WELCOME TO THE JANUARY NEWSLETTER
As we move into a new year and a new decade, we reflect on the past year and look into the aspirations for the new year and decade. It was a wonderful year of growth for the Center. Some of the highlights in 2009 include:
- Contracted with the Integrative Medicine Department of Beth Israel Medical Center to provide contemplative care
- In June, 7 of our Association of Clinical Pastoral Education Chaplaincy Students completed their first year of training. 30 students graduated in Foundations in Buddhist Contemplative Care
- Touched the lives of over 10,000 individuals, families and staff with compassionate contemplative care
- Featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and the Medical Ethics Advisor
- Expanded our clinical trainings to include 2 Buddhist CPE Trainings in compliment with our Foundations Training
- Founded the NYZCCC Sangha Sitting Group in September. It is a weekly Monday night meditation group that is open to all.
In this newsletter you will find: information about the Center featured in the New York Times, our new Advisory Council Member, updates on the February Contemplative Care Retreat, a Dharma talk by Chodo, some words from our Advisory Council, information about the upcoming Integrative Medicine Conference, and many other offerings.
Thank you to those who were able to respond year end appeal letter . As we grow together into our fourth year, please consider offering the Center a meaningful gift. Also, please do see below for our wish list and the new opportunity to offer your birthday in support of the Center.
May you and all being have a beautiful month of ease and joy.
In the Dharma,
Koshin + Chodo
Co-Founders
New York Times Features the Work of NYZCCC: Zen and the Art of Hospital Care
On December 12, 2009, the New York Times featured our work in the context of the importance of spiritual care in health care reform. To read the full article and watch the slide show of our work,
click here.
Dr. Diane Meier Joins the Advisory Council of NYZCCC
We are pleased to announce the Dr. Diane Meier, one of our Foundations Training Visiting Teachers has joined our Advisory Council. She says this about the work of the Center: “The New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care is a beacon of light for the seriously ill and those who care for them. Rather than doing things to the patient, the Center focuses on training people to focus their attention on the patient, to be with the patient, wherever they are, and then following the patient's lead to figure out how best to be of service. This is the essence of patient-centered care and our whole health care system could use a dose of this medicine!”
To read more about Dr. Meier and the Advisory Council, click here.
PLACES STILL OPEN: NYZCCC Sangha Annual Contemplative Care Retreat: February 11-14, 2010
All are Welcome to Join the Core Teachers and the NYZCCC Sangha for four days at the Guest House—a beautiful new retreat center in the scenic Connecticut River Valley. In this retreat, we will take a deep look at how to integrate contemplative practice with care giving, whether at home or in the work place. Combining Buddhist teachings with periods of sitting and walking meditation, didactics, small group work, question and answer periods, this retreat will provide an opportunity to explore the depths of our inner wisdom and compassion. Most importantly, this will be a time to look at how we can take care of ourselves whilst taking care of others.
Guest House offers spacious guest rooms all with private bathrooms, superb vegetarian cuisine, and a nurturing and comfortable environment for restoration and meditation. The center is a renovated country inn on private wooded land, adjacent to a state forest with hiking trails and two neighboring lakes. Conveniently located midway between New York City and Boston, Guest House is easily reachable via major highways or by train.
The retreat will be especially beneficial to doctors, nurses, psychotherapists, social workers, chaplains, and lay caregivers. Come and connect. Space is limited. Register early.
For more info, click here.
Applications for the Foundations in Buddhist Contemplative Care Training Program are now being received for the 2010-2011 academic year. Please apply early as space is limited.
Are you ready to train in contemplative care skills for year with other like-minded people? Our Foundations in Buddhist Contemplative Care Training Program is designed to meet the needs of people in a variety of ways:
- Building a community of caregivers interested in integrating caregiving with contemplative practices.
- Beginning training for those interested in becoming volunteer or professional caregivers in your local community, hospitals, hospices, and other places where spiritual care is needed.
- Basic training in spiritual care: attending the sick and dying, performing ritual, and offering spiritual direction.
For more information, FAQs, and the application, please go here.
Contemplative Care Sangha
Join a wonderful opportunity for anyone who is a caregiver. Whether you are working as a professional, interested in care giving and Buddhist practice or simply taking care of someone else as a family member or a friend, you are welcome. Come sit in quiet meditation, listen to a dharma talk and engage in dialog with like minded people. Come practice with the NYZCCC Sangha every Monday at OM yoga from 6 to 7:30 pm.
Koshin and Chodo to Deliver a Plenary Talk at the Integrative HealthCare Symposium: One Moment, One Chance
In each moment, we have the opportunity to be fully present with ourselves and others. As contemplative spiritual practices find an increasing presence within integrative care, there are basic skills that we can practice to allow our body and mind to be fully present for another—even if we only have a minute. Join the Founders of the New York Zen Center to explore what contemplative care is and its practical experiential value in the care giving you provide to yourself and others.
This talk is a part of a larger conference. Don’t miss this opportunity to be a part of one of the most comprehensive integrative healthcare conferences available with inspiring lectures, interactive sessions, case presentations and experiential workshops presented by leading pioneers covering emerging research and issues in health care today. Keep up with patient demand-take away practical knowledge and applications to help you integrate what you’ve learned into your current practice immediately.
For more information,
click here.
Robert Chodo Campbell on A Key That May Unlock the Door of the Mind: On Being Comfortable with the Silence
As I approach the nurse’s station in a psychiatric hospital in New York, Carol smiles and says, “Guess what, Chodo. We have a big surprise for you! Peter spoke this morning.”Excitedly I walk to Peter’s room, wondering what his voice will sound like. This young man has intrigued all of us. After months of medication and observation, the clinical team decided to give Peter ECT (electro convulsive therapy) to see if it could free him from his mental imprisonment. Weeks of visiting with Peter flash through my mind. Does he remember our time together?
One of the nurses informed me that Peter, a college student, hadn’t spoken to anyone in over a year –no one knew why. Because of my Buddhist practice (being used to extended periods of silence), she thought I would be comfortable sitting and talking without getting any response (an interesting, but inaccurate, assumption). Peter was lying on his bed. The nurse introduced me as the Chaplain and asked that he sit up. Very, very slowly without making eye contact, he sat up. The nurse left. There were no chairs so I sat on the bed next to him. He looked downward and made no hint of being aware of my presence.
To read the full story, click here.
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WORDS FROM OUR ADVISORY COUNCIL
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Why We Do This Work by Alessandra Strada, PhD
Attending Psychologist, Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center, in New York City
A few months ago, I was asked to visit a patient with advanced head and neck cancer. After discussing his prognosis with his oncologist, he had decided to stop chemotherapy and pursue comfort care. During my first meeting with the patient, I asked about his spiritual and/or religious orientation. What was supporting him during this challenging journey?
To read the full story, click here.
In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness. The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream. Not that I question the reality of my vocation, or of my monastic life: but the conception of “separation from the world” that we have in the monastery too easily presents itself as a complete illusion: the illusion that by making vows we become a different species of being, pseudo-angels, “spiritual men,” men of interior life, what have you.
To read the full story, click here.
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WAYS TO GIVING TO THE CENTER
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Use Your Birthday to Raise Money on FACEBOOK for the New York Zen Center For Contemplative Care!
How It Works:
As a supporter you can “donate” your birthday to New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. Anyone can make a Birthday Wish and ask friends to give money to your cause.
Make a tax-deductible donation to support our work helping others. You can do that here.
We need a donation of 2 new Mac Book Pros. If you can offer these wishes, please email us at 
