Vejjavatapada, the Buddhist medical doctor's oath, is an oath to be taken by Buddhist doctors and other professionals working with the sick. Composed by Shravasti Dhammika using text from the Pali Canon, it serves as an ethical commitment similar to that of the Hippocratic Oath, the Japanese Seventeen Rules of Enjuin and the Jewish Oath of Asaph. The original oath is in Pāḷi, a Middle Indo-Aryan language current in north-east India during the first half of the first millennium BCE, and now the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism. The oath consists of a preamble followed by seven articles, each of them derived from four passages from the Pali Canon. (1)
Contents
Original
The original Pāḷi reads:
Vuttāni hetāni Bhagavatā: "Ārogyaparamā lābhā" ti ceva: "Yo maṁ upaṭṭhaheyya so gilānaṁ upaṭṭhaheyyā" ti ca.
(A) Aham-pi: "Ārogyaparamā lābhā" ti maṭṭāmi, Tathāgataṁ upaṭṭhātukāmomhi, tasmāhaṁ mayhaṁ vejjakammena ārogyabhāvaṁ vaḍḍhemi ceva gilānaṁ hitāya dayena anukampāya upaṭṭhahāmi.
(B) Paṭibalo bhavissāmi bhesajjaṁ saṁvidhātuṁ.
(C) Sappāyāsappāyaṁ jānissāmi, asappāyaṁ apanāmessāmi; sappāyaṁ upanāmessāmi, asappāyaṁ nāpanāmessāmi.
(D) Mettacitto gilānaṁ upaṭṭhahissāmi, no āmisantaro.
(E) Ajegucchī bhavissāmi uccāraṁ vā passāvaṁ vā vantaṁ vā kheḷaṁ vā nīharituṁ.
(F) Paṭibalo bhavissāmi, gilānaṁ kālena kālaṁ, Dhammiyā kathāya sandassetuṁ samādapetuṁ samuttejetuṁ sampahaṁsetuṁ.
(G) Sace gilānaṁ sappāyabhojanehi vā sappāyabhessajjehi vā sappāyūpaṭṭhānena vā na vuṭṭhāheyya, aham-pi kho tassa gilānassa anukampāya patirūpo upaṭṭhāko bhavissāmī ti.
English Translation
Rendered in English, this is translated as:
The Lord said: "Health is the greatest gain." He also said: "He who would minister to me should minister to the sick."
I too think that health is the greatest gain and I would minister to the Buddha. Therefore:
(A) I will use my skill to restore the health of all beings with sympathy, compassion and heedfulness.
(B) I will be able to prepare medicines well.
(C) I know what medicine is suitable and what is not. I will not give the unsuitable, only the suitable.
(D) I minister to the sick with a mind of love, not out of desire for gain.
(E) I remain unmoved when I have to deal with stool, urine, vomit or spittle.
(F) From time to time I will be able to instruct, inspire, enthuse, and cheer the sick with the Teaching.
(G) Even if I cannot heal a patient with the proper diet, proper medicine and proper nursing I will still minister to him, out of compassion.