by Bob Flaws

In Shawn's blog over the weekend on making Melissa tincture, he mentioned that, in Tibetan medicine, medicines are typically "empowered" with prayers and "blessings" -- that compounding the physical ingredients is only the first step in making a finished medicine. This is why most traditionally trained Tibetan doctors are Lamas and why most traditionally made Tibetan medicines are made by Lamas (and their students) in "monasteries."

Before saying a few things about this process of empowerment and blessing, I'd like to first clarify two of the terms in the above paragraph because, in the Tibetan Buddhist context, these two terms may not mean what many Westerners think they mean. First, Lamas mean full-time religious. Such full-time religious may be either ordained, celibate monks and nuns or non-celibate ngak-pa. Literally, ngak-pa means mantra-wielders. Further, Lama literally means guru or teacher, and, in the Nyingma and Kagyud sects of Tibetan Buddhism, one earns this title by completing a very rigorous three year-three month retreat. Lama-doctors then also complete their medical training on top of their religious training.

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Such Lama-doctors typically live in "monasteries" or gompa. However, in English, monastery means specifically a dwelling place for celibate monks (with nuns living in nunneries). As we have just seen, not everyone who lives in a gompa is necessarily a celibate monk. Some gompa are made up entirely of non-celibate ngak-pas. In fact, in Tibetan, gompa means a place of meditation (gom = meditation). However, literally, meditation in Tibetan means to "accustom oneself" to some experience. So we could say that a gompa is simply a place to practice meditation. Further, most Westerners immediately think of monasteries as brick and mortar edifices, while, in Tibet, gompa may actually be camps of pitched tents which move from place to place.

Now, when it comes to blessing medicines, this is actually a process of empowering the medicines so that they will function in a certain way. To make this so, one first has to have or be able to access the power and then one has to transfer that power to the medicine. The vehicle for transferring this power is usually a mantra (words of power, a "spell") accompanied by ritual (i.e., sympathetic magic) and concentrated visualization. From the Tibetan Buddhist point of view, the combination of ritual activities, verbal mantra, and mental visualization combine the effects of the "three doors" of human activity -- body, speech, and mind, thus making the empowerment the result of the totality of potential human activity. By combining these three avenues of activity, the effect is very powerful, very concentrated, and, therefore, very effective.

However, typically, before one can empower a medicine, one first has to do the practice or sadhana associated with the mantra and its visualization enough times so that one actually does have access to some power to be transferred. This preliminary practice is best done in retreat where one can devote 24-7 over from 1-3 months or more to the practice. Often, in terms of the mantra, there is a minimum number of repetitions specified before one can/will gain accomplishment of that mantra/practice. Typically, such minimum numbers range from 1-10 million repetitions. Further, if one does actually accomplish the mantra, then there will be certain occurrences that give proof to that fact. In other words, there is a kind of yogic report card telling one (and their Teacher) just how well they have accomplished the practice. These occurrences may be certain specific "subjective" dreams or visions or they may be "objective" occurrences in the waking world. Such "objective" occurrences are nothing less than magic. They may involve changes in the weather or the appearance of physical objects. If one has accomplished a practice this way, now they can use that practice in order to do things in the world, including blessing objects such as medicines.

Such practices for empowering medicines may involve the Medicine Buddha's mantra as a generic healing mantra. However, they may also involve any of a large number of other tantric Buddhist deities depending on the specific purposes of the medicine. This is based on the idea that different deities embody different talents and abilities. So, for instance, if a medicine is meant to treat cancer, some mantra are believed to be more effective than others. As another example, for the treatment of skin diseases (which are typically believed associated with the class of spirit called nagas or lu), one should uses mantras associated with the deity Garuda.

In some cases, accomplishment practices are done as a group. A whole group of practitioners, be they lay or ordained, get together for the specific purpose of empowering medicines. These group accomplishments are called men-drup, "medicine accomplishments." The group then prays over the medicines non-stop, 24-hours per day (in rotating shifts) for at least seven days, maybe more. At the end of that time, certain signs indicate that the medicinal substances have, in fact, been empowered. This usually includes changes in the appearance of the medicine but may include other occurrences in the environment.

These kinds of practices add a whole other dimension to the manufacture of medicines. Now we are talking about truly spiritual medicine. On top of the medicinal properties of the herbal ingredients, there is also their empowerment by potent spiritual energies. In a society where both the practitioner and the patient believe in the possibility of this kind of empowerment or blessing, the medicine's therapeutic effect is further multiplied by the patient's belief.

On the one hand, it is best if the practitioner has already gone through the training to make this kind of process work. It is also best if the practice is an authentic one which has stood the test of time. On the other, if one has not already accomplished such practices, anyone can simply make a sincere wish that a medicine be blessed by whatever higher power(s) one believes in and, I believe, this will have a beneficial effect. In other words, this is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Whatever healing energy you can consciously and deliberately bring to the situation, so much the better. The two keys to this process are the sincere motivation to heal and the concentrated visualization/intention that the medicine at hand be empowered to carry out that healing.

For those who would like to experience medicines manufactured and empowered by a Tibetan Lama-doctor in Nepal, Blue Poppy now carries Agar-25, Semde, and Chulen. If you can't find these three products on our website (I'm not sure we're selling them on-line), call Customer Service at 800-487-9296 and talk to Shawn. He can tell you what each of these three formulas are for.

Good luck & best wishes.

Bob

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