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10 October 2023
Empowerment of Medicine Buddha
Teachings on The Eleven Reversals
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Alongside the practice of Medicine Buddha, we are learning about the Eleven Reversals.  As Gen-la Khyenrab explained, this is another way of dividing up and practising Lamrim.  The special quality of this presentation is that it gives us a measure for our success in our practice which in each case is an unchangeable reversal of our previous attitudes and behaviours.  Gen-la Khyenrab is using primarily Mirror of Dharma to teach us the various meditations, but also highly recommends going deeper into each meditation using Joyful Path of Good Fortune.
Over the course of the day we explore the next six reversals, which lead us powerfully to the wish to practice purely and sincerely and to enter and follow the path to liberation.  In this way we can become a Tathagata like Medicine Buddha, one who has gone beyond suffering.
People are very much enjoying this unique presentation of Lamrim in the form of the reversals, and many people have the new card from Tharpa and are trying to memorise and internalise them. All over the festival site we can see people practicing the reversals: developing faith, taking the essence of their precious human lives and being mindful of impermanence and the dangers of lower rebirth.  As a result of these meditations and contemplations there is a profound sense of refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and this manifests in people’s peaceful, happy minds.  Everywhere you see faith in Karma, believing in the power of our intentions and actions and as a result trying to avoid negativity and practice giving and other virtuous actions.
There is also a great deal of discussion on the nature of samsara and how to use the suffering in our lives and in the world as a powerful training in renunciation.
If our possessions, our enjoyments and our environments are not samsara… what is samsara?