Rev. Jin神仁法師 |
Contemplative Care & Spirituality:
Going Beyond Mindfulness Practice for Being with Suffering & Grief
A Public Symposium presented by the Rinbutsuken Institute for Engaged
Buddhism
the Sophia University Institute of Grief
Care
the Tokyo Jikei Medical University
Palliative Care Center
November 4, 2017
Tokyo Jikei School of Medicine, Tokyo
sponsored by the International Buddhist
Exchange Center (IBEC)
Introduction
The practice of Buddhist based mindfulness
meditation is now sweeping the world. Entering various secular fields like
business, medicine, and even sports, mindfulness practice has helped people to
reduce work related stress, be more efficient and focused in their endeavors,
and find a pathway to inner peace. There are, however, critics of this
movement—including the Buddhists that helped spawn it—who point out that
mindfulness meditation (samadhi) in and of itself is not sufficient for true
transformation and that isolating it from the ethics (sila) and a deeper
understanding of the roots of ignorance (panna) can distort the practice in
unfortunate ways. Furthermore, as wonderfully simple as mindfulness may seem,
it is usually not a practice that is accessible for the deeply traumatized,
such as those experiencing suicidal depression, recovering from a natural
disaster or traumatic event, or dealing with the grief of a lost loved one. To
become intimate with such people, and to be able to guide them to a place of
stability from which an intensive mindfulness practice could be of help, requires
a type of caregiver or “guide” who is in fact highly developed in all three of
these facets of mindfulness, ethics, and the accompanying wisdom and resilience
it requires to engage deeply in suffering.
(To read the whole report, please click at
the following connection.)