Bhaiṣajyarāja ( Skt: भैषज्यराज;

Traditional Chinese A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

: 藥王;

Simplified Chinese Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one that is simpler (usually shorter), according to a well-founded ordering. Examples include: ...

: 药王;

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

: ''yào wáng'';

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: 薬王 ''Yakuō'';

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

: ''Dược Vương Bồ Tát''), or Medicine King, is a

bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, '' bodhi'' ('awakening', 'enlightenment') or Buddhahood. Often, the term specifically refers to a person who forgoes or delays personal nirvana or ''bodhi'' in ...

mentioned within the

Lotus Sutra The ''Lotus Sūtra'' (Sanskrit: ''Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram'', ''Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma'', zh, p=Fǎhuá jīng, l=Dharma Flower Sutra) is one of the most influential and venerated Buddhist Mahāyāna sūtras. ...

and the ''Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha on Visualizing the Two Bodhisattvas Bhaisajyarāja and Bhaisajyasamudgata'' ( zh, 佛說觀藥王藥上二菩薩經). In chapter 23 of the Lotus Sutra ("The Bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja"), the Buddha retells a previous life of the Medicine King Bodhisattva, who burnt his body as a supreme offering to a buddha. He is said to have been reborn over a period of numerous lifetimes healing and curing diseases, and is a representation of the healing power of the Buddha. In the ''Medicine Master Sūtra'', he is one of the eight bodhisattvas in the retinue of the buddha Bhaiṣajyaguru.

References

* * *Suzuki, Takayasu (2014)
The Compilers of the Bhaisajyarajapurvayoga-parivarta Who Did Not Know the Rigid Distinction between Stupa and Caitya in the Saddharmapundarika
Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies 62 (3), 1185-1193 * *Yün-hua, Jan (1965)
Buddhist Self-Immolation in Medieval China
History of Religions, 4 (2), 243-268

External links

SGI Library Online — The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism
Bodhisattvas Bhaiṣajyaguru Exorcism in Buddhism Lotus Sutra Health deities {{Buddhist-myth-stub