Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c6.s2.t2.10

v1.c6.s2.t2.10

Buddhists were deeply concerned with human suffering and illness. *Nirvāna* being considered as the state of the deliverance from all sufferings, the one who leads men to it ie Buddha was equated to a physician. Therefore, the name Bhaiṣajyaguru or藥師Yao shi, ‘The medicine-teacher’ or Bhaiṣajyarāja 藥王Yao wang, ‘The king of medicine’ was given to him. A healthy body was considered as a pre-requisite for the peaceful pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment. To assist the layman and monks alike in its achievement was the prime duty of Buddha and Bodhisattvas. After recognising “suffering” as a “noble truth” ie inevitable part of life, the subsequent truths were recognised as “cause of the suffering, the path to overcome it, and its final stopping”. These four truths correspond to diagnosis, etiology, therapeutics and recovery in medical terminology.⁴