Sati Center for Buddhist Studies

You raise your hand and knock on the door, put a smile on your face and enter a hospital room or a private home, find someone young young or old; male or female; sitting in a chair and chatting, or in a bed and not responding, and introduce yourself – and then what? this is every chaplain’s question. since Buddhism teaches us to greet each moment as it arises, the chaplain who happens to be formed by the Buddha’s teachings will ideally start each visit without a script or agenda. The Patient may be a lifelong Catholic or fiercely atheist , may have set beliefs of their own or never given the world of spirit and the question of death a thought – and what does help look like then?

The question becomes, not what am I supposed to say and do, but how can I keep my heart open to whatever arises. This is where we live the promise that “the whole world is your teacher,” and this is where we learn what help can be, as a chaplain and as a human being.