Legend & Origin
The Medicine Buddha Sutra recounts that countless ages ago, while he was still a bodhisattva, the Medicine Buddha made twelve great vows, each aimed squarely at the most concrete of human sufferings: illness that clings to the body, the want of food and clothing, and unrest of body and mind. When every one of those vows was fulfilled, he became a Buddha and established the Eastern Pure Land of Lapis Lazuli — a realm without sickness and without lack. His two attendants are the Bodhisattva of Sunlight and the Bodhisattva of Moonlight, and the three together are called the 'Three Sages of the East,' a mirror to the 'Three Sages of the West' in Amitabha's Pure Land: one land receives the dying, the other looks after this present life.
When the Medicine Buddha faith reached Taiwan, its focus on the here and now — health, family, livelihood — let it blend quickly into everyday life. Today, every New Year from Fo Guang Shan to Dharma Drum Mountain, the lines to light Medicine Buddha lamps and lamps of light stretch on and on, and many temples combine the 'settling Tai Sui' rite with the lamp offering. You could say that most Taiwanese have never read the Medicine Buddha Sutra — and yet nearly every family has, in some way, received his care.