I was asked today by a friend, Ushima, why didn't I build a temple and why did I not begin conducting healing ceremonies.  The answer is most simple, I am not a priest.  I am a physician.

I believe the two can be combined in one person but my karma has not dictated that they combine in this humble person.  I am 57 years old and even if I had time I do not think I could absorb the amount of learning at my advanced age that it requires to become a bonze.

And my friend Watanabe bonze fulfils that function admirably since he studied since the age of 11 and even when he was a young man made the walking pilgrimage through the country as a homeless brother.

Ushima has also brought up another important question that I had not even considered.  And of course it is of serious importance.  Ushima is Shinron.  His primary devotion is to Amida but for years he has also practiced our Medicine King.  We discussed whether it was necessary for him to give up his Shinron practice and begin the practice of the Shingon form.  Many of our people are Tendai still and their bonze and families object to their taking up Shingon when their religious history is that of Tendai.

Now I have given this much thought and since at the preliminary level of ordinary practice it does not matter, both Watanabe, Ushima, and I feel we should discuss this.  Watanabe is of the opinion that since not directly Mahavairochana is involved, that it is no matter from which school the practices are taken.  Ushma on the other hand being an accountant by profession feels that standardization is of some importance.  Neither Watanabe nor I feel this.

For instance, one of our best practitioners, who is from Panmunjom in Korea, Mr. Kim Yang Su, belongs to no Japanese school, but is a Korean Amidist of the tantric sort, the practice of his school being the one that has caused a certain amount of scandal lately in Tokyo and certainly has elicited disapproving glances from both the religious and civil authorities.

But I believe, and he has assured me, that their practices in actuality are in no way scandalous, nor are their doctrinal beliefs, but they are just misunderstood by the uninitiated and generally somewhat stupid populace, and even more stupid and rumour mongering civilian authorities who for other reasons wish an excuse to dislike the Korean people.

Now his abilities at healing are extraordinary; his traditional Korean herbal medicine and Kundhyo massage techniques have produced results of a most extraordinary nature.  Now that we are friends and a bond of mutual trust and respect has been established and is further developing between us, he has confided in me that since a young man he has used the energies of Medicine King even though without formal direction in his treatment agenda.

This has most heartened me and I believe that if this same energy of healing is exuded through him, having an origin in the training of the disciplines of his school, then perhaps most likely the origin of the Buddhist training and the methodology of manifestation and invocation is unimportant.  My friend Mariko Susuki made a pertinent point when another matter of little importance was being discussed by she and her husband at their full moon poetry reading.  That is, that there is only one Buddha Sakyamuni, no Zen Sakyamuni, no Tendai Sakyamuni, no Shinron Sakyamuni, and thus so on.

So thinking in this way I must conclude even though for most Japanese it might even be unthinkable that there is not necessarily a Sakyamuni for the Japanese, a Sakyamuni for the Koreans, a Sakyamuni for the Chinese, and even for the Europeans or Americans.  After all, the Sutras no not tell us that he was born in Kyoto, but rather in some barbarous place on the Indian subcontinent.  But of course he must have been Japanese n a previous incarnation.

Following this line of thought we must remember that Kobo Daishi did not receive his teaching on Haihe Mountain but in the barbarous realm of the pig and garlic eaters.  But surprise!  His teachers did not receive it in the Northern or Southern capital, but from adventurous, dedicated, devoted, kind travellers who, in order to work the benefit of the ignorant Han, had trekked long distances in adverse conditions from that barbarous place of mosquitos, elephants, and tigers, known as India.

I am sure many of our religious authorities, if not publicly have probably privately within the tightly closed closet of their own minds, questioned the wisdom of Sakyamuni to have been born in such a disagreeable and barbarous place as India, when he could have just as easily been born in the only civilized domain in this world system:  our beautiful civilized, sacred islands, inhabited of course, by the polite, unassuming, gentle, peace-loving, humble descendents of the Sun Goddess.

After deeply contemplating these matters, I can only conclude that since there is only one Sakyamuni, there most probably is only one Amida, only one Fudo, and unfortunately only one Medicine King.  Looking at the matter in this way, and being well aware of the truth contained in the Sutras where the Sage states that "the wheel is turned for every being according to their desires and mental structure" (Note by Lama Yeshe: Probably "needs and inclinations") and that the validity of the Vehicle of the Elders is in no way compromised or superseded by the Great Vehicle.  Nor is the Lotus Sutra, the foundation upon which Tendai is built, superseded by the Mahavairochana Tantra, nor as some of our Zen brothers would have us believe, superseded by the Heart Sutra; nor as our Honin brothers would have us believe, by the works of Honin -- nor our Nicherin Brothers by the repetition of the thought of a single mantra which I myself and many scholars have nowhere found in any of the Sutras or other teachings of Buddha, but apparently only was known to Nicherin.

Let us try then to look at the teachings with a broader view, using the simile that has always been used by the practitioners of the Bodhidharma that the Buddha, his teaching, and the Assembly are Three Precious jewels and each of these jewels has many facets.  The facets of the Buddha for instance are Sakyamuni, Amida, Medicine King, Kannon, Fudo, Mahavairochana and Manjushri and so on.  Each facet a Buddha radiating the brilliant light of his particular wisdom to benefit beings, and each facet of the Dharma jewel a different school, whether here in Japan, China, Korea, Siam, French Indo China, Ceylon, Tibet or India.  And that the Sangha jewel is faceted. Each one of us is one of those facets, shining with its own light, working for the benefit of others and our own enlightenment.

Yet each of these jewels are not sundered or broken into pieces but remain a unity and that each and every facet is totally inseparable from all the other facets, for in order for their existence to remain they must be one.

In the light of this information, gained by my meditation, I must only conclude that wherever the source or practice of Medicine King, Amida, or any other Buddha or Bodhisattva, it is valid and that the Buddha or Bodhisattva disperses and makes available his energies through the individual practicing that system, irregardless of the country in which the system is promulgated and irregardless of the school which is promulgating it.  So we may conclude that even Chinese and Koreans, the Indo-Chinese, and even those who follow the Way of the Elders can manifest healing energy from the Buddhas.

So let us set aside our outdated sectarian views as we would discard a pair of old filthy and worn tabis and look to the essence of what we are practicing in place of the outward forms which our minds are so attached to, which we jealously guard as we would our family's history and upon which we place so much misguided importance.

PAGE 41 OF DR. USUI'S NOTES: 

(Lama Yeshe's Note:  This is the only portion translated so far which mentions a Tibetan connection other than the reference to the material translated by his Indian friend.)

We know that the Tibetans hold many secrets and have preserved portions of the Dharma that have been lost to the rest of the Buddhist world.  Of course this is because in their mountain land they were able to abide in peace and escape the wars and fightings that have so plagued both China and Japan.  In this wondrous place of peace and contemplation the Tibetan people have been enabled to put aside mundane matters and cultivate only the enlightened mind.  That is why I am seeking to obtain Tibetan material, especially any material from the great medical college at Lhasa.

I believe that some of my missives may have reached the Grand Lama but I do not know this for certain.  I am simply going to have to wait until my friend in India communicates with me again.  I have certitude that secret texts exist which have not been promulgated in the rest of the world, and I am hoping to acquire some of these so that I may utilize their contents in my endeavours.

I would so love to travel to that place which most certainly must resemble Amida's Paradise of Great Bliss and drink from the incomprehensibly deep well of their spiritual wisdom in person, but age and infirmity prevents the realization of this desire at least in this lifetime.

So I must depend upon my friends and co-searchers for truth who are utilizing the trade connections of the Indian merchants through Shigatse to Lhasa.  So far, nothing has come out but I am sending to India now 100 gold British sovereigns and promising them to any merchant who can bring my friends valid medical texts written authentically in the old Sanskrit or even in Tibetan characters.  Our circle here has decided among us that we will not accept texts in Chinese as they may be adaptations or perhaps non-authentic apocryphia, or even, considering the greedy propensities of certain individuals, outright forgeries.

So for the present time we must remain patient and wait, hoping our prayers and expectations might be fulfilled by the infinite kindness and compassion of Medicine King, for I am sure our intentions and aims are beneficial.