Who is the Medicine Buddha?
In Japanese the Medicine Buddha is called Yakushi Nyorai 薬師如来. If you take the name apart, 薬 means medicine or healing herb, 師 means master, and 如来 means "the one who has thus come," in other words a buddha. Put simply, he is the master of medicine. His full name is Yakushi Rurikō Nyorai, the Medicine Buddha of lapis lazuli light, and he's usually shown seated, holding a medicine jar in his left hand.
According to tradition he made twelve vows, all aimed at freeing beings from their suffering. He has been venerated in Japan for more than a thousand years, and many temples have a hall dedicated to him. I got to know him in a very personal way. When I walked the 88 temples of Shikoku, I recited his mantra again and again in the heat and on sore feet. Later my professor at Kyoto University gave me a statue of the Medicine Buddha, and it's still with me today.
A being of light, not just a picture
Many Reiki practitioners know Yakushi Nyorai by name or from pictures. In Shingon Reiki he's more than a figure from Japanese art. He's a spirit, a being of light that has been venerated in esoteric Buddhism for centuries. In Shingon, all buddhas and bodhisattvas are seen as emanations of Dainichi Nyorai, the Great Sun Buddha, so the Medicine Buddha is part of that great mandala too.
In Shingon Reiki the connection to the Medicine Buddha is opened through an initiation. You can think of the symbols as keys that fit a lock. Without the connection you can still draw a symbol, but in my experience it stays a sign on paper. I've also always cared a great deal about knowing the characters precisely in their original form.
The three mysteries: body, speech, mind
One idea runs through all of esoteric Buddhism, the three mysteries, sanmitsu 三密 in Japanese. They are body, speech and mind, and not as theory but as something that happens all at once.
When all three come together, the force is gathered. It's a bit like a magnifying glass collecting sunlight. You don't get more light, but it's focused on one point. How this is practiced with the Medicine Buddha in detail belongs in the shared practice, not in a blog article.
Yakushi Nyorai in Shingon Reiki
In Shingon Reiki Level 1, the initiation into the power of the Medicine Buddha is part of it from the start, alongside the four initiations into the Reiki force. Afterward you can bring this particular quality through your hands when it's needed, in addition to the Reiki force. Many people say that when they place their hands, they then feel not only warmth but something like a presence. That's their experience and can't be proven, but I hear it very often.
In Shingon Reiki the Medicine Buddha is one of many spirits. Fudō Myōō, Senju Kannon, Jizō Bosatsu, Dainichi Nyorai and others each open a different side of the practice and come in at later levels.
Why the Medicine Buddha is still with me
To me, Yakushi Nyorai is a reminder that Reiki is about the whole person, body and mind, and about the kind of growth that Mikao Usui's memorial stone talks about. If you'd like to know more about the meditations around the Medicine Buddha, you'll find them in the article on Medicine Buddha meditations. Have you already come across the Medicine Buddha in a temple or in a picture?
Experience the power of the Medicine Buddha
In Shingon Reiki Level 1 you are initiated into Yakushi Nyorai. Five initiations across two days, live on Google Meet. Next dates: see events.