A (3-4). Working With the Sick and Dying in Hospitals

[Full title: Buddhist Contributions to the Australian Society (3-4): Working With the Sick and Dying in Hospitals, Hospices and ommunity]

All social action is an act of giving (dana), but there is a direct act which we call charitable action, once the Buddha had said "Whoever nurses the sick serves me,". In our more complex society does this not include the active advancement and defense of the principles of a national health service?

The old phrase "as cold as charity"recalls numerous possibilities for selfdeception in giving to others and in helping them. Here is opportunity to give out goodness in tangible form, both in our own eyes and those of the world. It may also be a temptation to impose our own ideas and standards from a position of patronage. David Brandon, who has written so well on the art of helping, reminds us that "respect is seeing the Buddha nature in the other person. It means perceiving the superficiality of positions of moral authority. The other person is as good as you. However untidy, unhygienic, poor, illiterate and bloody-minded he may seem, he is worthy of your respect. He also has autonomy and purpose. He is another form of nature"^[1] .

There are many different ways in which individual Buddhists and their organizations can give help and relieve suffering. “In Australia there are 54% of Buddhist organizations are involved in working with the sick and dying in hospital and hospices and 61%of Buddhist organizations are involved in working the sick and dying in the community”^[2] . Those delivering these services cite as their rationale for engaging in such activities the need to demonstrate compassion and loving kindness towards the ill. Some also emphase the need to teach meditation and skilful ways of thinking to the sick so they are better able to manage their illness, particularly if it is chronic and associated with pain.

However, "charity begins at home." If a Buddhist group or society fails to provide human warmth and active caring for all of its members in their occasional difficulties and troubles—though always with sensitivity and scrupulous respect for privacy—where then is its Buddhism? Where is the Sangha?

In our modern industrial society there has been on the one hand a decline in personal and voluntary community care for those in need and, on the other, too little active concern for the quality and quantity of institutional care financed from the public purse that has to some extent taken its place. One facet of this which may be of particular significance for Buddhists is a failure to recognize adequately and provide for the needs of the dying. In recent years there has been a growing awareness of this problem in North America and Europe, and a small number of hospices have been established by Christian and other groups for terminally ill people. However, only a start has been made with the problem. The first Buddhist hospice in the West has yet to be opened. And, less ambitiously, the support of regular visitors could help many lonely people to die with a greater sense of dignity and independence in our general hospitals.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Brandon, David, "Zen and the art of helping," Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976.p.59

[2]:

Patricia Sherwood. The Buddha is in the Street. Engaged Buddhism in Australia. Cowan University, Sunbury, 2003. P. 89,90