A Buddha Dharma Meditation Refuge and Resource for Persons with Disabilities and Chronic Illness
Healing Buddha Hermitage provides a space to access meditation resources and teachings that are particularly helpful to people with mental or physical challenges. Here you will find a list of Dharma books, meditation programs and other resources that can help you on a journey of awakening through illness and adversity.
You can also contact me (Robert Jangchup) for individual mentoring. Clicking on the link here will bring you to the mentoring contact form.
Our Principles
1. In this space we are encouraged to embrace our challenges to transform them into the path of awakening.
“Illness is extremely precious because with it I can gather the inner wealth of spiritual realizations that will bring full awakening” – Geshen Ben Gungyal
2. Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, in particular, the Healing Buddha is emphasized. With this approach we connect with that part of ourselves that is already healed.
3. Unconditional self-love.
“Ultimate Chulen [healing] is to love yourself 100%, that’s all you need.” - Dr. Nida
This space was created by a person with disabilities for others with disabilities
Why Hermitage for Disability?
Tibet has a long history of embracing the hermit lifestyle. Many of the great historical meditation masters were hermits for all or a significant part of their lives. Today these ancient masters are highly revered for their great realizations. Even now, most Tibetan Buddhist gurus spend part of their training in extended periods of meditation in secluded cabins, caves or hermitages.
Chronic illness and disability create social isolation. It becomes more difficult to move around and get out with a disability. Rather than fight against what was happening, it made more sense to embrace it and turn toward what was already happening. This is how the hermitage was born. It was a call and opportunity to practice meditation in a deeper more focused way, a time to study Dharma and develop a more in-depth understanding. The Hermitage is a place of refuge and spiritual practice with few distractions. In a way, disability and chronic illness create a forced hermit lifestyle, at least to a certain extent. So why not embrace it and use it to heal.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama said we must become modern Buddhists and in this respect the Hermitage is a modern hermitage. Here there is internet, cell phone coverage, e-video linked communication and we reach out to others. But we communicate in a measured way to maintain the sacredness of the Hermitage.
A big thank you to Digital Thangka for providing many of the Healing Buddha images for this website.
