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The Good Physician

In the Buddhist Sutras one can find many ways in which the Buddha and his teachings have been described, one of the most persistent ways has been as a good physician, deftly prescribing just the right medicine for the patient at that particular time.
In this video, John explores this quite interesting way of describing the buddha and his teachings, which contrasts with early Abidharma attempts to create a complete philosophical system out the Buddha’s teachings.
The tendency to want to grasp for an explanatory schema is similar to our tendency to grasp our desires or fantasies. In this case, seen from the point of view of the Buddha as a physician, it is like we are swallowing the prescription instead of the medicine.

Adapted from Kusen given on 6th October.