My Responses to a Student’s Questions about Chaplaincy
A student at Denver Seminary wrote to me recently with some questions about chaplaincy. She’s studying to be a chaplain herself and was interested to know about how chaplains from various religious traditions think about religious pluralism on the job. I’ve decided to post her questions and my responses here, as I enjoyed our back-and-forth and think it might be useful to others. They are below, with her questions in boldface and my response in plain text. (And to the right is a picture of me during my first unit of C.P.E. in Boulder three years ago.)
And, as always, I hope you will feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. I’m always curious to know what readers are thinking about chaplaincy issues.
How long have you been a Buddhist chaplain?
I’ve been working as a chaplain now for five years or so. I really hit the ground running when I came to Naropa University to get my MDiv in 2003. While there, I did a unit of CPE and was later an on-call volunteer at a local hospital, served on hospice care teams for members of the Naropa community, and was a chaplain intern on campus with the Naropa Chaplaincy Project. Since graduating from Naropa, I’ve been working in academia and also getting my doctorate, but I’ve still been able to use my training and do chaplaincy and other ministry work here and there. I look forward to returning to chaplaincy in a more full-time capacity once I’m done with my doctorate.
Do you serve as a chaplain in non-Buddhist settings? If so, how do you relate to people of different faith backgrounds? Have you face any conflict from certain Buddhists who do not understand the role of chaplains serving in non-Buddhist settings?
Most of work has required me to serve religiously diverse communities. In answering your question about relating to people from different faith backgrounds, I think it’s important to say that that’s the job. The role of a professional chaplain is to serve the spiritual needs of the community he or she works in. The job is to be a listener and to put the person(s) you are working with and their beliefs first. Of course, one has to know what he or she can and can’t do with integrity, but the work is being with others and not imposing our beliefs on them. It was helpful for me when I started doing this work to remember that my responsibilities as a professional chaplain are distinct from (but certainly not necessarily incongruous with) my responsibilities as a Buddhist. My own Buddhist practice, to borrow a phrase from Buddhist chaplain Mikel Monnett, “creatively influences” how I attend to others, but I’m not there to proselytize or subtly introduce Buddhist wisdom–that wouldn’t be listening, but peddling.
I did once get into a scrape with a fellow Buddhist over all of this. It was in a conversation about chaplaincy with a large group of Buddhists. One participant kept putting down the beliefs of those in the Judeo-Christian religious traditions. What really bugged me, though, was that he kept suggesting that we as Buddhist caregivers/chaplains have a special opportunity and obligation to straighten these patients out—to show them the error of their non-Buddhist, theistic “fantasies,” and get them to recognize “reality” (at least as we Buddhists understand it). Certainly, as a Buddhist, I have come to the conclusion for myself that the teachings of the Buddha are, in the words of Peter Harvey, “an authoritative guide to the nature of reality and the best way to live.” I also think chaplains can reflect handily and thoughtfully from their own perspectives and reference points, as well as challenge patients to go further in their thinking and spirituality when appropriate. But, again, the role of the chaplain is not to try to convert others, or hold others to your view of things. In the world of healthcare, the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (J.C.A.H.O.) is pretty clear on this, in fact, saying, “Patients have a fundamental right to considerate care that safeguards personal dignity and respects their cultural, psychological, and spiritual values.” Anyway, I said all of this to the participant, and experienced his response as defensive and angry. He argued that such an approach to chaplaincy was inherently deceitful, and that practicing it made me something of a fair-weather Buddhist. Buddhist chaplains should work with Buddhists, he insisted, and while they might be able to attend to non-Buddhist patients, they shouldn’t get mixed up in their spiritual issues. His basic argument for such an exclusivist approach to chaplaincy went something like this: from a Buddhist perspective, if a Buddhist chaplain is working with beliefs that are not congruent with a Buddhist view (e.g., a soul or a creator God), aren’t they perpetuating suffering? I suppose it’s an interesting argument, but ultimately a wrongheaded one from a professional perspective. It’s about the patient, and what’s meaningful for them.
How do you get along with chaplains who come from different faith backgrounds? Is it hard sometimes, and if so how do you cope?
I’ve been really fortunate to work with some remarkable people from a pretty enormous diversity of faith traditions. Generally speaking, I’ve had and continue to have warm working and personal relationships with these colleagues. There have been a couple of occasions when I’ve dealt with chaplains who have said colorful things, or who have been downright antagonistic because of my Buddhist path–but they’re a very small minority.
In terms of coping with those experiences, I remind myself that it’s a small field that remains dominated by those from other religious traditions. The Association of Professional Chaplains (A.P.C.) has a membership of less than 4,000, and less than 10 of those members identify as some kind of Buddhist. That kind of puts things into perspective for me, though it certainly doesn’t excuse the occasional bad behavior by others. But I’m also pretty thick-skinned about these things, and that helps!
How would you train other Buddhists to be chaplains? What important perspectives do you want them to learn?
I would say this to serious Buddhist practitioners going into chaplaincy training: “You’re coming into this with certain understandings and skills that are going to serve you incredibly well. Just being with what is, not turning away from suffering, reconciling dichotomies–these are things required to do this job, and you’ve already put in a lot of work on them. That said, be open to learning from those coming to this work with different approaches and ideas.”
I think a professional chaplain in the U.S., Buddhist or not, should have done a good deal of critical study of his or her own religious tradition, and have a good understanding of other world religions. In addition, they should be familiar with the history of religion in America, and understand legal issues for religious caregivers/counselors. They should know something about psychiatric disorders. Fortunately, groups like the A.P.C. and others have educational standards and competencies that cover these and other areas.
How do you see a pluralist environment to be an important place to serve?
Pluralism is the reality of our world today. It also strikes me that failure to come to grips with this reality is the cause of a lot of suffering in the world right now. I think many of us have a hard time dealing the fact that there are so many different ways that people understand themselves and their world. But we don’t have to be afraid of all this diversity. And we don’t have to become relativists either. I think we can listen to each other and share with each other and discuss and even be in healthy conflict with one another. At our best, we can even be “gatekeepers” for each other. I think chaplaincy is doing this on a small scale. I think it’s peacemaking on a local level. It’s no small thing when a Buddhist chaplain sits down with, say, a Christian patient (or vice versa) and offers a caring presence that “safeguards personal dignity and respects their cultural, psychological, and spiritual values.”
What do you think about the concept of “pluralism” today, and will your view change in the future?
I suppose there are a lot of definitions of pluralism. I expect my mind will change, if only subtly, in the future. At the moment, though, I’m with Diana Eck 100%:
- Pluralism is not the sheer fact of this plurality alone, but is active engagement with plurality… Plurality is just diversity, plain and simple–splendid, colorful, maybe even threatening. Such diversity does not, however, have to affect me. I can observe diversity. I can even celebrate diversity, as the cliche goes. But I have to participate in pluralism.
Given that chaplains are care givers and may feel some type of minstry burnout, especially in a pluralistic enviornment, how would you advise one to seek replenishment?
Just try to notice what you’re feeling when you do this work. If you suspect you’re burning out, bring your attention to the places where you feel it–in your body and in your mind. And be gentle with yourself. There’s no need to give yourself a “plus” for not feeling burnout, or a “minus” for feeling it. It’s really OK to be human. Talk about it. Ask for help. Do a needs assessment for yourself: it may be that some changes would be healthy. Whatever you do to take care of yourself or “recharge your batteries,” make sure you’re doing it. (For me, it’s practicing meditation, but also walking. No matter how busy I am, I try to take a 60-90 minute walk every single day. It’s just something I have to do to take care of myself.) Take things slow. Be gentle with yourself. Be gentle with yourself. Be gentle with yourself.
