DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE

By Nhat Quan

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Among the Buddhas, Medicine Buddha is the first Buddha who is most famous for his vows to save sentient beings through medical and spiritual means. In the Vietnamese Buddhist tradition, Medicine Buddha is often worshiped, and the two Universally Radiant Sunlight Bodhisattva and the Universally Radiant Moon-Light Bodhisattva are also very well known and are the most worshiped by the people.

Medicine Buddha is often sculpted in a meditative posture, holding a bowl of medicine in both hands, and the Medicine Buddha's mudra is often seen with the left hand holding a bowl of medicine and the right hand holding a branch of medicinal herbs. Tibetan Buddhism depicts the Medicine Buddha's body as blue lapis lazuli and is considered a sacred deity to worship or as an object of study, symbolizing the power of healing and relief from suffering. The passage in the Southern tradition that Buddha defines this idea is thus well known:

- Monks, I teach only two things: suffering and liberation from suffering.

And the Buddha affirms his teaching as the main method to help liberate from suffering:

- Monks, I teach only two things: suffering and liberation from suffering... Monks, the ocean, though vast, has only one taste, the taste of salt; so too this Dharma has only one taste, the taste of liberation.

The Buddha first points out the most obvious forms of suffering and then speaks of the more subtle aspects of unsatisfactoriness and the imperfect nature of existence. From the above perspective, the care of the physician, that is, the Medicine Buddha, not only includes the basic forms of liberation from physical pain and mental suffering, but also represents an extremely complex healing of the spiritual master in the role of a teacher and a preacher, aiming to bring us to Nirvana.

Evoking physical healing is also a way to help you think of spiritual healing. This way of guiding is very often used in the scriptures, and it is impossible to list them all because there would be so many, but I think just giving a small example is enough. The Buddha often used easy-to-understand instructions for ordinary and simple people living more than two thousand five hundred years ago. Therefore, every time you read the scriptures, pay attention to this to put yourself in that context. This is also a way to help you more easily grasp the Buddha's teachings through metaphors, so that you can more deeply integrate the meanings presented in His teachings. Who knows, thanks to that, you will also feel like you are next to Him, hearing His voice, preaching to you who are listening.

Discussing two points:

- Suffering, and liberation from suffering

In the Pali canon, there is a case of a person who was shot by an arrow through the questioning of Venerable Man Young children. In the afternoon, after rising from meditation, Venerable Man Young Children went to the Buddha, bowed, sat to one side, and said:

- Venerable World-Honored One, today I live alone in a quiet place, meditate and contemplate the views that the World-Honored One has put aside, eliminated, and not explained in detail:

- The world is permanent or impermanent, the world is finite or infinite, life is the body, or life is different from other bodies. Is the Tathagata extinct or is the Tathagata not extinct, or is the Tathagata both extinct and not extinct, or is the Tathagata neither extinct nor not extinct?

I am not satisfied with this. If the World-Honored One clearly confirms, then I will continue to practice with you; otherwise, I will seek out another place to practice.

At that time, the Buddha said! Hey, Man Young Children, I told you before:

- Come here! Follow me to practice the holy life, and I will tell you about the world, whether it is permanent or impermanent, whether it is finite or infinite, whether life is the body or life is different from other bodies. Is the Tathagata annihilated or is the Tathagata not annihilated, or is the Tathagata both annihilated and not annihilated, or is the Tathagata neither annihilated nor not annihilated?

The young man replied:

- World-Honored One, no.

The World-Honored One said:

- Man Young Child, did you tell me before that if the World-Honored One definitely tells you that the world is permanent… then will you follow the World-Honored One to learn the holy life?

The Man Young Child replied:

- No, World-Honored One.

The World-Honored One said:

- Man Young Child, I did not tell you before, and you did not tell me about what I just asked you. You are truly a fool. Why do you falsely misrepresent me?

At that time, the Venerable Man Young Child was reprimanded by the World-Honored One; he was sad in his heart, bowed his head in silence, had no more excuses, and was lost in thought.

After reprimanding the Man Young Child, the World-Honored One said to the Bhikkhus:

- If there is a fool who thinks like this: If the World-Honored One does not definitely tell me that the world is permanent or impermanent, the world is finite or infinite. Life is the body, or life is different from other bodies. Whether the Tathagata is extinct or the Tathagata is not extinct, or the Tathagata is both extinct and not extinct, or the Tathagata is neither extinct nor not extinct… then I will not follow the World-Honored One to practice the holy life. Those ignorant people do not know anything, and they die halfway.

Now the Buddha said:

- For example, a person is shot by a poisonous arrow; because of being shot by a poisonous arrow, he is in extreme pain. His relatives sympathize with him, wish him to gain benefits and blessings, to be at peace and happy, so they seek a doctor to remove the arrow.

But he said:

- Don't remove the arrow yet! First, tell me who shot me, what is his family name, what is his name, where was he born, tall or short, fat or thin, black or white skin, or neither black nor white skin, of the Kshatriya, Brahmin, Layman or Worker caste, is he from the East, the West, the South or the North?

- Don't remove the arrow yet! First, tell me, is the bow made of common wood, of mulberry, of poplar, or of horn?

- Don't pull out the arrow yet! First, tell me, is the bow black, white, red, or yellow? Don't pull out the arrow yet! First, tell me, is the bowstring made of sinew, of silk, of hemp, or of thorn bark? But before he knows anything, he dies halfway through.

So, whether the world is permanent or the world is impermanent, the world is finite or infinite; whether life is the body or life is different from another body; whether the Tathagata is extinct or not extinct, or whether the Tathagata is both extinct and not extinct, or whether the Tathagata is neither extinct nor not extinct? There is still birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and despair; thus, this entire mass of suffering arises.

Whether the world is permanent or the world is impermanent, the world is finite or infinite; whether life is the body or life is different from another body; Is the Tathagata annihilated or is the Tathagata not annihilated, or is the Tathagata both annihilated and not annihilated, or is the Tathagata neither annihilated nor not annihilated? I do not affirm this, because these things do not correspond to the goal, do not correspond to the Dhamma, are not the basis of the holy life, do not lead to knowledge, do not lead to enlightenment, do not lead to Nibbana. Therefore, I do not affirm these things.

What things do I affirm? This is suffering, I affirm, this is suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, the path leading to the cessation of suffering, I affirm. For what reasons do I affirm these things? Because these things correspond to the goal, correspond to the Dhamma, are the basis of the holy life, lead to knowledge, lead to enlightenment, lead to Nibbana, therefore I affirm these things.

The meaning given in the above example is very clear:

- The wound represents the senses and the mind, the pain in the body, and the painful emotions in the mind.

- The poison of the arrow is ignorance,

- The arrow is desire,

- The diagnosis of the wound is attention,

- The surgical blade is noble wisdom.

- The surgeon in this case is none other than the Tathagata himself, the Almighty, the Perfectly Enlightened One.

From that perspective, the king of all medicines is the Dharma, and the almighty Physician is the Buddha. This is also the meaning that the venerable ones often praise:

- The one who teaches me is a conqueror, knows all and sees all, a Teacher with boundless compassion, healing the whole world.

Thus, the treatment of illness is a way to express the combination of Wisdom and Compassion, and daily practice must express one's deepest spiritual aspirations. Therefore, the care and treatment of illness, which symbolizes the connection between wisdom and compassion advocated by Buddhism, must hold a central position in the entire set of rules governing the conduct of monks, as outlined in the Vinaya Pitaka. A critical section in the Sutta Pitaka has been dedicated to developing the above theme. In this section, there are many stories about the Buddha himself prescribing and treating, such as in the following case:

- One day, a monk was suffering from dysentery and was lying on the ground, with no one to take care of him, covered in excrement. The Buddha and Ananda themselves washed the monk. Then the Buddha lifted his head, and Ananda lifted his legs to help him onto the bed.

That attitude of a founder of the Dharma is still a shining example for you to follow today, even a famous Doctor sometimes has to humble himself to become a nurse, and if he wants to purify his spirit, he must start by cleaning up the filth.

In addition to the above-mentioned things, what other understandings do the concepts in the Buddhist teachings on illness bring to you today? First is the view that sickness is an inseparable part of existence and a testimony to the disintegration of all that is composite in nature. Then there is the sickness that arises from the deepest source of existence, consisting of the forms of ignorance, craving and aversion, through which Vimalakirti, a learned layman during the time of the Buddha and the protagonist of a sutra called the Vimalakirti Sutra or the Sutra of the Sayings, exclaimed while he was sick, when the Buddha's monastic disciples visited and asked:

- Why are you sick?                                                                      

He replied:

- My sickness will continue to torment me as long as ignorance and the craving of living beings still exist. My sickness has a very ancient origin, dating back to the beginnings of rebirth.

The main meaning that Vimalakirti wants to bring up is:

- Illness is the consequence of erroneous understanding from the root of ignorance..., Ignorance arises from false imaginations, illusions, desires, cravings, and attachments. In this aspect, and also the deepest aspect, illness is related to the general operation of karma in its entirety; karma always operates by interacting and resolving with each other. Karma does not act independently and individually, but also has the participation of conditions in the surrounding context through the law of cause and effect. According to this law, every action creates a feeling of consequence, which can go beyond the scope of an individual, limited in space and time, that is, in the narrow context according to your common view of the existence of an individual. Before delving deeper into this unique and profound understanding of Buddhism, it is necessary to mention some secondary causes related to the common treatment of common physical pains.

Of course, Buddhism also thinks about diseases that occur in the body, caused by all kinds of causes, such as:

- Cold, heat, wind, impure food, lack of hygiene, trauma caused by accidents, etc.

In the course of its development, Buddhism has, of course, discovered many medicines and surgical methods that have contributed to the treatment of diseases, but these are usually not fixed or permanent; that is, the mechanisms are not what you want to talk about, because these contributions are more related to the fields of Oriental medicine and beyond your ability. What is unique and more important is the comprehensive and profound views on diseases and the causes that create that condition, which we call karma.

In addition to the secondary and accidental causes that occur unluckily, there are also the primary causes that play a more fundamental role in creating all the disturbances and difficulties. The reason is that an individual always appears as a whole consisting of many forms related to areas such as:

- Body, mind, and spirit

That means each individual is a complex composition of body, mind, and spiritual demands, which can be seen as partly reflecting the concept in Buddhist teachings about the three realms:

- Desire Realm,

- Form Realm, and

- Formless Realm.

Therefore, Buddhist healing can only be considered complete when it targets all three forms of pain:

- Body,

- Mental, psychological crisis, madness, stupidity, ferocity, greed, sadness, fear, hatred, and

- Spiritual, such as praying, is a form of pain on the spiritual level, reflecting a deep fear. Therefore, the famous Master Nagarjuna once said:

- The Buddha gave different remedies to adapt to each type of mental illness of sentient beings.

At first glance, this is not a discovery for your time today, when the fields of physical and mental medicine and psychotherapy have been formed and developed. In this aspect, the above Buddhist discoveries about the comprehensive treatment of the body, mind, and spirit are not unique, except for their long history, but that very long history is also extremely important because they are the first practical experiences. It can be said that what the Buddha did was far beyond his time, if not still modern to your generation today, which includes two points:

1- The First Point:

It has been stated above that all forms of illness arise from desire, aversion, and ignorance, which are the nature of your existence, and its main cause is in the metaphysical realm. This sentence is extremely profound because:

- The pains on the body, the sufferings in the mind, and the ignorance on the spiritual level, arise from deep and very old causes that can be from very distant lives, through your wrong behavior, such as: our desire, aversion, and ignorance. That connection is very complex and very difficult to perceive, and if you want to give a cure at the most perfect level, commensurate with the above metaphysical character, you must develop a comprehensive understanding.

2- Second Point - The origin of illness goes beyond the boundaries of time; that is, the illness you are suffering from has its roots long ago, possibly from previous lives, so it cannot be based solely on events that occurred in an individual's childhood, according to the views and principles of psychoanalysts. Since psychoanalysts often trace back to events that happened in the past, possibly from childhood, of an individual to diagnose the mental condition of this person, it is not only starting from birth or by relying on modern and technical understandings related to reincarnation. Many psychoanalysts rely on some technical evidence to decipher the innate causes of some mental illnesses, and start from the original patterns. Although the fact that sickness is the result of karma you have created for yourself in past lives is something that most Westerners seem to find rather sceptical and hard to accept, it is fundamental to Buddhist teachings.

Resolving the poisons left over from past lives is what Bodhisattvas must accomplish before they can bring you Enlightenment.

In short, the Buddhist view of pain and illness above clearly shows that a Buddhist practitioner does not just obediently pray, hope... and wait for results, but must directly deal with the pain in the body and the painful emotions in the mind as well as the ignorance that dominates your consciousness right now, and in this context. That is, what arises from the binding nature of your own existence in this world. That coping includes many methods at different levels. As long as there is still a little pain in the flesh, a little sadness in the mind, a little desire in the mind, even if it is the desire to worship the Buddha, you will still be bound in the cycle of rebirth.

Indeed, the Buddha today no longer exists in the form of a human being like you, in this world for you to rely on, practice, or respect and make offerings. So you just follow His teachings through the Sutras, use the precepts as your teacher, and take care of the sick people around you. That's enough.

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