Medicine for Every Sickness
Medicinal broths given to the sick carry this litany's most direct metaphor yet: the wish is not merely that living beings recover, but that they themselves become medicine — the agada elixir, the Tathāgata's own remedy, the great king of medicine, an indestructible medicine-tree able to heal every living being. Every image works the same way, pulling a poisoned arrow of sickness out to reveal a poisoned arrow of affliction underneath, until the closing wish asks for a body as indestructible as the vajra-encircling mountains themselves.
Becoming the Medicine, Not Just Receiving It
Every prior gift in this litany asked that the recipient attain some quality through what was given — food toward the food of wisdom, a throne toward a state of mind. Medicine pushes this one step further: the living being is asked not merely to receive healing but to become the medicine itself, able to heal others in turn. The passage's closing clauses then generalize sickness itself into a metaphor for every affliction that keeps a being bound, asking for a body no poisoned arrow, physical or otherwise, could ever again pierce.
「佛子！菩薩摩訶薩施湯藥時，以諸善根如是迴向，所謂：『願一切眾生於諸蓋纏，究竟得出；願一切眾生永離病身，得如來身；願一切眾生作大良藥，滅除一切不善之病；願一切眾生成阿伽陀藥，安住菩薩不退轉地；願一切眾生成如來藥，能拔一切煩惱毒箭；願一切眾生親近賢聖，滅諸煩惱，修清淨行；願一切眾生作大藥王，永除眾病，不令重發；願一切眾生作不壞藥樹，悉能救療一切眾生；願一切眾生得一切智光，出眾病箭；願一切眾生善解世間方藥之法，所有疾病為其救療。』菩薩摩訶薩施湯藥時，為令一切眾生永離眾病故，究竟安隱故，究竟清淨故，如佛無病故，拔除一切病箭故，得無盡堅固身故，得金剛圍山所不壞身故，得堅固滿足力故，得圓滿不可奪佛樂故，得一切佛自在堅固身故，以諸善根如是迴向。
"Child of the Buddha! When the bodhisattva mahāsattva gives medicinal broths, they dedicate every wholesome root in just this way: 'May every living being, from every kind of covering affliction and entanglement, ultimately emerge free; may every living being forever leave behind their diseased body and attain the Tathāgata's own body; may every living being become a great and excellent medicine, extinguishing and eliminating every unwholesome sickness; may every living being become the agada elixir, abiding within the bodhisattva's own ground of non-retrogression; may every living being become the Tathāgata's own medicine, able to pull out every poisoned arrow of every affliction; may every living being draw near to the worthy and the noble, extinguish every affliction, and cultivate pure conduct; may every living being become the great king of medicine, forever eliminating every sickness and never letting it arise again; may every living being become the indestructible medicine-tree, able to save and heal every living being entirely; may every living being attain the light of all-knowing wisdom, drawing out every arrow of sickness; may every living being skillfully understand the world's own methods of medicine, healing whatever illness there is.' When the bodhisattva mahāsattva gives medicinal broths, they dedicate every wholesome root in just this way so that every living being forever leaves behind every sickness, attains ultimate peace and security, attains ultimate purity, becomes free of illness just as the Buddha is, has every poisoned arrow of sickness drawn out entirely, attains an inexhaustible and firm body, attains a body indestructible as the vajra-encircling mountains, attains firm and fully satisfied power, attains the Buddha's own complete and unassailable bliss, and attains every buddha's own sovereign and firm body.
"May every living being skillfully understand the world's own methods of medicine, healing whatever illness there is" is easy to overlook among the more exalted images, but it grounds the entire passage: the wish is not only for transcendent remedy but for ordinary medical skill, competently applied. The sūtra does not treat worldly medicine as beneath its concern — it asks for both at once, the mundane cure and the cure beyond curing.
Part 268 Complete
This closes Part 268. Chapter 25 continues in Part 269 as the litany of specific gifts turns to vessels filled with every kind of treasure, given to buddhas, bodhisattvas, and the poor alike.