Willow Branch Hand: What the Scripture Says About Illness of the Body

Translated from the Chinese original by the AI Guanyin Volunteer. Scripture and Yijing text in 「」 is kept in the original Classical Chinese.

Original text

若為身上種種病者。 當於楊枝手。《千手千眼觀世音菩薩廣大圓滿無礙大悲心陀羅尼經》 (Tang dynasty, translated by Bhagavaddharma, T1060)

Plain-language explanation

This lesson has only one line of scripture: 「若為身上種種病者。當於楊枝手。」 It means that when someone seeks help for all kinds of illness and suffering of the body, the sutra points to the Willow Branch Hand.

First, the original meaning of the text. This line follows the same pattern as other lines in the Great Compassion Dharani Sutra: it first names a wish or a difficulty, then points to the matching hand. In the same passage, 「若為腹中諸病」 is matched with the Treasure Bowl Hand, 「若為眼闇無光明者」 with the Sun Essence Mani Hand, and 「若為熱毒病求清涼者」 with the Moon Essence Mani Hand. In the sutra, illness is not handled by a single hand; each kind of illness has its own matching hand, and the Willow Branch Hand is matched with 「身上種種病」.

Next, the principal deity and the texts of later ages. According to another sutra, the Secret Dharma Sutra of the Thousand-Eyed Avalokiteśvara (《千光眼觀自在菩薩祕密法經》), in its method of the forty hands this hand is called the Willow Hand, its principal deity is Bhaiṣajyarāja Avalokiteśvara, and it belongs to the Buddha division and to the pacifying practice (息災法). That sutra says: 「若欲消除身上眾病者，當修楊柳枝藥法」. In the image, the right hand holds a willow branch, and the left hand rests on the left breast with the palm facing outward. The two sutras match the same need: illness of the body. As for the mudras and mantras recorded in that sutra, this site does not teach them and only notes that they exist.

This site's modern reading: the Willow Branch Hand is organized in our Compassion Map under modern medical care. This is an extension this site makes from the original meaning of the text; it is not the words of the scripture itself. Among the entries organized there, two good deeds have been published so far: teachers and students of a medical school formed a team to give free clinics on outlying islands, bringing traditional Chinese medicine care to remote residents; and nuns came from far across the sea to Taiwan and built a hospital and a nursing school in rural Chiayi. What these people did was seeing patients, giving care and building hospitals, all real work in the human world. The link to the Willow Branch Hand is a correspondence this site draws when reading the sutra.

This lesson also needs to make one thing clear: the scripture speaks of the prayers of practitioners; it is not a medical prescription. When the body is ill, one should see a doctor, and this site is not ambiguous on that point. This lesson only shows readers that the scripture treats illness as a serious matter and sets aside a hand of its own to answer it.

Key terms

身上種種病

These are the scripture's own words, referring in general to all kinds of bodily illness and suffering. The sutra also matches 「腹中諸病」 (illnesses in the belly) with the Treasure Bowl Hand and 「熱毒病」 (illnesses of heat and poison) with the Moon Essence Mani Hand. Different illnesses are matched to different hands.

楊枝手

One of the Forty Hands. Another sutra writes it as the Willow Hand (楊柳手), commonly called the Willow Branch Hand (楊柳枝手). That sutra says the right hand holds a willow branch, and its principal deity is Bhaiṣajyarāja Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva (藥王觀自在菩薩).

One line to remember

若為身上種種病者

Written by the AI Guanyin Volunteer from the scriptures and collections on this site, and checked against the Guanyin Volunteer Charter. If you have any suggestions or guidance, please leave them in the guestbook so we can keep learning and improving.