This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Introduction to Buddhist Chaplaincy with Jennifer Block and Vanessa Able. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Introduction to Buddhist Chaplaincy

The following talk was given by Jennifer Block, Vanessa Able at The Sati Center in Redwood City, CA on April 15, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Introduction to Buddhist Chaplaincy - Jennifer Block, Vanessa Able

Introduction

Vanessa Able: Welcome to this introduction to Buddhist chaplaincy. I would like to begin by introducing myself. My name is Vanessa Able, and I am the leader of the online Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program. My colleague and friend, Jennifer Block, is here as well. Jennifer is a faculty member of the in-person Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program.

Since we have a large group today, we won't have time for everyone to speak, but please jot down in the chat what brings you here and where you are joining us from. I am joining you from France, which is the miracle of technology that allows us to be together despite thousands of miles.

Reading through the chat, I see people joining for many reasons: sickness and death, curiosity, changing vocational orientation, exploring the expectations of chaplaincy, and taking practice to a deeper level. We have participants from Calgary, Iowa, New Jersey, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Oregon, Washington, Ontario, Ohio, California, and Florida. It is wonderful to meet you all.

Our schedule today will take us until noon. In the first half, Jennifer will discuss what chaplaincy is, also known as spiritual or pastoral care, and its history in the United States. Following that, I will talk about what it looks like to work as a chaplain—a day in the life—based on my experience in a hospital setting, and the steps to becoming a chaplain.

In the second half, we will zoom in on Buddhist chaplaincy specifically. We will provide an overview of the programs offered at the Sati Center¹, both online and in-person. We will then hear from our guest speaker, Ram Appalaraju, a former participant of the program, about his experience and the opportunities that opened up for him. Finally, we will have time for questions and discussion.

What is a Chaplain?

Jennifer Block: Welcome, everybody. I am happy to say that the Buddhist Chaplaincy program at the Sati Center is in its twenty-first year. I have been with it since we started. Last year, Vanessa and I launched the online training, which duplicates the in-person training.

To dive into what a chaplain is and what spiritual care entails, the word "chaplain" has an interesting etymology. One version is that it originates from the French word chappelle, meaning "cloak." There is a story about St. Martin of Tours, who cut his cloak in half to share it with a beggar. It also relates to the word "chapel." Historically, chapels were places in large fiefdoms in Europe where royals, who were often the head of the church, could have contact with the public. Priests and clergy were posted in these chapels to bridge the gap between the leadership and the people.

Today, chaplains are ministers who provide care to people in distress, particularly when those people cannot get home. This is one reason the U.S. military has chaplains; soldiers are displaced from their usual places of refuge. The chaplain represents their faith tradition to them. A classic example from pop culture is Father Mulcahy from the show M*A*S*H.

Modern chaplains serve in various institutions where people are displaced: prisons, educational settings, long-haul trucking, hospitals, and long-term care facilities. For example, trucking companies now provide spiritual care at rest stops to support drivers who face high rates of addiction and isolation. Chaplains support people who cannot get back to their usual sources of refuge due to their employment, deployment, or unexpected crises like car accidents or hospitalization.

Military chaplains are organized by faith tradition. While most have historically been Christian, the demographics are changing. There are now Muslim and Buddhist chaplains in the military, with Buddhist chaplaincy joining within the last decade.

Chaplains provide spiritual care to people in crisis. When people are in crisis, they are often stressed, disoriented, and in shock. Studies show the efficacy of spiritual care in healthcare settings: patients have shorter stays, staff communication improves, and patient satisfaction increases.

Chaplains can also function as hosts or concierges of sorts. We offer a service that is optional. In healthcare, the chaplain is unique because patients can decline our service—unlike having blood drawn or seeing a doctor. We empower patients; I am the one person they can kick out of the room. This gives them a sense of agency.

We help institutions express the view of "whole person care," which includes how people make sense of what has happened to them and how they heal amidst crisis. We offer empathy and companionship. The structure of a care relationship involves "Me" and "You" creating an "Us" within a specific context. Even if someone declines a visit, the interaction acknowledges their autonomy.

Chaplains spend a lot of time listening and expressing empathy. We ask questions like, "What brought you here today?" or "What is on your mind and heart?" We help people orient themselves and offer companionship through trauma.

I am often asked about my own faith. The general rule is not to say more than three sentences about oneself. I might say, "I am a Buddhist chaplain, and a mystical Christian." This declares a pluralistic identity, which is common in places like California. Chaplains also support the staff, helping them cope with the difficulties of caring for people in crisis or dealing with unexpected deaths.

Finally, chaplains make spiritual assessments. We determine what a person needs: interrupted time, a clergy person from their specific faith, information on a 12-step meeting, a rosary, or even just a hot cup of coffee. We also communicate with the staff about the patient's spiritual needs to ensure the best care. Confidentiality has limits; if I see something that endangers the patient or affects their medical care, I must inform the staff. We establish boundaries while offering care.

History of Chaplaincy

Jennifer Block: The modern spiritual care movement is about seventy years old. In the 1940s and 50s, some clergy members were hospitalized and realized that what they needed was spiritual care rather than psychiatric care. They discovered they could care for others on their units.

Regarding Buddhist chaplaincy specifically, it did not arise from a Buddhist tradition initially. When I trained in 1998, I didn't know any other Buddhist chaplains. In 2003, the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies hosted a day-long event about chaplaincy led by Gil Fronsdal². About a hundred people showed up. When asked who would be interested in a training, everyone raised their hands. When asked who would actually register and pay, almost everyone kept their hands up. That was the genesis of this program.

A Day in the Life of a Chaplain

Vanessa Able: I would define what a chaplain does as advocating for a person's spiritual integrity in an institutional setting. Spirituality can mean many things: meaning-making, connection, relationship to the sacred, or what strengthens us in times of crisis.

There are two levels of this work: volunteer and professional.

Volunteer Chaplaincy: Many people enter our program already doing volunteer work in hospices, prisons, or hospitals. As a volunteer, you provide a "ministry of presence." You accompany people—patients, inmates, or the unhoused. Programs like "No One Dies Alone" allow volunteers to sit with dying patients who have no family, offering presence and breathing with them in their final moments. Volunteers may also facilitate difficult conversations, prayer, rituals, or guided meditations. I facilitated a spirituality group in a San Francisco jail, offering meditation and discussion.

Professional Chaplaincy: In a hospital, professional chaplains often have a specialization, such as oncology, palliative care, or psychiatry. You start your day with a list of referrals from staff or requests from patients and families. You may also "round" on units, popping your head in to offer services.

We work closely with the multidisciplinary team—nurses, social workers, doctors—and attend their meetings to discern who needs care. We respond to distress calls, deaths, and code blues. We help with paperwork for deaths, assist with Advance Care Directives, provide prayer materials, and support disgruntled family members. We also contribute to patient charting, integrating spiritual care into the medical record.

Chaplains are often on-call overnight or on weekends, covering the whole hospital for emergencies. This can involve heartbreaking work, such as emergency baptisms for dying infants or supporting families in the ER.

Steps to Becoming a Chaplain:

1. Practice: Have a solid personal spiritual practice.
2. Volunteer: Gain experience in the field.
3. Foundational Training: Programs like the Sati Center's provide an overview and basic skills.
4. CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education):³ This is the professional training required for certification. It is usually done in hospitals, either as a full-time one-year residency (with a stipend) or part-time units.
5. Board Certification: This requires a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) or equivalent, ordination or endorsement from your spiritual community, 2,000 hours of work experience post-CPE, and a competency process involving essays and interviews.

It is important to note that full certification is not always necessary to get paid work; often, four units of CPE are sufficient for employment in hospices or private organizations.

What is Buddhist Chaplaincy?

Jennifer Block: Buddhist spiritual care is like a pair of glasses with a name tag that says "Liberation." We are heading towards liberation, awakening, or Buddha-nature.

Practically, it involves connection—towards oneself and others. It expresses compassion and empathy. Empathy is caring about someone's suffering; compassion is taking action in response to it.

Buddhist chaplaincy involves Buddhist ethics, specifically the restraint from harm. Unlike Roman Catholic medical ethics, which have developed detailed directives regarding medical technology (hastening death vs. prolonging life), Buddhism does not yet have a unified set of medical ethics. We rely on concepts of what is skillful or unskillful rather than strict "right or wrong" regarding salvation.

A characteristic of Buddhist care is the pace and the use of silence. We are comfortable with not knowing. We might ask a question and hold the silence that follows, or sit in silence with someone. The pace is medium to slow.

We use rituals such as chanting, bowing, and Metta⁴ (loving-kindness) practice. We may wear garb like a Rakusu⁵ if we are from the Zen⁶ tradition. We cultivate "not knowing," which allows us to join people in the ambiguity of a crisis—waiting for test results or making impossible decisions. We help clarify the crossroads people are at without imposing decisions.

We hold the perspective of the Four Noble Truths—that suffering is part of existence. However, we must be skillful; telling someone "you are suffering because you were born" can be dismissive. It takes confidence to "not know" and not rush to fix things.

Finally, it involves identity. Our students come from various traditions—Theravada⁷, Zen, Pure Land⁸—and we learn from these denominational differences within the Dharma.

Program Overview

Vanessa Able: Our program is a foundational training, often described by Gil Fronsdal as a "pyramid scheme of joy." It is a one-year commitment.

Curriculum: We cover foundational skills: deep listening, prayer, ritual, guided meditation, working with grief and crisis. We use the framework of the Ten Paramis⁹ (Perfections) as themes for each month. We utilize an "Action-Reflection" model of learning. You engage in service work and bring those experiences back to the group to reflect on them in the context of your Dharma practice.

Structure:

• Workshops: The in-person cohort meets monthly on a Friday. The online cohort meets twice a month on Friday mornings.
• Service Work: 100 hours of volunteer service over the year (approx. 10 hours/month).
• Small Groups & Buddies: You meet monthly with a small group and a buddy for peer support.
• Mentor Interviews: Every two months, you meet with a faculty member.
• Assignments: Reading (~100 pages/month) and writing (1-2 essays/month).
• Speaker Series: Monthly online talks from guest speakers working in the field.

Application: The application window opens on May 1st. We accept participants on a rolling basis. The process involves a written application, a reference (preferably from a Buddhist teacher), an application fee, and an interview. The application itself is a rich process of discernment.

Guest Speaker: Ram Appalaraju

Ram Appalaraju: I have been on the Buddhist path for about 14 years. After retiring early from the high-tech industry, I wanted to be of service. I started with the Sati Center's Eco-Chaplaincy training and then took the Buddhist Chaplaincy training.

The training was a process of self-discovery. I learned to move from "fixing" things—my DNA from the tech world—to simply being present. I learned to shut off the "fixer" and open my heart.

I started volunteering in jails. Initially, I thought I would be a "Buddhist chaplain" targeting Buddhists. However, the program helped me embrace an interfaith approach. I realized "Buddhist chaplain" is just a cloak I wear; I care for people of all faiths—Muslims, Christians, Jews, Rasta.

After a year of volunteering, I was hired as a staff chaplain. I now care for about 800 inmates and teach mindfulness meditation. We have over 350 active meditators in the jail.

The work is deeply meaningful. In jail, people are fighting helplessness. We are there as spiritual friends. I often have to deliver news of a loved one's death to an inmate. It is a heartbreak, but also a profound human connection.

I apply the Brahma Viharas¹⁰ (goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity) in every interaction. Whether praying with someone to their God or teaching mindfulness, the core is bringing my best self—not what is left of me—to serve others. The training gave me the depth and skills to handle these intense situations and to practice self-care, like my ritual of watching birds in the park before going home to transition from the jail environment.

Q&A

Question: Is it necessary to be ordained to be a chaplain? Answer: For professional board certification, ordination or endorsement from a spiritual community is required. However, for volunteer work or even some paid positions (like in hospice), full certification may not be needed immediately.

Question: How do you handle different faiths? Answer (Ram): We meet them where they are. If their God is Jesus, we pray to Jesus. I can translate my understanding of the sacred to match their language. It is about their spiritual integrity, not imposing mine.

Question: How much time does the program take? Answer (Vanessa): Expect to dedicate about five full days per month to the program, including workshops, service work, reading, and writing.

Question: Is this program only for Buddhists? Answer: While it is a Buddhist chaplaincy training, we welcome people who are willing to engage deeply with the Dharma. It is the realm of the sacred, so being open to religion and spirituality is essential.

Closing: Thank you to everyone for joining us. We hope this has aided your discernment. Please visit bct.org or the Sati Center website for more information and to apply.