7. May all who are ill be cured upon hearing my name.

8. May all sentient beings who are restrained by their circumstances of birth find a favourable rebirth and progress towards Liberation.

9. May all who are caught in Mara's net, entangled in negative views, be caused to gain correct views and thus practice the Bodhisattva Way.

10. May all who are punished by the king be freed of their troubles.

11. May those who are desperately famished be given food. May they ultimately taste the sublime Teachings.

12. May all who are destitute of clothes obtain attractive garments and various adornments upon concentrating on my name.

According to these twelve vows, all who sincerely call on the Healing Buddha for assistance will be aided.

Even the recalling of the name of the Healing Buddha can be enough to gain his assistance. According to the tradition, Siddhartha Gautama promised that even the worst sinner who had heard of the name of the Master of Healing in a former life would be helped. He stated that those

who are stingy and avaricious will be reborn as starving ghosts or animals. Because in a former incarnation as a human being, such a being briefly heard the name ‘Master of Healing, the Lapis Lazuli Radiance Tathagata,’ in this woesome path of existence he will suddenly remember that Tathagata’s name. When he recalls the Tathagata’s name, he will disappear from that place and once again be born among humans. Obtaining knowledge of his past lives and dreading [return to] the woesome paths, he will no longer take joy in worldly pleasures ("Sutra on the Merits" 156).

The historical Buddha also promised that if any persons who had broken the precepts would call on the Master of Healing at the time of their death, they would be saved from a woesome path. Another example of the saving power of the name of the Healing Buddha was also described in the Master of Healing sutra. During a difficult childbirth, if the mother called out to the Master of Healing, her pain would be removed and the child would be born without defects (Birnbaum 67).

The Buddha of Healing is concerned with bringing all to a realization of the evilness of their past deeds and to the desire to improve their lives. Followers of Vajrayana schools of Buddhism in Tibet, seeking the assistance of the Healing Buddha, would repeat the following mantra in Sanskrit: "Namo bhagavate, bhaisagyaguru -- vaidura praha-rajaya tathagataya artate samyak -- sambuddhaya tadyatha. Om bhaisajye bhaisajye bhaisajya-sumudgate savaha." This means, "I honor the Lord Master of Healing, the King of Lapis Lazuli Radiance, Tathagata. Arhat, Perfectly Enlightened One. Saying to the healing, to the healing, to the supreme healing hail!" (Bell, on line). This mantra is usually recited while performing visualization practices. Bonnie Pasqualoni described one such ritual in her article entitled "The Medicine Buddha."

The following ritual, which illustrates the Medicine Buddha's imagery as a dynamic conduit for invoking spiritual healing forces, is typically performed by a Tibetan lama/physician. Seated in a lotus position and repeating [the] mantra, the lama/physician either actually or symbolically places medicinal pills in a begging bowl. Then he "generates an altruistic intention to become enlightened" (Donden 216). The physician meditates on the lapis lazuli image of Bhaisajya-guru. He visualizes the Medicine Buddha's right hand as forming a "gesture of meditative equipoise" and his left hand as holding a lapis lazuli begging bowl filled with amrta (healing nectar).

The lama/physician now meditates or visualizes a similar Medicine Buddha in front of himself. The physician then dissolves into "the emptiness of inherent existence" and re-emerges as Bhaisajya-guru with a complete mandala. At this point the healer believes that he has actually become the Bhaisajya-guru. The Bhaisajya-guru in front of him emits rays of light, which gather and dissolve medicinal essences into the medicine in the physician's begging bowl. The mantra is repeated endlessly. After more complex visualizations are performed, the invocation of mantra and "meditative stabilization" ultimately impart highly potentialized medicines (Pasqualoni, on line).

In this way the Healing Buddha is said to transmit his healing powers to his followers.

In petition for the recovery of the Empress, Emperor Temmu of Japan established a temple to the Master of Healing in 680. When the capital was moved to Nara, the Yakushi-Ji temple was also relocated to the capital city in 718. There are two theories concerning the relocation of the temple; the first being that the buildings and images of the Buddha were transferred to Nara, and the second, that only the name of the temple was transferred to newly constructed temple buildings. Historians prefer the latter theory to the former and thus they claim that the East Pagoda and the Yakushi Triad were from the early Tempyo period. Fires destroyed most of the original buildings, so that the East Pagoda is the only structure that was built at the same time as the foundation of the temple (Yakushi-Ji Temple, on line).

A ceremony, called Hana-e-shiki, is held in honor of Yakushi every year from March 30th to April 5th at the Yakushi-Ji temple. Hana-e-shiki is a Buddhist rite of praying to the Buddha of Medicine for the peace of the country, for good crops, and for happiness and prosperity of the entire nation. This ceremony, called Shuni-e in the olden times, was held in February every year. In 1107 Emperor Horikawa offered sacred flowers to the Healing Buddha in commemoration of his Consort's complete recovery from an illness. This incident led to the annual event of offering artificial flowers, which is "Hana-e-shiki," or the memorial service of flowers. Later this offering of flowers was added to the Shuni-e rituals, and the whole ceremony came to be popularly called "Hana-e-shiki." The frontal part of the main hall's altar, where the main object of worship is enshrined, is decorated with 10 kinds of artificial flowers: plums, peaches, Japanese roses, camellias, rabbit-ear irises, lilies, chrysanthemums, cherry blossoms, wisterias and peonies (Hana-e-shiki, on line).

The Healing Buddha plays an important role in Buddhism. Through his assistance, the sick are healed, the hungry are fed, and the greedy are made charitable. This Buddha has vowed to bring all who call on him to a better rebirth. Therefore the Master of Healing is one of the more popular Buddhas and is honored every year with a memorial service of flowers.

Bell, Gordon. (1998). Healing in Buddhism, [on line], Available: http://www.healing-touch.co.uk/pa-medb.htm

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

Pasqualoni, Bonnie. (1997). The Medicine Buddha, [on line], Available: http://www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/tibetan-art-of-healing.htm.

Robinson, Richard H. & Johnson, Willard L. The Buddhist Religion. (4th ed.). Belmonth CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1997.

"Sutra on the Merits of the Fundamental Vows of the Master of Healing, the Lapis Lazuli Radiance Tathagata," in The Healing Buddha. Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, 1979.

Yakushi Nyorai, (1998). [on line], Shingon Buddhist International Institute Homepage, available: http://www.shingon.org/deities/jusanbutsu/yakushi.html