Tobias said: “Why should one not work as a healer? If understanding of the Buddha Dhamma is established and good deeds by healing people can be done, why not do that?”
- The part of the verse he quoted is, “Or [earn money] as a healer”. The Pali verse is, “Tikicchaṃ māmako na seveyya”. Here, mamaka means “devoted to”, and tikiccaha is the art of healing or how to practice medicine. So, a better translation is, “should not get into practicing medicine”.
- I am not familiar with the background for this sutta. But it seems that someone is asking the Buddha how should a bhikkhu live his life to “Mūlaṃ-papañca-saṅ-khāya”, or “to uproot the defilements from his mind”.
- One becomes a bhikkhu to stay away from the need to make a living and to devote most of his/her time to pursue Nibbana. In order to do that, he/she must be supported by lay people. Now the way to “pay back” those lay people is not by doing all those things listed in the sutta, but just by explaining Dhamma to them.
- And in the rest of the sutta, the Buddha describes how a bhikkhu should devote his life for that goal.
- A bhikkhu should not do ANYTHING to earn money, but also AVOID becoming healers (doctors) people or in general helping with their mundane necessities (doing astrology, helping with fertility issues, etc that are listed in the sutta). This may sound contradictory to being compassionate, but it really is not.
- The role of a bhikkhu, as far as lay people are concerned, should be to explain Dhamma and help them attain Nibbana.
- If bhikkhus start helping out lay people with their mundane necessities that will be a HUGE distraction. Furthermore, helping someone to attain Nibbana will save one from unimaginable suffering in the future.
- By helping one to recover from an illness is be just to be healthy in this life. There are doctors available for that task, and that was true even at the time of the Buddha. All other “mundane tasks” that could be helpful can be done by people in those professions.
- In fact, it is good to keep this “big picture” in mind for lay people too. Helping one learn Dhamma, and thus getting them close to Nibbana, will help remove so much FUTURE SUFFERING, compared to any temporary relief by any mundane actions.
- But that DOES NOT mean one should stay away from helping others.
- Of course, we should help people at every opportunity. Anyone who comprehends Dhamma will not shy away from helping others even in mundane matters whenever a need arises.
P.S. Thanks and much merits to Donna for sending the code to fix the formatting error numbering!
P.P.S. . There is more information on this topic at, “Abstaining from damaging plants and seeds“.