Visualization
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 tend to use those tools not to support health but to make things worse. By visualizing Medicine Buddha as a luminous, hollow form we create a kind of healing membrane, or living skin of spiritual power, joining personal, conditional health with the big vision of luminous, non-dual health beyond concept. When we use mantra we bring that visualization to life. We live health and we are better able to support health in others.
By recalling a sense of Menla in our life—which becomes easier with just a little practice each day—we invoke that health, first for the benefit of ourselves and then for others. The cost of doing this might be a few minutes each day that we could have spent otherwise. The potential benefit is having a healing life.
Healing in this way happens in one or more of three ways. First, we may find relief from our problem just in doing the practice. Second, we may find a better way to work our problem. Or third, we can clear the karma associated with our problem so that we can go beyond. As always, it is good to continue ordinary health care that suits you. That seems to be what great teachers do.
