Developing training programs in Buddhist chaplaincy, in which Buddhist monastics and lay persons learn communication and therapeutic skills to support those experiencing psychological trauma and suffering, is one way to expand the socially engaged Buddhist movement. This also provides an interface between Buddhist psychology and practice with today’s fields of science, especially psychotherapy.
While models of chaplaincy have emerged in the West, Asia is also beginning to see the emergence of organic movements of psycho-spiritual care, particularly in Taiwan and Japan. These emerging models are stimulating interest, interaction, and the desire for mutual learning throughout the Asia region. Buddhist chaplains can provide an important social resource to populations struggling with the advances of corporate capitalism such as psychological alienation and illness from community collapse, and advanced forms of trauma from armed conflict and natural disasters. INEB is in the position to host and facilitate short term training courses and promote exchange visits by persons from various countries to visit established programs in Taiwan, Japan, and the West.
Updates
The Development of Buddhist Chaplaincy in the United States & its Meaning for Japan
A presentation of research carried out by the Tokyo based Rinbutsuken Institute of Engaged Buddhists into how Buddhists in the United States have developed their own particular approaches to both serving others in need and self-development within the context of American Clinical Pastoral Training (CPE).