Thread by @edwardW2

Some observations about astrology in the Medicine Buddha Sutra. 藥師琉璃光如來本願功德經 The sutra's relationship with astral omens is... complicated, at least from the western perspective.
fgsitc.org/wp-content/upl…

we are told, Whenever there is "the disaster of a weird change in the stars and constellations, or the disaster of the Sun [or] moon eclipising”星宿變怪難，日月薄蝕難, the ruler of a nation can avoid disaster if they make offerings to the Medicine Buddha (amongst other things)

It is interesting to consider this in light of a passage several pages later, which concerns the Nine unfortunate types of death. At the top of the list is death through belief in hetrodox views, which is started off by being addicted to divination and magic...

which leads to animal sacrifice towards "mountain spirits" in an unsuccessful attempt to extend life. (the actual chinese is "wangliang" 魍魎, which sinologues may recognise as part of 魑魅魍魎 - "Pandemonium")

It is interesting to compare this passage with the first. Private practise of divination is something potentially spiritually dangerous, but yet there is a suggestion to petition the Buddha who is the subject of this scripture whenever there is a weird celestial omen...

On the other hand, the scripture speaks of these heterodox masters as 妄說禍福-- “vainly predict disaster and fortune" which implies that actual, accurate omen prediction can exist in principle; rather it is these evil practitioners that are the source of the problem...

as such, there is no contradiction in accepting that eclipses or other celestial omens are indeed potential causes of disaster, and that the private practise of divination is spiritually dangerous.

The text notes that the objects of the blood sacrifice are general spirits, labeled as "Wangliang" (i suspect this may be a derogatroy term). However, it is worth noting that some Tang-dynasty Daoist astrological texts translated by @JeffreyKotyk actually...

prescribe blood sacrifices to planetary gods (above from his PHD thesis archive.org/details/buddhi…).

In any case, this section furthers @JeffreyKotyk's point that all religions across Eurasia had engaged with astrology at some point, and Buddhism is no exception...

Indeed, if you are attentive, astrology-- or at least what we call astrology being taken as a given does crop up in Buddhist literature, as you can see in Dr. Kotyk's paper here: archive.org/details/Astrol…

Likewise, even in mainstream Chinese buddhism, we find that the "King of all mantras", the surangama mantra, is likewise capable of dissolving evil astrological influence.

https://twitter.com/edwardW2/status/1314092778331074560

<also relevant

https://twitter.com/edwardW2/status/1363546043321708546

>

In any case, what this sutra is probably best known for is the mantra of the medicine Buddha; which is as follows:

那謨薄伽筏帝，裨殺社窶嚕，薜琉璃缽剌婆喝囉闍也，怛陀揭多耶，阿羅訶帝，三藐三勃陀耶。怛姪阤：唵，鞞殺逝，鞞殺逝，鞞殺社，三沒揭帝娑訶

We are told, for example, that water over which the mantra has been recited 108 times has healing properties; reciting the mantra alone has a large amount of other benefits

(Note: if you want to do this, 108 recitations take about half an hour )

In addition to this, merely hearing the name of the Medicine Buddha-- 藥師琉璃光如來- Yaoshi Liuli guang rulai-- is enough to save one from any number of unfortunate rebirths and sins (including the sin of cursing ppl using poppets!)

南无药师琉璃光如来.

<one of the comments on the youtube video:>
用此咒幫小老鼠種下善根，將來溝鼠變佛陀
"[I] used this mantra to help a rat to plant a few roots of goodness; in the future this rat will become a buddha..."