"Bhaisajyaguru –Medicine Buddha"

Bhaisajyaguru, known as the Medicine Buddha, is revered as the supreme healer. He represents the mind's innate capacity for healing and transformation. His lapis lazuli blue energy symbolizes clarity and purity, and his practice is a powerful tool to cultivate compassion and relieve suffering on physical, mental, and spiritual levels. He uses the medicine of his teachings to cure illness and remove the root causes of suffering, namely greed, hatred, and ignorance.

Medicine Buddha practices are often seen as a complement to modern medicine, not a replacement. They provide a framework for addressing the mental and spiritual aspects of illness alongside physical treatment. Chanting his mantra is a common practice for seeking relief from illness, misfortune, and suffering, while meditation upon him purifies the mind and removes obstacles.

His mantra:

Teyata

Om

Bekanze

Bekanze

Maha Bekanze

Radza

Samudgate

Soha

This piece is painted in the traditional Tibetan Buddhist tanka manner. The ornate golden aura surrounding the Buddha represents the enlightenment attained through this very practice, and the lotus upon which he rests is the ancient symbol of spiritual purity, blossoming immaculate above the mud of attachment and desire, mirroring the soul's own journey toward awakening.

I took an artist's license in two places, born of my own path. Traditionally the Medicine Buddha is set against clouds. Here, he sits within the Amazonian jungle, the home of the ayahuasca medicine that has walked beside my own healing for many years. And in his hand, where tradition places the arura plant, the myrobalan known as the king of medicines, I have painted the ayahuasca flower instead. The traditional plant bears three buds, representing the three poisons of attachment, anger, and ego. The ayahuasca flower, as it happens, blooms in three colors, white, yellow, and pink, an echo of those same three poisons I had to traverse and cleanse in order to heal from breast cancer.