools in daily life. Beyond that, we miss how, without proper training we...
