QUESTION
Hello Venerable Robina,
I hope you are well. You must be in New York? I hope you and those around you are keeping well.
I have a short question, would you please provide some advice?
In the FPMT book called A Very Short Medicine Buddha Practice it says if we are doing the practice for someone else, we visualize Medicine Buddha above their head and think that nectar flows into them and purifies them.
But my question is: if we do this for our gurus, don’t we already “try” to see the guru as pure already (I’m just talking generally, I haven’t taken any tantric initiations)?
For example, recently His Holiness the Dalai Lama had a knee operation and I believe the students were advised to do Medicine Buddha practice. But if I do that for His Holiness it feels a bit strange because I would normally visualize His Holiness as inseparable from Buddha.
I hope this makes sense.
Thank you so much for your time and care.
Kindest regards
I
ANSWER
Dear I,
Yes, your question is a good one.
When the lamas are sick, we are always advised to do prayers. The best way to think about it is that by our doing these prayers we create the cause for the lamas — in His Holiness’s case — to stay healthy, for the operation to go well, etc., so that we can continue to receive teachings from him.
From His Holiness’s side, as he’s said to be a buddha, he is in control of what goes on for him. So we as the students need to create the cause for him to stay around us, teach us, etc.
The holy beings won’t hang around if they’re not needed, in other words! But if we show we need their teachings, they’ll do everything they can to help us.
Remember, these days His Holiness repeatedly tells us he will live for another 20 years. So let’s keep practicing and creating the cause for just that!
So it’s really for us, in other words.
What do you think?
Love
Robina
QUESTION
Hi Venerable Robina,
Ah I understand it now. That makes a lot of sense. Thank you so much for your helpful guidance, forever grateful. 🙂
Kind regards
I