Programs Group Retreats Medicine Buddha Retreat

The Buddhist Path to Healing:
The Medicine Buddha Retreat

March 7 – 15, 2025

Normally people think that Medicine Buddha is for healing but it’s not only that! You can use the Medicine Buddha practice for ANY purpose, ANY problem, ANYTHING. The Medicine Buddha practice is so precious.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

About the Medicine Buddha Retreat

This retreat is the perfect opportunity to spend time developing a relationship with the Medicine Buddha deities and their qualities in ourselves.  The retreat will include teachings and meditations on:

  • awareness of suffering and its causes;
  • how to develop compassion for self and others;
  • and visualizing healing energy.

The main part of the retreat consists of the Medicine Buddha sadhana practice with mantra recitation sessions for visualizing healing, as well as positive outcomes, for ourselves, others, and the environment.

Requirements to Join the Retreat

It is not necessary to have received the initiation of Medicine Buddha in order to participate in this retreat.

It is most appropriate for people who have committed to Buddhism as their lifelong spiritual path and are ready to begin practice with a tantric deity as the focus.

One should have participated in a 10-day residential introductory course to Tibetan Buddhism, such as those offered at Tushita Meditation Centre and Kopan Monastery (or similar Lam Rim studies and practice).

Or completed both parts of Tushita’s online program (as offered from March 2020 – March 2022):

The links, above, take you to Youtube playlists of the 10th instance of these courses in March – April, 2022. Recordings of all instances are linked from Programs > Online Program.

This is a full time residential retreat. Participants are asked to commit to attend the full retreat and to abide by the course discipline as explained by the retreat leader at the beginning of the retreat.

Background to the Medicine Buddha Practice

To the Bhagavan with great compassion,
Whose name when merely heard dispels the sufferings of the lower realms.
Dispeller of disease and the three poisons,
I prostrate to the Medicine Buddha Lapis Lazuli Light

Many eons ago, seven bodhisattvas strongly prayed for the temporal and ultimate happiness of all sentient beings and that their names would become wish-fulfilling in order to heal both the mental and physical sicknesses and diseases of sentient beings.

They vowed that their prayers would be actualized during these degenerate times when the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha are in decline.  When they became enlightened, one of the ten powers of a Buddha is the power of prayer – that means that all the prayers that have been made get fulfilled.  As the Buddha’s holy speech is irrevocable, you can wholly trust in their power to quickly grant blessings to help all sentient beings in these degenerate times.

They are called the Seven Medicine Buddhas.  The main one is ‘Lapis Buddha of Medicine, King of Light’.  Buddha Skakyamuni taught the teachings on the Medicine Buddha, and according to one tradition, is also considered as one of the Medicine Buddhas, and hence the Eight Medicine Buddhas.

Benefits of the Medicine Buddha Practice

  • Our Spiritual Director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, explains: “Any living being who hears the name of Medicine Buddha never gets reborn in the lower realms – that’s the benefit of just hearing the name, the mantra of Medicine Buddha. This is due to the great compassion of the Medicine Buddhas.”
  • It is very powerful for purification – it purifies any broken vows or precepts.
  • It is very powerful for healing sickness.
  • And not only that, it is also very powerful for success.

Recommended Reading

  • Sutra of the Medicine Buddha, translated under guidance of Dharma Master Hsuan Jung, by Minh Thanh & P.D.Leigh (International Buddhist Monastic Institute, 2001)
  • The Healing Buddha, by Raoul Birnbaum (Shambhala Publications)
  • Ultimate Healing, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Wisdom Publications)
  • Teachings From the Medicine Buddha Retreat, by Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive)
  • Healing Buddha – a practice for the prevention and healing of disease, translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche (FPMT)
  • Feeling Wisdom by Rob Preece (Shambhala Publications)
  • Medicine Buddha Teachings, by Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche (Snow Lion Publications)
  • Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself by Kristen Neff

Guidelines for Behaviour

Rules of Discipline
It is only possible to stay at Tushita if you are taking one of our residential courses/retreats or are an established Buddhist practitioner doing your own formal Buddhist retreat of a minimum of 10 days duration.

Since Tushita is a semi-monastic meditation centre and not a guesthouse, we ask all of our retreatants and visitors to observe the following rules of discipline in order to maintain an atmosphere conducive to inner reflection and meditation:

  • Respect all life: do not intentionally kill any living being, even small insects.
  • Respect others’ property: do not steal or take anything not freely given.
  • Be honest and straightforward: do not lie or intentionally deceive others. This is easy when observing silence!
  • Be celibate: no sexual activity. This also includes no holding hands, hugging, massages and other physical displays of affection.
  • Be alert and mindful: avoid intoxicants such as alcohol, drugs and cigarettes (we encourage you to stop smoking while here, but if this is impossible, one can smoke at a designated place within the centre boundary).
  • Be considerate of others’ silence: keep silence in the appropriate areas and at all times during residential courses, especially in the Gompa and the dormitories. No singing or playing music and in general, maintain a quiet demeanor while on the property.
  • Be considerate of the monks and nuns: dress respectfully (please no shorts above the knee, tank-top shirts or tight and revealing clothing).
Basic Retreat Discipline
In order to keep the atmosphere conducive to inner reflection and spiritual pursuit and to minimise distractions during the course, students on our residential courses and retreats are asked to abide by our basic code of discipline listed below.

  • Please settle all outside communication before the course begins. Telling friends and family that you will be out of contact for the duration of the course and sticking by that decision significantly reduces distraction from investigation into the workings of your own mind! Likewise, please settle your travel arrangements etc before you come to Tushita!
  • You are expected to observe silence (no talking at all) from the evening of the first day until the end of the course.
  • Do not leave Tushita property for the entire course.
  • Participants must attend all sessions of the course and come to sessions on time.
  • Please put all communication / entertainment devices (laptop / mobile phones /cameras / MP3/CD players) etc into our safe at check-in.
  • Please be gentle in your behaviour and sensitive to fellow group members.
Gompa Etiquette
“Gompa” is a Tibetan word which we use for Meditation Hall. Because a Gompa is the location of study, meditation and devotional practices, Buddhists consider them to be holy places. In this tradition, the following modes of behaviour are considered respectful in a Gompa and we ask you to follow them while here:

  • Do not point your feet towards the teachers, the altar or any holy object.
  • Do not put Dharma materials – prayer books, texts, Dharma books or notebooks with Dharma in them – on the floor, or sit or step over them.
  • Do not lie down or do any yoga exercises in the Gompa at any time.
  • No idle chit-chat in the Gompa (ie. You can ask the teacher questions during class, but do not talk with other students).