A Gift of Dharma for 11.19.09
Today’s quote is from a friend and past interviewee: Joan Halifax Roshi–one of the modern engaged Buddhist movement’s great heroines.
A Zen priest, anthropologist, shaman, activist, and author, Roshi is also the founder, abbot, and head teacher at Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
For over ten years Roshi studied with Korean Zen master Seung Sahn, and was a teacher in his Kwan Um Zen School. She also received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given inka (formal acknowledgment of the completion of Zen training) by Roshi Bernie Glassman.
A founding teacher of Glassman’s Zen Peacemaker Order, she also established the Ojai Foundation in 1975 while working as a research assistant for mythologist Joseph Campbell.
In addition, Roshi, who holds a Ph.D. in medical anthropology and psychology from the University of Miami’s School of Medicine, is the author of several wonderful books, including The Fruitful Darkness: A Journey Through Buddhist Practice and Tribal Wisdom, Shaman: The Wounded Healer, Shamanic Voices: A Survey of Visionary Narratives, A Buddhist Life in America: Simplicity in Context, The Human Encounter with Death (with ex-husband Stanislav Grof), and (most recently) Being With Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Presence of Death.
Roshi’s writings and teachings on being with death and dying are really quite extraordinary and have enjoyed wide interest. She frequently teaches about end-of-life care in a variety of settings–from universities to religious institutions to medical centers and beyond. Her efforts in this area have also earned her an Honorary Research Fellowship at Harvard University.
Roshi’s Wikipedia page quotes Christopher S. Queen (from the book Westward Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Asia), who writes of her work: “She teaches the techniques of ‘being with death and dying’ to…terminally ill patients, doctors, nurses, lovers, family, and friends. She speaks calmly, with authority. In a culture where death is an enemy to be ignored, denied, and hidden away, Joan physically touches the dying. She holds them, listens to them, comforts them, calms them, and eases their suffering by any means possible. She shares their thoughts and fears; she feels their last shuddering breaths, holding them in her arms. She travels easily from church to synagogue, hospice to hospital, dispensing techniques and training born of Buddhist traditions and beliefs in a culturally and spiritually flexible manner.”
One of Roshi’s latest projects is the Upaya Buddhist Chaplaincy Training, for which I am very happy to serve as a member of the advisory council.
Here’s the quote–from Roshi’s interview with Dharma Life for their Autumn/Winter 2004 issue.
When offering care, exploration of a person’s world-view is essential. As well as being a kindly presence, we try and heal that person’s perceptions that they’re separate and isolated. Do patients have a sense of impermanence? Or do they feel shame or guilt at having developed cancer?… We want to give our best, be fully there. Compassion may move us – it can draw out the best in us – but it doesn’t always! We must be unattached to the outcome. Either way, it’s always edifying… I can’t just walk into a hospital with my spiritual stuff, and assume I’ll be a help. We need to engender compassion and equanimity, and take these out to the world. But we can only do that by facing our own complexes. Are we sitting with someone who’s dying, or with ourself? We don’t turn away from our own issues, just as we don’t turn away from a dying person. It’s tough. But that’s where the rubber meets the road!
