A Little Actual Research Please

Finally I have made time to read a little bit about the Medicine Buddha.  There is a lot!  I have concentrated mostly on Tibetan Buddhist teachings about him, mostly because of the few dreams I've had lately including Tibetan Monks... and just because I feel like it.

Here is one description of the Medicine Buddha:  "His radiant body is azure blue. His left hand is in the meditation mudra and holds a begging bowl full of long life nectar in his lap. As a sign that he gives protection from illness, his right hand is outstretched in the gesture of giving and holds the "great medicine", the myrobalan plant (a-ru-ra)" ~ Men-Tse-Khang

I find out that the Lapis Lazuli is associated with the Medicine Buddha which is interesting to me, I have always been really attracted to Lapis and have a lot of it around.  It is also the Archangel Michael stone.   I also find this site  which leads me to the Shenpen Osel  which is an online Tibetan Buddhist publication originating in Seattle WA and is so far my favorite online source.

Here is what I understand so far that pertains to my practice:  There is such a thing in Tibetan Buddhism called deity practice where the goal is to awaken the essence of the divine that the individual deity represents in yourself.  First you gaze upon an image of the deity and then you visualize yourself as the deity.  This sounds like what's going when I am inspired to meditate as if the Medicine Buddha is me and I am him.  According to these teachings this is a valid road to ascension and along the way it has some very nice benefits of mental and physical health.
   
Note:  this is a grand oversimplification of this lovely practice, I am just including this short explanation and the resources pointing towards more because I think it's interesting that I am apparently not the only one in the world this kind of thing happens too.

So for those of you who aren't familiar with the whole concept of ascension this is what many religions think happens after you complete the long cycle of reincarnation.  When you have learned all you have to learn then you get to go on either back to source, to another plane, or to stick around earth, just vibrating at a higher frequency helping other humans out.  To me at the very least this is a very inspiring myth.  How gentle indeed that our goal here is to learn all we can, do the very best job we can, help as many people as we can and eventually we get to either move on or stick around as a bodhisattva and be of even more help.

I find it very unlikely that I am going to ascend this lifetime but this practice I've stumbled into feels very familiar and comfortable and has captured my heart.  Writing about it is serving as a much needed creative outlet to share my inner life.

I will continue this meditation and see what happens and also continue learning the mantra... because I love the practice of saying mantras.  There is a long form and a short form of the Medicine Buddha mantra and though I am excited about learning the longer mantra, I am beginning with the short one.

Healing Meditation

Tonight I went to a pranayama/ Yoga Nidra meditation class.  I am not exactly sure what she taught tonight, but this is just a record of my experience.

During the grounding meditation we began with I again grew roots down to the Buddha of the Ruby Ray, this time the ruby color traveled up the roots right away and came fully into my root chakra.  It felt very tangibly soothing and healing.  Do to issues with oxalates I've battled some painful skin issues so the Ruby red light felt awesome...

Sometime later I am aware that I am feeling very uncomfortable and I'm having a specific embarrassing memory.  Though I can't remember what our teacher was saying I do remember being very awake and distracted by the memory.  I could intellectually understand that it was nothing I needed to be embarrassed by and knew I needed to let go of the shame that had gotten woven into my memory but it still had a hold on my emotions.  Please let me let this go, I pray.

And soon I could feel my emotional body calming down and being filled with the joyful Ruby color, as it colored my memories rather than being embarrassed I was filled with tenderness for myself.  I began looking up to my younger self for being brave enough to enjoy the edges of life.  Soon my mind left even the memory and I noticed in the center of the Ruby bubble that was now around me was a bright blue spot.

Though I hesitate to say that I am healed I ended the day with far less pain and skin irritation than I began it with.

Me and My Pretend Medicine Buddha Costume

I spent the morning listening to Medicine Buddha Mantra, the melody is in my head but the pronunciations have not sunk in as of yet.  When I sit a meditate on the Medicine Buddha I notice that whenever I actually close my eyes rather than "seeing" the Buddha in front of me he appears to be around me...  It's sort of like pretending to be the Medicine Buddha.... WWBD?

This reminds me of something that happened a while ago with my shields... er let me explain.  I have a practice of creating either a tube of light around me or a bubble of light around me as psychic shields.  If you don't know what I'm talking about I highly recommend you give it a try.  Just imagine a bubble around you, make it anything that feels good to you.  The basic meditation is usually done with white light.  Now imagine as you are in the world today no one can get to you, the grumpy guy who honks at you, the bad tempered barista, your boss.... you are protected in your bubble.  Now doesn't that feel good?  The only way they can get through your bubble is if you get upset... but if that matters no problem just excuse yourself, find a quiet space and recreate your shield.

As I was saying, after I had been practicing this for awhile I began noticing instead of me choosing what my shield would look like on any particular day, the shield would choose me.  Some days it would be different colors... some days it would appear leaden (Yikes!)  One day is was womb like in nature... complete with energetic endometrium... that was an interesting day!  And one day I woke up inside of a Buddha of light.  That lasted for several days it was like wearing an invisible Michelin Man Custum but Buddha shaped.  I had forgotten all about it until now.

This was different though more like I was looking in a mirror at the Buddha and when I closed my eyes the mirror was gone but the Buddha was still sitting where I was sitting.  I guess.  I mean Oneness being what it is...  If essentially we are all one then I am one with Buddha and the Buddha energy would we be one with me.  Or perhaps it's about embodying the energy of the Medicine Buddha.  That makes sense I do healing work.  It is sort of funny though, I mean I would never wake up thinking, today I will pretend to wear a Medicine Buddha costume... and here I am.

Later:  Outside of my delightful meditation time this morning today has been about learning to be decisive and listen to myself.  Though I honestly felt like staying home, researching the Medicine Buddha, doing yoga, and potentially laundry instead a short walk with a friend turns into a long one complete with awkward conversation that I should have put an end too once I realized she wanted to confide in me about a mutual friend.... from there I let myself easily be talked into attending an 80's prom and once I'm there I can't wait to get home.  Now let me be clear none of these things are bad things... it just wasn't the right day for it for me, on a different day all of them would be perfect.  I am resisting the urge to feel disappointed in myself and am just going to learn from it.  

Wesak Meditation 2013

I remember the ruby color of the Buddha of the Ruby Ray by finding the place in my heart that resonates with this color.  It is delicious and it seems if it is a specific kind of love with a taste and texture all it's own.  And I follow this feeling of ruby color down my spine and into the roots that grow down from my tailbone.    They grow through my house into the bluff my house is situated on, through layers of water, layers of stone, layers of clay, into a dense area that I can only describe as very very heavy... until finally I find a rosy core which opens like a flower of the heart.  It seems to me this is the heart, this is the love that holds our world together...  Imagine at the core of it all there is this Ruby love that we can access.

Eventually I begin rising back up and the ruby follows me upward, painting the roots as it goes, entering into the base of my spine and creating a glow there...  I assume it will follow me up into my heart but curiously it does not, even when I try... so I stop trying and I look at the rest of my body... hmmm I am not sure why but it seems the lights are out, nothing of interest here.  I remember this is Wesak and so I stop making it about me and my physical body and instead begin thinking of the Buddha.  But this time when he comes to mind he is blue.  I am of course curious about the change of color but am distracted from this because my hands are feeling restless.  I start slowing moving through the few mudras for my hands I know... nothing seems right until I put my left hand over my heart and my right hand out in front of me which is closer but still not quite right... then I move my left hand lower to my belly cupping it upwards, and let my right one rest on my knee.  This feels perfect.  I sit for some time with the Blue Buddha on my mind, with my hands thusly.

Suddenly I remember a Buddha in a Tibetan Travel alter I have and I jump right out of meditation to go look at it.  Ahhh yes, this is what is the Buddha on my mind and heart, The Medicine Buddha!

According to the Tibetan Buddhist Altars: A Pop-Up Gallery of Traditional Art & Wisdom, The Mantra of the Medicine Buddha helps to alleviate all afflictions:

 Tayatha Om Bhaishajye 

Bhaishajye Mahabhaishajye 

Samudgate Svaha.   

Not a New Love Affair Exactly...

No wonder I have been feeling so in love with Buddha, it's Wesak tomorrow!  Wesak is Buddha's Birthday and ascension day.  It's also considered to be a time of year that the veil between a spiritual reality and a physical reality is very thin.  It's celebrated in many different ways, and my celebration is a very small personal one, lighting a candle by the Buddha statue in my bedroom and chanting mantras for an hour or so.

Last year I had a memorably vivid Buddha dream and I am trying not to get my hopes up about this year's Wesak being as intense.  Though in case it could happen again I am trying to repeat as many things as I can from last year.

Preparations:

• I listened to all 6 discs of "A Message of Perfect Love from the Heart of Gautama Buddha" by Elizabeth Clare Prophet.  They were given to me by a friend of mine  and even for me they are a little out there..  imagine a Buddha operetta partially in sanskrit mantra, partially in English, led in a sing songy voice that rivals any Disney Princess in pure sweetness.  I listened to these CD's last year on a car trip to Michigan where I inadvertently ended up in the car with no other music or books on CD.  
• I chanted around my mala with Om Mani Padme Hum's.  This was the mantra I was saying the most often last year.
• As I mentioned yesterday I've been meditating on the Buddha of the Ruby Ray.  This isn't the same as last year but it seems perfect.
• I cleared Friday night to be able to have space to meditate on the date of the full moon.

Though I haven't been dreaming of the Buddha yet, this week has been filled with some vivid dreams.

Dreams:

•  I'm meeting with an accountant type person, he looks very much like my college friend Jordon whom I used to play D & D with.  He tells me that inside every coach is a mission that wants to be fulfilled and all I have to do is find the mission.
• A Young Tibetan Monk smiles at me.
• I meet myself in the future, she looks younger than I do now.  I asked when I had to start taking care of myself and she was adament that now was the time.

Cyberstalking the Buddha of the Ruby Ray

About a week ago I was laying next to my boyfriend and my dog while they slept remembering a teaching I heard long ago about the Buddha of the Ruby Ray.  It was 2 in the morning, so I tried to just meditate on the color ruby and drift off to sleep.  But my meditation worked a little too well and the color ruby began to take on a more tangible delicious quality.  So instead of being able to sleep I became more and more excited until finally feeling utterly infatuated with the Buddha of the Ruby Ray, I had to know more and reached for my laptop.

I came upon a few sites that talked about The Buddha of the Ruby Ray.  This one from the Theosophical Way.  And one from the Ascended Masters index which states, The Buddha of the Ruby Ray has the intense mastery of divine love. He abides in the heart of the earth, and has done so since the days of Shamballa. He holds the nucleus of the planet through divine love, until earth's people have embodied enough fiery love that they can hold that spiritual balance by their own attainment."  Thank you Buddha of the Ruby Ray what a sweet gift to give us folks here on earth!

"Man I just really love The Buddha" I thought as I went back to my Ruby Red meditation.  Do other people feel this way?  They must.  For a moment I was tempted to intellectualize and wonder, if I love the Buddha what do I love?  An energy?  A being?  A heathen God?  But I let these wonderings go to just bask in the ruby body buzz I had going on wishing I could paint a rendition of my experience to share with others.