(An image of a tantric practitioner providing a life-enhancing empowerment to a patient, from the medical paintings commissioned by Desi Sangye Gyatso, 1653-1705, to accompany his commentaries of the root-tantras of the Tibetan medical tradition)

One of the first things that someone visiting Tibetan communities tends to encounter -whether they’re a foreign visitor or a transmigrating Tibetan baby – is mantras. These set-apart forms of speech, made up of specific patterns of sacred and largely untranslatable phrases and syllables, are performed with special kinds of cadence and affect which distinguish them from other sorts of utterance.

As their Sanskrit etymology suggests, mantras are ‘instruments of the mind’; holding awareness firm they help to generate various effects and qualities in the one who recites them. While many mantras are the specific sound-embodiment of deities and Buddha-beings, others are more action-based and ‘worldly’, and exist as powerful spells that in the hands of trained experts who have properly ‘activated’ them are supposed to be able to produce all kinds of results.

Many people today are familiar with Indo-Tibetan mantras but are perhaps less familiar with where exactly mantras come from. Below I have attached my very rough and inadequate translation of the first part of a three-part Tibetan blog-post which appeared on a website about Tibetan culture in 2013 (cf here). This essay which was written by Dr Nida Chenagtsang some years ago in Lhasa (and which someone called Rinchen shared independently on the website above) essay discusses the history of the use of mantras for healing (སྔགས་བཅོས་ཐབས་ ngakchö tuhp) in Tibet. Dr Nida stresses that notwithstanding Sowa Rigpa or Tibetan medicine’s investment in strongly ’empirical’ and ‘secular’ therapeutic methods, mantra healing is nonetheless an indispensable element of Tibetan medical history and practice. His piece also acknowledges that healing mantras are not unique to Buddhism, and thus shows how magic and ritual healing are areas of Tibetan cultural life which are uniquely hybrid and non-sectarian and which perhaps span beyond Buddhist hegemonies. In general, mantra healing points to a rich and complex field of history and practice, one that comprises both elite and everyday ‘folk’ actors and knowledge systems, which intertwine in fascinating ways.

Anyway, here’s the translation:

“Mantra Healing is an Indispensable Branch of Tibetan Traditional Medicine

I prostrate, give offerings and go for refuge to Yuthok, King of Medicine!

1) The Origins and wonderful distinctive qualities of various forms of mantra healing

Mantra healing was disseminated by sage-ascetics from Dharma-countries like Shang Shung, Oddiyana, and India, right from the time of the earliest and original King of the world. At a time when there was no vibrant culture and practice of medicine or of autonomous or self-sufficient rule, some people who were afraid of the dangers of worldly or samsaric karma and the laws of kings went alone without companions to stay in the mountains and dense forests. By isolating their minds and bodies, these so-called ‘upright ones’ attained meditative absorption (samadhi), and through the power of their clairvoyance and meditative stability, received or ‘accomplished’ mantras, or ‘true words’. By relying on the magical power of repeating mantras and speaking these words of truth these sages offered beings tormented by sickness and demons extremely practical methods for treating illness and preventing infectious diseases. We can reasonably propose that such practices are the ultimate origin or ‘foundation-stone’ of medical treatment.

These sages treated sickness with either just mantras or words of truth, or in some cases treated disease by using mantras in combination with compounded herbal, whole dried unprocessed medicines and the flesh, blood, and bone and so on of animals which they discovered were appropriate (to use) through either their own effort and experience or as a result of their clairvoyant vision. These saints originated these practices and later I suspect that what happened was that gradually, practitioners who solely treated with medicines, people who only did mantric rituals and ceremonies, and people who performed medical and mantra cures in combination became distinct (categories of practitioner). Sages of the past such as Atreya and Dhanvantari who held medical lineages together with religious ones thought to start treating problems with mantras in various ways: piercing or bursting different kinds of swellings and protuberances by saying mantras, staunching bleeding caused by weapons through mantras, extracting stones and pieces of wood from sores by blowing mantras, taking out cataracts with mantra water, healing by sucking out illnesses and so on. So, saying that the traditional practices of Sowa Rigpa or Tibetan traditional medicine, derive from ancient religious traditions is hardly just an arbitrary statement.

Mantra healing rituals with various and distinct characteristics exist in many Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophical systems, and accordingly (many mantras) came from the yogis of the ancient Bon religion of Shang Shung in early Tibet. In particular, the designation ‘Bon’ has the meaning of ‘recite’ and ‘to recite mantras’, and seeing as ‘bon-pos’ are then those who do rituals involving the recitation of mantras, we can understand that mantra healing must have largely spread in Shang Shung from the time of the flourishing of the ancient Bon.When one thinks of the time of the spreading and flourishing of Bon, when (visiting masters from the West of Tibet performed such feats as) cutting iron with the feather of a bird, and of the knowledge they had of how the gods and demons help and harm, sincethe power of mantras at that time was (clearly) very great and keen, they really must have been of genuine benefit to many people who were sick. In particular, by producing auspiciousness to keep people from becoming sick who weren’t, and by serving as a system of curative knowledge for people that were, Bon healing rites provided a firm root from this time for (the development) of rituals that paired mantra and medicine.

Educated people are well aware too that in the time of Chebu Thrishing (one of the eight sons of the mythic founder of Bon), who’s said to have been master of a medical system of 21 000 glorious cures, (healing practices) were even more abundant and complete than before. The period of the practice of the traditions of Bon mantra healing lasted for a long time, after which in accordance with the advancement and proliferation of Buddhism in Tibet, mantra healing’s prospects suffered both gains and losses. In the time of Songtsen Gampo and Trisong Detsen, due to the fact that religious texts that had been spread from India and which dealt with methods for curing diseases by means of mantra rituals became unique objects of practice, study and faith for older generations of doctors – in this regard mantras for illness expanded like the ocean in summer.

Bon mantra healing gradually became latent and hidden in only a few places. From the eighth century onward mantra healing became an important part of Tibetan medicine. As a result of this, there are several instructions on mantra healing taught in the sections of the Gyüshi[i] that deal with children’s diseases, diseases caused by astrological influences, and by chthonic water spirits (lü). One example among these deals with treating sickness caused by poison.

In the context of curing poisoning, a mantra-based cure for diseases caused by poison (is given as follows – *the actual mantra/procedure is not given in the article) –

“Etc. etc. said twenty (one) times to protect oneself, one hundred or one thousand times will resolve diseases caused by poisoning by others. It will conquer poisoning by arsenic, from meat, from mixed poisons/poisons mixed in food, without exception. One can write it in gold ink in tsekmay script (i.e. a flowing style of Tibetan writing that leaves out the usual marks between syllables) and then tie it (to one’s body)”

By reciting the mantra taught in the text twenty-one times one can cure and protect oneself from being afflicted by poison, and can prevent (the possibility) of poisoning (as well). If one recites the mantra one hundred or one thousand times not only does it have the power to cure things like arsenic poisoning and poisoning from compounded poisons (i.e. the kind mixed in food etc.), but it is taught that if one writes the letters of the mantra using tsekmay script and gold ink as one recites them and then fastens this inscription to one’s body, one will be able to cure and prevent (various) kinds of poisoning. We can see that research into mantra healing and mantra healing practice in the Tibetan medical system of that time was at a very high level. The number of recitations of a mantra, the benefits that these brought, the manner in which one should fasten the charm and so on are all explained clearly and laid out with great confidence.

Mantra healing is taught in many of the translated texts from India that make up the Kanjur and Tenjur, the canonical collections of the Buddha’s teachings and learned commentaries. Scholars of Tibetan traditional medicine, and awareness-holders[i], great treasure-revealers, and masters accomplished in deity and mantra practice from the Nyingma or Ancient Translation school of Tibetan Buddhism in particular also invented and collected together new mantras (which they received) through the inconceivable[ii] magical power of the true words of their aspiration prayers[iii] and through their miraculous displays of clairvoyance. Such adepts revealed mantras through their treasure-texts, preserving and spreading teachings that existed in earlier times without deterioration. The practice of mantra healing became an unparalleled (science) and for this reason, many old and well-known texts of the Tibetan medical tradition – like the ‘Eighteen Limbs or Supplements of the Subsequent Tantra (of the Gyüshi)’, ‘The King of Curing’s Treasure-chest’, ‘Ewam’, ‘The Ten Million Pearl-Relics of Direct Esoteric Instruction’, ‘The Direct Esoteric Instruction Supplement’, ‘The Eight Ordinances of the Physician’s Direct Esoteric Instructions’, and the ‘Greater and Lesser Vase of Nectar’ – provide a number of invaluable instructions on mantra healing.

More specifically, in both the mantra-collection of Ju Mipham Rinpoche, which is known as ‘The Rain of Nectar of Mantras which Pacify a myriad Illnesses’, and the mantra-collection of the realized master Jamyang Khyentse, called ‘The Direct Instructions which are a choice-selection of diverse materials condensed into one, the String of Jewels, the Powerful King who fulfils all Desires’, mantra healing methods from earlier centuries have been collected together almost entirely without errors or adulterations. It goes without saying, and we can see as plainly as something right before our eyes, that the reading transmissions and oral instructions for these collections are wholly unbroken, that the potency of the current of their blessing-power has not at all vanished, and that these texts are a glowing, radiant jewel within the ocean of the Tibetan tradition of medicine.

Given mantra healing’s long history and its dissemination in earlier times, looking at the historical origins of specific mantras found within the Tibetan traditional medicine we can clearly see that there exist many mantras which derive from various non-Buddhist (religious) doctrines of unclear background, from Buddhism, and from the ancient Bön tradition.

*****

In the rest of his essay, Dr Nyida goes on to argue that the methods of mantra healing accord with more general medical procedures. As he explains, “when the three compounded constituents of the ordinary human body succumb by whatever causes and conditions to the three natural processes of increase, depletion, and agitation, the elemental constituents become imbalanced.” When this happens, physicians will apply the remedy of the four approaches of diet, lifestyle, medicine, and medical procedures. As Dr Nyida lays out, the various expressions and applications of mantra healing can be synchronized with these – the making (and consuming) of consecrated mantra water and butter, and edible charms (za yig) correspond to general diet-based therapies; reciting and wearing mantra-syllables and mantra-containing protective circle charms around one’s neck during the three everyday activities of life (i.e. going about, sitting and sleeping) accord with lifestyle and behavioral therapies; and reciting mantras during moxibustion, cupping, and blood-letting and so on, increases the power of these treatments, or can be used to prevent procedures from going awry and to stop bleeding, which are all ways of integrating mantras into therapeutic medical procedures.

Dr Nyida underscores the scope of mantra healing methods, and notes that mantra healing traditions even extend beyond humans to include ritual therapies for animals. He then provides a list of ten special-features of mantra-healing “which allow one to appraise oneself of the fact of mantra healing’s many and pre-eminent qualities”. These ten are (in quick summary):

1) Mantra healing is convenient and only minimally difficult
2) Mantras work quickly and pointedly
3) Mantras are emergency cures
4) They’re inexpensive
5) A single mantra possesses special capacities for a hundred illnesses
6) One can treat the basis of those illnesses which are difficult to treat using medical procedures
7) Mantras can protect against contagious diseases and being wounded by weapons
8) Mantras possess inconceivably good or ‘spiritual’ qualities (the kind that can’t be explained by current science)
9) Mantras cure illnesses solely through mantras
10) Illnesses are cured through the combination of blessed substances and medicine

Dr Nyida then goes on to criticize materialists who claim that “since mantra healing is a myth in the minds of superstitious religious people, it has no benefit.” He takes issue with the fact that “when mantra healing is even remotely efficacious” these people will insist that the effects were “nothing but a psychological or placebo cure”. The doctor makes a case for mantra healing as an efficacious, spiritual practice, which goes beyond mere psychology, and cites numerous examples of healing through mantras effected by great male and female saints in the past.

His conclusion represents an interesting compromise between recognizing mantra practice as the height of religious and ‘unimaginable’ magical accomplishment, a domain which “transcends any object of (conceptual) investigation” and approaching the subject as something more immediate and amenable to empirical investigation. He thus strikes and interesting, if still slightly uneasy balance between mantra practice as difficult-to-quantify conventional reality-transforming/transcending magic and as a more everyday domain of psycho-somatic therapy that warrants further research and scientific investigation.

.

* Dr Nyida has since published a much larger, and more comprehensive work on the history and practice of Tibetan Mantra Healing. This new and pioneering Tibetan language study on the ‘Science of Mantra Healing’ or Tibetan ritual medicine (སྔགས་བཅོས་རིག་པ་ ngak chö rigpa) is several hundred pages long and has just been published by the Beijing National Publishing House. As Dr Nyida’s brother Hungchen stated on Facebook, “This is the first introduction to and research on mantra healing and I am certain it will absolutely become the premier entry-point into the authentic practice of mantra healing.” In case anyone out there is interested in this important piece of scholarship, I’ve roughly translated the Table of Contents into English:

Foreword….1

Chapter 1: The Origins and Stages of Development of Mantra Healing….9

Chapter 2: The Links between Tibetan Medicine and Mantra Healing and their distinctive features …22

Chapter 3: The connections between the Five Elements, Three Humours and Mantra-syllables….27

Chapter 4: A general discussion about the view of the efficacy of Mantra Healing….36

Chapter 5: an analysis of the origin of letters and mantra-syllables….53

Chapter 6: The most necessary implements and ingredients in Mantra Healing…. 69

Chapter 7: About the dietary and lifestyle dos and don’ts of Mantra Healing…80

Chapter 8: About tantrika or mantrin (ngakpa or ngak-khen) education and practice….91

Chapter 9: Various small details concerning the practice of Mantra Healing…121

Chapter 10: On the diagnosis and treatment of ‘knots’ or blockages in the channels…130

Chapter 11: Discussion on sickness-mantras

Chapter 12: Discussion on preventative Mantra Healing…177

Chapter 13: Discussion about secret treatments (dpe mkhyud esoteric/’closed fist’/’medical bag’ instructions )…186

Chapter 14: On prophylactic and disease-curing charms (tsakra yantras)….191

Chapter 15: A few words on ‘edible’ mantras….219

Chapter 16: A few minor actions that can be done with the power of mantras….223

Chapter 17: Comments on the dharanis and mantras of the karmically-connected mind-oath-bound meditational deities (yidam) of the generation stage of the Vajrayana….231

Appendix I: The Greater Yuthok Nyingthik cycle and its 12 unique and distinct features…254

Appendix II: The Stainless Moon-Crystal Jewel, or an Introduction to the medical Protector Shanglön Dorje Düdul….269

Appendix III: A compilation of esoteric oral instructions on the ‘method of curing by rod/stick’….305

དཀར་ཆག

གླེང་གཞི། ་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(1)
ལེའུ་དང་པོ། སྔགས་བཅོས་ཀྱི་བྱུང་ཁུངས་དང་འཕེལ་རྒྱས་གོ་རིམ།་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(9)
ལེའུ་གཉིས་པ། བོད་སྨན་དང་སྔགས་བཅོས་བར་གྱི་འབྲེལ་བ་དང་དེའི་ཁྱད་ཆོས།་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(22)
ལེའུ་གསུམ་པ། འབྱུང་བ་ལྔ་དང་ཉེས་པ་གསུམ་སྔགས་ཡིག་དང་འབྲེལ་ཚུལ།་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(27)
ལེའུ་བཞི་པ། སྔགས་ཀྱི་ནུས་པ་ཐོན་ཚུལ་གྱི་ལྟ་བ་རགས་བཤད།་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(36)
ལེའུ་ལྔ་པ། ཡི་གེའི་འབྱུང་ཁུངས་དང་སྔགས་ཡིག་གི་མཐའ་དཔྱད།་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(53)
ལེའུ་དྲུག་པ། སྔགས་བཅོས་ལ་ཉེ་བར་མཁོ་བའི་ཡོ་བྱད་དང་རྫས་རིགས།་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(69)
ལེའུ་བདུན་པ། སྔགས་བཅོས་ཀྱི་ཟས་སྤྱོད་སྤང་བླང་སྐོར།་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(80)
ལེའུ་བརྒྱད་པ། སྔགས་པའམ་སྔགས་མཁན་གྱི་སློབ་གསོ་དང་ཉམས་ལེན་སྐོར།་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(91)
ལེའུ་དགུ་པ། སྔགས་བཅོས་ཀྱི་ལག་ལེན་ཕྲན་བུ་སྣ་ཚོགས།་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(121)
ལེའུ་བཅུ་པ། རྩ་མདུད་ཡི་གེའི་དཔྱད་བཅོས་ཀྱི་སྐོར།་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(130)
ལེའུ་བཅུ་གཅིག་པ། ནད་སྔགས་ཀྱི་སྐོར་བརྗོད་པ། ་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(159)
ལེའུ་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ། སྔགས་བཅོས་ཀྱི་སྔོན་འགོག་སྐོར་བརྗོད་པ། ་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(177)

ལེའུ་བཅུ་གསུམ་པ། དཔེ་མཁྱུད་ཀྱི་བཅོས་ཐབས་སྐོར་བརྗོད་པ། ་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(186)
ལེའུ་བཅུ་བཞི་པ། ཙཀྲའི་སྲུང་འཁོར་གྱི་སྔོན་འགོག་དང་ནད་བཅོས་སྐོར། ་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(191)
ལེའུ་བཅོ་ལྔ་པ། ཟ་ཡིག་གི་སྐོར་ཅུང་ཟད་བཤད་པ། ་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(219)
ལེའུ་བཅུ་དྲུག་པ། སྔགས་ནུས་ཀྱིས་ལས་ཕྲན་ཚེགས་བྱ་ཐབས་ཀྱི་སྐོར། ་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(223)
ལེའུ་བཅུ་བདུན་པ། རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐེག་པའི་བསྐྱེད་རིམ་ལས་འཕྲོས་པའི་ཡི་དམ་གཟུངས་སྔགས་སྐོར་བཤད་པ། ་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(231)
ཟུར་བཀོད། གཡུ་ཐོག་སྙིང་ཐིག་གི་ཆེ་བའམ་ཐུན་མིན་ཁྱད་ཆོས་བཅུ་གཉིས། ་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(254)
ཟུར་བཀོད། སྨན་གྱི་སྲུང་མ་ཞང་བློན་རྡོ་རྗེ་བདུད་འདུལ་གྱི་ངོ་སྤྲོད་དྲི་མེད་ཆུ་ཤེལ་ནོར་བུ། ་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(269)
ཟུར་བཀོད། དབྱུག་བཅོས་མན་ངག་ཐོར་བཏུས། ་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་(305)c