To change the way contemporary human beings live on earth is a kind of Dharma work, a work for dedicated followers of the Way who because of their practice and insight can hope to balance wisdom and compassion and help open the eyes of others.
Gary Snyder cited in the Buddhist Campus Chaplaincy Sourcebook.
The Buddhist Campus Chaplaincy Sourcebook edited by Ji Hyang Padma and Jonathan Makransky and Kalyāņamitra Volume II: Pragmatic Skills for Buddhist Spiritual Care by Monica Sanford.
$30 each from Sumeru Press
These two books continue in the spirit of the amazing work by Cheryl. Giles and Lama Willa Miller in their 2012 Wisdom title The Arts of Contemplative Care. They speak to an emerging literature that I feel is critical to the continuing well being of our emerging Western Buddhist communities.
Taken together these new volumes (as well as the first volume in the Kalyāņamitra series) deepen and expand both a theoretical and I find deeply important a practical application of this emerging aspect of the Buddhadharma come west.
The editors of The Buddhist Campus Chaplaincy Sourcebook are Ji Hyang Padma, Assistant Professor in the Wisdom Traditions Department at Naropa University. She earned her PhD at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology at Sofia University. And Jonathan Makransky, the Multireligious Ministry Initiatives Coordinator at Harvard Divinity School. He earned his Master of Theological Studies in Buddhism at HDS.
The Buddhist Campus Chaplaincy Sourcebook at the beginning and again at the end explores the practices of presence that Buddhism brings to any work of care as foundational. It also offers a half dozen reflections on Buddhist models for chaplaincy including spiritual friendship and traditional understandings of healing. This includes engagement with multifaith communities and contemporary models of chaplain formation.
There is a significant section devoted to the issues of chaplaincy with university settings. Much of this can easily be read when thinking of other contexts within which chaplaincy is offered.
The contributions include offerings from twenty scholars and practitioners. Among them some of the most highly respected Buddhist teachers today including Joan Halifax, Norman Fischer, and Mark Uno.
Kalyāņamitra: Volume 11, Pragmatic Skills for Buddhist Spiritual Care by Monica Sanford. She has a PhD from Claremont School of Theology. She is Assistant Dean for Multireligious Ministry at Harvard Divinity School.
Her 2020 volume Kalyāņamitra: A Model for Buddhist Spiritual Care provided a theoretical model for a specific Buddhist chaplaincy drawing upon the Buddhist concept of “spiritual friendship.”
This new volume moves into the practicalities of spiritual care in a Buddhist context. It is written with Victor Gabriel, Nathan Jishin Michon, Heny C. H. Shiu, and Linda Hochstetler. Like with the Sourcebook, these collaborators have been selected for qualities of wisdom as well as expertise.
What I found in these two volumes were central examples of the maturing of Buddhism’s moving deeply into our Western cultures. And I noticed how these have value well beyond the issues and opportunities of chaplaincy.
They offer wisdom for people who are creating and continuing Buddhist communities, whether rooted in Asian cultures or in varying degree adapting for convert communities. They offer integration between the ancient teachings and contemporary insights into what I guess I’d have to call ministry, the serving of the needs of the community.
With that I think they should be required reading for anyone aspiring to Buddhist religious leadership, whatever the school, for our time and place.
They’re both from Sumeru Press, one of our leading Buddhist publishing houses. You should check out their backlist as well as their new titles.
The image is of Army Chaplain Somya Malasri’s beret, the first active duty Army Buddhist Chaplain.