Manchester Buddhist Centre

A Buddhist ritual devoted to Medicine Buddha, who embod­ies the heal­ing aspect of Buddha nature

You are endowed with an oceanic treas­ury of qual­it­ies and merit;
By the bless­ing of your incon­ceiv­able com­pas­sion
You calm the suf­fer­ing and tor­ment of sen­tient beings.
I sup­plic­ate you, Light of Lapis Lazuli

In the centre of the Pure Land Sudarshan (mean­ing beau­ti­ful to behold) sits a palace sur­roun­ded by medi­cinal plants of every vari­ety. In the centre sits the Medicine Buddha, on a throne of talk­ing jew­els that pos­sess the power to remove all obstacles to health and happiness.

The Medicine Buddha’s body is deep-blue and lumin­ous like a rain­bow and reveals his space-like wis­dom and impar­tial love toward all beings.

He is the pat­ron deity of Tibetan medi­cine and is seen as a source of great teach­ings, bless­ings and deep healing.

More about full moon puja

In gath­er­ing together on the full moon each month, we are join­ing Buddhists across the world in a tra­di­tion that goes back to the time of the his­tor­ical Buddha.

The ritual will be led in call and response with chant­ing and verses, prac­tised to develop our spir­itual emo­tions to match our spir­itual understanding.

If you have atten­ded an intro­duct­ory Buddhism course but are new to puja, you will be made very wel­come. There is no pres­sure to join in — it is fine just to watch.

Copies of the puja will be avail­able, or you can get a Triratna Puja book, which includes an intro­duc­tion and trans­la­tions, from the Centre’s shop.

Future pujas for 2011

This year we are fea­tur­ing the female Buddha con­sorts within our puja pro­gramme. So some months there will be a full-moon puja to one of the Buddhas from the five buddha man­dala, plus another puja a week or so later to that par­tic­u­lar Buddha’s female consort.

• Saturday 16th July: Dharma Day cel­eb­ra­tion, no sep­ar­ate full– moon puja
• Saturday 13th August: Ratnasambhava
• Thursday 18th August: Mamaki — Extra puja
• Monday 12th September: Amitabha
• Thursday 22nd September: Pandaravasini — Extra puja
• Wednesday 12th October: Amoghasiddhi
• Thursday 20th October: Samaya Tara — Extra puja
• Saturday 12th November: Sangha Day cel­eb­ra­tion, no sep­ar­ate full– moon puja
• Saturday 10th December: Vairocana
• Thursday 15th December: Akasadhatesvari