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"If one meditates on the Medicine Buddha, one will eventually attain enlightenment, but in the meantime one will experience an increase in healing powers both for oneself and others and a decrease in physical and mental illness and suffering." —Lama Tashi Namgyal

It is in the Mahayana that the Medicine Buddha first appears, and veneration of this Lord of Healing became one of the most popular and widespread devotional groups. According to the Mahayana there are infinite Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and deities. They represent various aspects of the absolute Buddha-nature, such as compassion, wisdom, power, and emptiness. The Medicine Buddha embodies the healing aspect. He was worshipped as the dispenser of spiritual medicine that could cure spiritual, psychological, and physical disease. Among the 12 vows the Medicine Buddha is believed to have taken is that of curing just by the invocation of his name or the thought of Him. But this Buddha is not worshipped simply for healing powers alone; he is the form of the Buddha-nature that we aspire to realize in ourselves. Through the practice of meditation on the Medicine Buddha, one can generate enormous healing power for self and for the healing of others. As Mahayana Buddhism spread throughout the Far East, it took with it Ayurveda, the sacred medical system of India meaning the "science of long life," and the worship of the Medicine Buddha. The spread of the Mahayana to China, Japan, and the kingdoms of Southeast Asia had a benevolent effect on public health. Hospitals, leper wards, and dispensaries were established in the larger monasteries, and were supported by income from "compassion fields." Perhaps nothing better illustrates the union of religion and medicine in Buddhism than the fact that the greatest of the Mahayana philosopher-saints were also great physicians, who wrote important medical works. According to the Tibetans, all medical knowledge has a sacred origin and is ascribed to the wisdom of the Buddhas.

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