Doctors confront the suffering of birth, old age, disease, and death routinely, as their patients also must. We rightly praise skilled doctors who save lives, but those who overcome the fear of death for themselves offer far more to their patients.
THE SUTRA ON THE ORIGINAL VOWS AND MERITS OF THE MEDICINE MASTER LAPIS LAZULI LIGHT TATHAGATA [Bhaisajyaguru]
if they hear the name of the World Honored Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata, then, at the time of death, eight great bodhisattvas, namely: Bodhisattva Manjusri, Bodhisattva Guanyin, Bodhisattva Great Strength, Bodhisattva Inexhaustible Mind, Bodhisattva Precious Sandalwood Flower, Bodhisattva Medicine King, Bodhisattva Superior Medicine, and Bodhisattva Maitreya, will descend from space and show them the way.
Actually, they are around all the time. The point of this practice is to remind people to pay attention to them before their own ultimate necessity.
Medicine Buddha—HEALING Mantra—Chanting Teyata Om Bekanze Bekanze- 藥師佛 -약사불—Tinna Tinh
Our koan for today.
A young physician in Tokyo named Kusuda met a college friend who had been studying Zen. The young doctor asked him what Zen was.
"I cannot tell you what it is," the friend replied, "but one thing is certain. If you understand Zen, you will not be afraid to die."
"That's fine," said Kusuda. "I will try it. Where can I find a teacher?"
"Go to the master Nan-in," the friend told him.
…
He asked if he might receive instruction.
Nan-in said: "Zen is not a difficult task. If you are a physician, treat your patients with kindness. That is Zen."
Kusuda visited Nan-in three times. Each time Nan-in told him the same thing. "A physician should not waste time around here. Go home and take care of your patients."
It was not clear to Kusuda how such teaching could remove the fear of death. So on the forth visit he complained: "My friend told me that when one learns Zen one loses his fear of death. Each time I come here you tell me to take care of my patients. I know that much. If that is your so-called Zen, I am not going to visit you anymore."
Nan-in smiled and patted the doctor. "I have been too strict with you. Let me give you a koan."
This is skill in means. Kusuda could not take the direct way to the truth, so Nan-in gave him an alternate and actually more difficult route.
He presented Kusuda with Joshu's Mu to work over, which is the first mind-enlightening problem in the book called The Doorless Gate.
Kusuda pondered this problem of Mu for two years. At length he thought he had reached certainty of mind. But his teacher commented: "You are not in yet."
Kusuda continued in concentration for another yet and a half. His mind became placid. Problems dissolved. No-Thing became the truth. He served his patients well and, without even knowing it, he was free from concern of life and death.
Then he visited Nan-in. His old teacher just smiled.
So, whatever you do, do it with kindness.
Teach your children early and often, so that they are not perplexed later on.
These koans, or parables, were translated into English from a book called the Shaseki-shu (Collection of Stone and Sand), written late in the thirteenth century by the Japanese Zen teacher Muju (the "non-dweller"), and from anecdotes of Zen monks taken from various books published in Japan around the turn of the 20th century.