Tanaduk Garden
Pure Land Farms was named after Tanaduk, the Pure Land of the Medicine Buddha — a botanical garden filled with medicinal plants where healing of Body, Speech, and Mind occurs naturally.
Our center’s educational gardens are designed according to the geometric principles of Medicine Buddha’s Pure Land as described in Tibet’s traditional medical texts, the Gyudzhi with the aim of promoting healing, harmony, and meditative awareness for all who visit.
Dr. Nida chenagtsang explains the design, components, and significance of Medicine Buddha's Tanaduk:
"The Mandala of the Medicine Buddha is called Tanaduk (in Tib. ལྟ་ན་སྡུག།), which means town or enchanted garden. The Medicine Buddha Mandala is a graphical representation of Yuthok’s insight. A mandala is a symbol of the perfect balance of all five elements. Everything inside is equivalent to everything outside. It is formed by a center and four directions. It can express the five Wisdoms (the five positive aspects of our mind), the five Dhyani Buddhas (Five Family Buddhas representing the five qualities of the Buddha), the five Dakinis (female enlightened beings portrayed as consorts of the male buddhas), etc. Fundamentally, however, the mandala represents the five elements—space, wind, fire, water, and earth—indicated by blue, green, red, white, and yellow respectively.
In the central part of the garden, there is a palace built with the five precious substances and encrusted with various kinds of precious stones. These precious jewels have the power to cure 404 diseases arising from the dis- orders of the three humors (three principal energies present in the body). They serve to pacify the disturbances of heat and cold and the 1,080 bar- riers that interfere with good health, and meet all needs and desires. The gems bathe us in light that penetrates us with white, yellow, red, blue, and green, dissolving and inactivating any poisons, spirits, obscurations, presumptions, and fevers. The gems purify us and satisfy our cravings.
From the center of Tanaduk, we move to the southern garden, which has the strength and power of the sun. On its slopes grow plants such as pomegranate, black pepper, and long pepper. We find precious met- als and all medicinal substances that heal the disorders of the cold. It is a forest full of substances that possess the qualities of heat and sharpness and are hot, sour, and salty in taste.
The northern part of Tanaduk is imbued with lunar qualities. There we find sandalwood trees, camphor, agarwood, and all the remedies that cure the disorders of heat and fever. They taste bitter, sweet, and astrin- gent. They have cooling, soft, and gentle properties. The substances are obtained from any part of the plant from the root to the fruit, and their invigorating fragrances prevent all hot disorders like fever, infections, and inflammations from arising.
In the east grows a forest of arura trees. The arura can cure many types of disorders. Its roots heal bone pathologies; the trunk cures diseases of the body; the branches heal diseases of channels and ligaments; the bark heals skin disorders; the leaves cure the diseases of the hollow organs, namely, stom- ach, small intestine, colon, urinary bladder, and gall bladder; the flowers cure diseases of the sense organs; and finally, the fruits cure diseases of the heart and other vital organs.
In the west, the six excellent medicines grow. They are also known as the Six Good Substances: nutmeg, clove, saffron, bamboo pith, black cardamom, and green cardamom. All diseases are pacified by the five types of calcites, five varieties of mineral exudates, five kinds of medicinal water, and five types of hot springs on these shores."
- Excerpt from The Tibetan Book of Health: Sowa Rigpa, the Science of Healing, by Dr. Nida Chenagtsang
LISTEN TO BOB THURMAN PODCAST ABOUT TANADUK
Dr. Nida Chenagtsang and Robert A.F. Thurman journey though the Medicine Buddha’s garden, exploring the tools, techniques and transformative technologies of Sowa Rigpa (Traditional Tibetan Science of Healing) as found in Mandalas, Buddhist Thangka iconography, and in the The Blue Beryl paintings.
Tanaduk Gardens at Pure Land Farms Topanga
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