WFB Conference: Buddhist Wisdom in Caring for the Dying and Bereaved

The Ojo and Death Project

24th General Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists
Symposium on Buddhist Wisdom in Caring for the Dying and Bereaved
November 17, 2009

From November 14-16, the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB) held their bi-annual general conference in Tokyo, hosted by the Japan Buddhist Federation. Rev. Yoshiharu Tomatsu, who is the director of the Ojo and Death Project at JSRI, also serves on the Executive Committee of the WFB. In this capacity, he was centrally involved in organizing the all day public symposium on November 17th, entitled Buddhists' Contribution to Resolving Social Problems. The day was filled with seven different symposia on key social issues, such as peace, development, gender, environment, youth, suicide and mental health, and spiritual preparation for death. This last symposium was largely organized by the team here at JSRI and included former and present participants of the project: Prof. Carl Becker from the University of Kyoto as chair, and Phra Phaisan Visalo (Thailand), Dr. Chien-An Yao (Taiwan), and Dr./Rev. Kangen Shibata (Japan) as panelists. We were also very honored to include as a fourth panelist Rev. Joan Halifax (U.S.A), who is well known for her pioneering work with the dying and developing chaplaincy training. The links below contain more details of the panels as well as the short papers each panelist presented. These papers are presently being further developed for our next publication on Buddhist care for the dying in the modern world, due out in 2010.

Panelist Introductions and Abstracts: English or 日本語

Papers:
Contemplative End of Life Training Program: Being With Dying MSWord or PDF
Rev. Joan Halifax (Upaya Institute: Project on Being with Dying, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA)

Terminal Medical Care and Terminal Right Will MSWord or PDF
「終末期医療と臨終正念」MSWord or PDF
Rev. Kangen Shibata (Noshiro Hospital and the Nichiren-shu Vihara Project for Terminal Care, Japan)

Spiritual Care in Palliative Care Team MSWord or PDF
Dr. Chien-An Yao (National Taiwan University Hospital)

Spiritual Care for the Dying MSWord or PDF
Phra Phaisan Visalo (Buddhika Network for Buddhism and Society, Thailand)