What Is the Medicine King Bodhisattva?

Introduction to the Medicine King Bodhisattva

The Medicine King, known in Sanskrit as Bhaiṣajya-rāja (transliterated into Chinese as Bìshìshèluórě), is a bodhisattva who dispenses remedies to relieve beings of suffering in both body and mind. He is one of the twenty-five bodhisattvas attending Amitābha Buddha, and at times takes the place of Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra as the Buddha's two chief flanking attendants. The Medicine King and the Medicine Superior were originally brothers—the elder named Star-Light (Xīngxiùguāng), the younger Lightning-Brightness (Diànguāngmíng). Because they offered alms to the community of monks and gave medicine to heal the sick, people praised them widely and came to call them the Medicine King and the Medicine Superior. The two brothers went on practicing medicine and charity until they both realized the bodhisattva path. The Buddha once told Maitreya that these two brothers would, in a future age, become buddhas named Pure Eye Tathāgata and Pure Treasury Tathāgata.

The great Sui-dynasty master Jiaxiang, commenting on the Lotus Sūtra, observed: "The Medicine King earned his name because, in a past existence, he cured the sick with medicine." He appears throughout the scriptures alongside the Medicine Superior. The Lotus Sūtra's chapter on the Deeds of King Wonderful Adornment contains accounts of their former lives, and its Dhāraṇī chapter records dhāraṇīs spoken by countless buddhas—numbering sixty-two billion times the sands of the Ganges—through which the Medicine King protects those who teach the Dharma. The well-known story of the Medicine King "burning his own body as an offering to the Buddha" comes from the Lotus Sūtra's chapter on his former deeds: in an earlier life he was the bodhisattva Seen-with-Joy-by-All-Beings. Through ascetic practice he attained the samādhi that manifests every bodily form. Filled with immense joy upon reaching this samādhi, he entered into it and offered his very body to the Buddha, prompting the buddhas of the ten directions to praise this as a true Dharma offering to the Tathāgata. In this way he demonstrated a wholehearted resolve to devote himself to all beings, allowing the spirit of dispensing medicine to unfold without limit.

Holy Day

Monday, May 26, 2014—corresponding to the twenty-eighth day of the fourth lunar month—is the holy day of the Medicine King Bodhisattva.

Historical Records

According to the Sūtra of the Visualization of the Two Bodhisattvas Medicine King and Medicine Superior, translated by the Western Regions Tripiṭaka master Kālayaśas (whose name is rendered Shíchēng in Song-era pronunciation, 畺良耶舍) of the Liu Song dynasty, the Medicine King and the Medicine Superior were originally a pair of brothers—one named Star-Light, the other Lightning-Brightness. In a past age, during the period of the semblance Dharma of the Tathāgata Lapis-Light-Shining (Liúlí Guāngzhào Rúlái), the elder brother Star-Light heard the monk Sun-Treasury (Rìzàng) speak at length on the original vows of the Mahāyāna Bodhisattvas and expound the Tathāgata's supreme, pure, and equal great wisdom. His heart was so moved with joy that it felt as though he had tasted sweet dew. He then offered a great variety of fine medicines from the snow mountains to the community of monks, gave rise to the Bodhicitta, and made the great bodhisattva vow. His younger brother Lightning-Brightness rejoiced in his elder's resolve and followed his example. The monks, having taken the fine medicines and heard the wonderful Dharma, found that the power of the medicine dispelled the imbalances of the four elements and the two inner afflictions of hatred and anger. Through the power of these remedies, the entire assembly gave rise to the mind of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, and all will become buddhas in a future age. The Buddha Śākyamuni, knowing this, also told the bodhisattva Maitreya: "This Medicine King Bodhisattva has long cultivated the pure life; his vows are already complete. He will, in a future age, become a Buddha named Pure Eye Tathāgata. The Medicine Superior, too, will become a Buddha after the Medicine King, and will be known as Pure Treasury Tathāgata." The Sūtra of the Visualization of the Two Bodhisattvas Medicine King and Medicine Superior gives a detailed account of the contemplative merits, dhāraṇīs, former-life stories, and the well-known repentance practice of chanting the names of the fifty-three buddhas of the past to extinguish transgressions.

The Lotus Sūtra, in the Kumārajīva translation of the Yao Qin dynasty, contains the chapter "The Former Deeds of the Medicine King Bodhisattva," and the True Dharma Lotus Sūtra (Zhèngfǎhuájīng), translated by Dharmarakṣa of the Western Jin, contains a corresponding "Medicine King" chapter. Both record the story of the Medicine King giving his body in immeasurable acts of generosity and of his hearing, receiving, and upholding the Lotus Sūtra. The sūtra teaches that even if one were to fill the three-thousandfold great-thousand world systems with the seven treasures and offer them to the buddhas, great bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddhas, and arhats, the merit gained would still be less than that of a single four-line verse of the Lotus Sūtra received and upheld. In the Lotus Sūtra's "Dharma Teacher" chapter, the Tathāgata addresses the Medicine King Bodhisattva at length on the merits of hearing, reciting, upholding, honoring, and expounding the Lotus Sūtra: "Medicine King, whoever recites this sūtra should know that this person adorns himself with the adornment of the Buddha, and is borne upon the shoulders of the Tathāgata. Wherever he goes, one should turn toward him in reverence, join one's palms in a single mind, and honor, revere, and praise him—offering flowers, incense, garlands, fragrant powders, scented oils, burning incense, silken canopies, banners and standards, clothing, fine foods, and music; with the choicest offerings of humans should one honor him, and one should scatter the heavenly treasures before him and present him with heaps of celestial jewels. Why? Because this person, rejoicing in teaching the Dharma, allows even those who hear him for a moment to attain final anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi."

The sixth fascicle of the Lotus Sūtra, in its chapter on the Medicine King's former deeds, tells of a past age countless gaṅgā-nadī-vālikā ago, when there was a Tathāgata named Sun-Moon-Pure-Brightness-Virtue. That Buddha's life span was forty-two thousand kalpas. At that time there was a bodhisattva called Seen-with-Joy-by-All-Beings who practiced severe asceticism, walked in meditation with intense diligence, and sought the Buddha with single-minded devotion. After twelve thousand years he attained the samādhi called "Manifestation of All Bodily Forms." He then anointed himself with fragrant oils, drank fragrant incense-water, and burned his own body for twelve hundred years as an offering to the Buddha. When his life ended, he was reborn into the household of King Pure Virtue. There he received the entrustment of the Buddha Sun-Moon-Pure-Brightness-Virtue, and after that Buddha's nirvāṇa he built eighty-four thousand reliquary stūpas. He himself burned his own arms for seventy-two thousand years as offerings to those stūpas. This Seen-with-Joy-by-All-Beings bodhisattva is the Medicine King of the present.

The seventh fascicle of the Lotus Sūtra, in the chapter on the former deeds of King Wonderful Adornment, tells of countless kalpas in the past when the Buddha Cloud-Thunder-Sound-King-Flower-Wisdom taught the Lotus Sūtra. At that time there was a king named Wonderful Adornment (Sanskrit Śubha-vyūha), whose queen was named Pure Virtue (Sanskrit Vimala-datta). They had two sons, Pure Treasury and Pure Eye. The king was deeply entrenched in heterodox views and trusted in non-Buddhist teachings. The queen and her two sons devised various skillful means to lead the king to the Buddha Cloud-Thunder-Sound-King-Flower-Wisdom, where he heard the Lotus Sūtra and all received its benefits. The two sons, Pure Treasury and Pure Eye, are the present Medicine King and Medicine Superior Bodhisattvas.

According to the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the two Bodhisattvas Medicine King and Medicine Superior attained awakening through the sense of taste: "The Dharma princes Medicine King and Medicine Superior, along with five hundred Brahmā gods then in the assembly, rose from their seats, bowed at the Buddha's feet, and addressed the Buddha: 'Since time without beginning, we have served as physicians of the world. We have tasted, in our mouths, the grasses, trees, metals, and stones of this Sahā world—altogether one hundred eight thousand kinds. We know them all thoroughly—bitter, sour, salty, bland, sweet, pungent, and the rest—together with their combined, co-arising, and transformed flavors, whether cooling or heating, poisonous or non-poisonous. We have served the Tathāgata, understood the nature of taste to be neither empty nor existent, neither identical with body and mind nor separate from them, and discerned taste and its causes. From this we awakened. The Buddha confirmed us as the two Bodhisattvas Medicine King and Medicine Superior, and today we sit in this assembly as Dharma princes. Through taste, the clarity of awareness was revealed, and we ascended to the bodhisattva ground. When the Buddha asked about perfect penetration, the realization we confirm is this: taste and its causes are supreme.'"

Iconographic Form

The Medicine King Bodhisattva is generally depicted wearing a crown of jewels, with the left hand held in a fist at the waist, and the right arm bent, the thumb, middle finger, and ring finger holding a medicine tree before the chest. His samaya form is the agada medicine, or alternatively the lotus. His mantra is "Oṃ Bhaiṣajya-rājāya svāhā," or alternatively "Namaḥ samantabuddhānāṃ. Kṣaṇa-tarāyaṃ kaṃ. Svāhā." The Sūtra of the Visualization of the Two Bodhisattvas Medicine King and Medicine Superior, in its opening description of the Medicine King's merits and appearance, says:

"The Medicine King Bodhisattva is twelve yojana in height. According to the needs of beings, he may appear eighteen zhang tall, or eight feet. His body is purple-gold, with the thirty-two marks and eighty minor characteristics, in no way different from a Buddha. On the crown of his head is a fleshly topknot with fourteen mani-jewels, each jewel having fourteen facets, and between each facet fourteen blossoms, adorning the heavenly crown. Within the crown, the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions are reflected, like a treasury of countless jewels. The tuft of hair between his brows is the color of white lapis, encircling his body seven times like a precious white canopy. From every pore of his body, light streams forth—eighty-four thousand mani-jewels, each jewel turning to the right, like a city of the seven treasures or an utpala flower. Upon each flower sits a transformation-Buddha, six zhang in body, like Śākyamuni. Each such Tathāgata has five hundred bodhisattvas as attendants. The two long arms of the Medicine King Bodhisattva shine with the colors of a hundred jewels. From the tips of his ten fingers, the seven treasures rain down. Any being who gazes upon the tips of his ten fingers will find the four hundred four kinds of illness naturally healed, and all the afflictions of body and mind will not arise. From beneath his two feet, vajra-jewels rain down, each jewel transforming into a cloud-platform. Within each cloud-platform are transformation-bodhisattvas, attended by countless heavenly beings. At that moment, the transformation-bodhisattvas expound the Four Noble Truths—suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self—and also expound the profound practices of the bodhisattvas."

A Historical Tale

The Medicine King Bodhisattva was a physician of remarkable skill, with no illness beyond his power to cure. One day, his mother's eyes began to hurt, and although she took many medicines, none brought relief. The two brothers could do nothing but worry. That day, the Medicine King had gone out to treat someone else. At home, the younger brother said to his mother: "Mother, my brother can cure a thousand illnesses and a hundred sores—there's no sickness he cannot treat. So why is it that he cannot cure your condition?" The mother replied: "You cannot blame your brother. We've tried every method we know. I just want you to carry me on your back up the mountain behind us to have a look around." "Of course," the son agreed. Mother and son made their preparations, and the son lifted his mother onto his back and set out up the mountain.

Halfway up the slope, the mother said her mouth was dry and asked for water. The son searched the hills and ridges far and wide, but not a single drop was to be found. At last he came upon a skull, and within its hollow a pool of water in which a little yellow snake swam up and down. He brought it to his mother and said: "Mother, I searched everywhere and found no water. There was only this skull with a bit of water inside, and a yellow snake bathing in it." The mother, parched as she was, said: "Never mind whether it's a withered skull or a thin skull—bring it here quickly so I can drink." She drank it down in one long draft.

The moment she swallowed it, her eyes felt clearer than before, and her heart felt lighter as well. After resting a while, the son lifted her again and continued up toward the peak. When they reached the summit, the mother said she was hungry and wanted something to eat. The son searched the mountain once more and came upon a household that had nothing much to offer. The only thing of note was a black hen, which perched day and night on the peach tree beside the house, and the owner was unwilling to sell it. Thinking of the eggs inside, the son asked the owner for them and was given a few. He counted them—nine in all. He borrowed the owner's stove and pot to boil them, and when he cracked one open he found a double-yolk inside. He ate sweet potatoes himself, and seeing how well his mother's appetite was, he gave her all nine eggs. His mother ate them all, and the illness vanished completely. Her eyes grew clearer even than those of a healthy person, and without needing to be carried, the two of them walked down the mountain on their own.

When they reached home, the younger brother said to his elder: "Brother, for shame that you, the Medicine King Bodhisattva, couldn't even cure our mother's eyes. All I did was carry her up the back mountain for a stroll, and she was healed." The elder replied: "Brother, you don't understand. Mother's eyes were not beyond my skill to cure—the trouble was that I could not find the necessary medicines." "Then tell me," said the younger brother, eager to test him, "what medicines would you need?" The elder answered: "The medical texts say that for mother's condition, one needs: water from a thousand-year-old skull, broth in which a yellow snake has bathed, a black hen that roosts on a peach tree, and nine eggs with a single double-yolk. Tell me—where on earth would you find such things?" The younger brother, hearing this, exclaimed: "Ah, brother, you truly are the Medicine King Bodhisattva!"

The Medicine King's Spirit of Dispensing Medicine

The Medicine King is the fine remedy by which all beings may draw far from sickness, poverty, adversity, and the suffering that arises from karma. The Medicine King Bodhisattva seeks to offer beings the remedies for every grave illness, so that their bodies and minds may find well-being.

Beings, by virtue of the unwholesome actions they have committed in the past, possess bodies formed from the four elements—bodies marked by pain and impermanence. As the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment says: when each of the four elements departs, where does this illusory body now stand? One sees that this body has no true substance of its own; its apparent form arises from combination, like a magical illusion. The six senses arise falsely from these four conditions. To know that this body is illusory is, however, not enough. One must take the illusory as a vehicle to cultivate the true, realizing the ever-present true mind in order to draw far from all illness and pain. This is the teaching of the bodhisattvas.

Therefore, the Medicine King Bodhisattva points out that we must not only heal the illnesses of this life, but also the accumulated illnesses of countless kalpas past. We should dispense medicine and the wonderful Dharma to the many, so that they may leave behind, once and for all, the suffering of illness and pain. This, truly, is the Medicine King Bodhisattva's spirit of dispensing medicine.