by Bob Flaws

This last weekend I attended a three-day teaching on Dorje Gotrab or Vajra Armor with Tulku Sang-ngak Rinpoche in Mt. Shasta, CA. I've been doing this practice for several years, and the teachings this weekend have inspired me to share some thoughts on this practice with other acupuncturists and practitioners of Chinese medicine. Vajra Armor is a popular practice done by doctors in Tibet (or at least in Old Tibet). As doctors, we are constantly exposed to sick people. Therefore, there is always the possibility of contagion or "catching" something from one of our patients. If we are at all scared by this, we may not be totally committed to the health and well-being of our patients, and that's not good. As its name implies, this practice is meant to provide its practitioners with a diamond-like suit of spiritual armor (vajra means adamantine) which is impervious to any and all contagion. Once one has accomplished this practice, one can fearlessly meet the needs of the sick under any and all situations. In addition, this practice is also highly recommended for patients themselves. By repeating this mantra and doing the associated visualization, one can heal all sorts of otherwise dangerous and recalcitrant diseases. In this day of SARS, AIDS, and H1N1, a practice like this is extremely useful and precious.

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This practice was created by Guru Padmasambhava, the tantric yogi/guru who brought Vajrayana Buddhism to Tibet in the 8th century. Due to his prophetic wisdom, Guru Rinpoche (as he's familiarly known) saw the arisal of new, epidemic diseases, such as SARS, AIDS, Ebola, and H1N1. Searching through all the esoteric volumes of ancient healing mantras, Guru Rinpoche determined that this Vajra Armor mantra is the most powerful of all. Thus it is sometimes referred to as a cure-all, as in the one mantra that cures all diseases. This mantra has been "revealed" a number of times down through the succeeding centuries by such great Tibetan Lamas as Dorje Lingpa, Ratna Lingpa, Sang-gay Lingpa, Rolpai Dorje, and Pema Le-dre-tsal. This practice is especially effective for cancer and stubborn skin diseases like psoriasis where, according to Tibetan medicine, there is a strong component of spirit provocation or attack.

Typically, one receives this practice in person from a Guru who is a lineage holder, in other words is in an unbroken lineage from Guru Rinpoche down to today. Then one does a three (or more) day retreat wherein one says the mantra continuously while not saying any other word. After that initial retreat, one then says the mantra a certain number of times per day to keep it "current." In addition, once one has accomplished the mantra, one can use it to bless a variety of materials, especially water, which can then be taken internally or applied externally to cure disease.

Such mantric healing was once a part of Chinese medicine. For instance, Sun Si-miao included various mantra in his famous Tang dynasty encyclopedia of medicine, the Qian Jin Yao Fang (Essential Formulas [Worth] a Thousand [Pieces of] Gold). (Interestingly, Guru Rinpoche was also active during the Tang dynasty.) However, due to a variety of circumstances, this kind of spiritualist/spiritist medicine eventually was eclipsed by the naturalism of Confucianism. In other blogs, I've described how the naturalist stream of Chinese medicine finally supplanted the spiritualist stream among professional medical practitioners. Nevertheless, to this day, many Chinese (especially those in overseas Chinese communities such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan) go to their local Chinese doctor to treat their physical body and then to their shaman, witch, Daoist priest, or Buddhist monk or nun to treat any spirit provocation which may be playing a part in their disease.

In the U.S. today, there are three Tibetan Lamas I know of teaching this practice. They are Lama Dawa Chodrak Rinpoche of Saraswati Bhawan in Lansing, IA, Tulku Sang-gnak Rinpoche of Ewam/Pema Khandro Ling in Santa Fe, NM, and Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche in Conway, MA. (Just Google their names to get to their respective websites.) I have received this practice from all three of these Lamas, and, although each approaches this practice sightly differently, receiving it from any one of these would be highly beneficial. In particular, Lama Dawa Chodrak Rinpoche usually offers three 3-day Vajra Armor retreats each spring and fall. At the end of each retreat, Lama Dawa tests each participant to see how much accomplishment they've developed and how many more retreats they might need to bring the practice to real, vajra-like fruition. I know of many American L.Ac.s who do this practice and find it very useful both personally and professionally. It is a cornerstone of my own daily meditations.

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