འཕགས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་བདན་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.10

intro.10

Each of these buddhas proceeds to transmit a mantra to Ākāśagarbha along with a number of ritual instructions for incanting protection cords and various medicines with the mantra to cure or ward off illness and possession. Thus, although it is classified variously as a sūtra, tantra, or dhāraṇī (or in its Chinese recensions as both a sūtra and a dhāraṇī), The Seven Buddhas is perhaps best understood as a Buddhist medical text that promotes the use of various spells (termed variously as dhāraṇīs, vidyāmantras, guhyamantras, or simply mantras) to treat a variety of wounds and illnesses. The text also promotes the use of its spells to treat disease conditions that are characterized by two of the most intractable etiologies in the South Asian medical world—disease brought on by karmic obscurations and disease brought on by interference from demonic spirits.²