Overview

Medicine Buddha -  The Supreme Healer

The Medicine Buddha, or Bhaisajyaguru, is the Buddha of Healing. Meditating on the Medicine Buddha is considered to be a powerful method for increasing healing powers, allowing practitioners to alleviate their own sufferings as well as those of others. Through his boundless compassion and generosity, Bhaisajyaguru helps sincere seekers overcome physical illness and infirmity. But even more importantly, the Buddha is the skillful doctor who heals the great disease afflicting all sentient beings. By providing the Dharma as a profound antidote to the poisons of attachment, hatred and ignorance, he lifts the veil of delusion and points the way to freedom.

Gestures and Attributes

The Buddha is depicted with his right hand extended downward, palm open, with thumb and index finger touching. This posture is known as Varada Mudra, or the gesture of granting wishes. This mudra symbolizes  Bhaisajyaguru's kindness, charity and compassion toward all beings. In the same hand he lightly grasps a sprig of the Myrobalan plant, an important healing herb in Ayurvedic medicine. It is believed that this plant has the power not only to heal the body, but also to free one from the inner sicknesses of attachment, hatred and ignorance. His left hand lies in his lap with palm upward in the gesture of meditation ( Dhyana Mudra ), representing the eradication of all sickness and suffering through the realization of absolute truth. In the same hand he holds the traditional begging bowl of an ordained Buddhist monk. The bowl contains a sacred medicinal nectar that cures  all ills, hindrances and obstacles.