Medicine Buddha

It's been awhile since i felt so compelled to write, but this morning, the energy is just here.

Last night, Joanna and I went to the Rameshori Buddhist center for evening prayers. It was so beautiful! Overall, I had a wonderful, blissful experience.

It first started a couple of weeks ago, when Joanna told me about the center here in Sandy Springs. It opened about a year ago. Last week, we were going to try to go, but the weather was so bad, and my schedule was so tight, that we decided to go another time. Last night, it worked for both of us. We showed up about 10 minutes early. It's a very small establishment - with a couple of teaching rooms and a small reception area with books, malas, and pictures for sale at a reasonable cost.

We met a women who lives in Athens, who was there when we arrived. Then, a very beautiful person, Chris, came and gave us a brief introduction to this type of Buddhism and a short synopsis of what the prayers for that night were about.

The prayers are sung, using very few notes, and repetitious stanzas. Basically, there are eight medicine Buddhas that we sang to, and there is a corresponding meditative visualization that goes with the prayers. Each one of the medicine Buddhas melts into the other and then the person reciting the prayers and doing the meditative visualization, brings down the Buddhas in through the crown chakra and into the heart chakra.

I definitely could feel my crown chakra changing as i started singing the prayers. There was a very deep sense of peace and well being at the end of the prayers. However, i did notice that my mind was "talking" at different parts of the prayer - and at one point, i was feeling unworthy. It wasn't too uncomfortable, but it wasn't all blissful - although it did end up being blissful at the end.

I have just begun my studies of Buddhism, and it was appropriate and timely that i was able to visit the center last night. I am completing the section on Buddhism for my Cherag studies and it reminded me of a book i read last summer - Maitreya's Distinguishing Phenomena and Pure Being - translated by Jim Scott under the guidance of Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche.

I hope to go back again sometime, and perhaps introduce my children to it too, since they have a children's program.