Sati Center Training in Buddhist Chaplaincy

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This other document is a longer introduction to the program.
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As Buddhist spiritual practice finds an increasing presence within American society, there is both an opportunity and a need to train Buddhist practitioners to serve as spiritual caregivers and chaplains. The Sati Center for Buddhist Studies is offering a yearlong training program to provide an introduction to spiritual care skills from a Buddhist perspective. This is a unique opportunity to study Buddhist principles and practices relevant to spiritual caregiving, as well as an introduction to the psychological, social, and ethical issues related to chaplaincy.

The program is designed to meet the needs of people in a variety of ways:

• Introductory training for those interested in becoming volunteer or professional chaplains in hospitals, hospices, jails and other places where spiritual care is needed. (The training does not meet all the requirements needed for professional certification as a chaplain.)

• Fulfilling one requirement that certain Buddhist groups have to endorse or ordain a member to become a Buddhist Chaplain.

• Basic training in spiritual care: attending the sick and dying, performing weddings, memorials and other ceremonies, and offering spiritual direction for interested Buddhist clergy and lay practitioners.

Core Faculty

Reverend Jennifer Block, MA, is the Public Education Director and Chaplain at Zen Hospice Project. She is an ordained interfaith minister and a Buddhist chaplain certified by the Association of Professional Chaplains. She is an adjunct faculty member at the Chaplaincy Institute for Arts and Interfaith Ministries in San Rafael, California. She has an undergraduate degree in communications from Boston University and a graduate theology degree from Naropa University.

Gil Fronsdal is the Vipassana teacher at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City and teaches retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County. He is a Zen Priest through the San Francisco Zen Center. He holds a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Stanford University.

Paul Haller is a Zen priest and Abbot of San Francisco Zen Center. For many years he was the head of Zen Center’s jail outreach program. He is an adjunct faculty member at the Zen Hospice Project of San Francisco.

Plus a variety of guest teachers.

Areas of Training

• History of Spiritual Care: applications and settings for spiritual care, engaged Buddhism

• Spiritual Care Skills I: purpose and functioning of a chaplain, establishing spiritual care relationships, listening, spiritual counseling, verbal and non-verbal communication

• Spiritual Care Skills II: spiritual assessment, ritual, collaboration with other professionals and disciplines

• Buddhist practices related to spiritual care

• Cultural competency in a multicultural world

• Verbal and non-verbal communication

• Use of Self: when to disclose and when not to, boundaries and ethics of conduct, personal safety, sexual feelings in spiritual care relationships

• Interfaith and multi-faith ministry, religious directives

• Conflict resolution

• Creating and Leading Buddhist Rituals: funerals, memorials, weddings, rites of passage, practice rituals

• Ministry to death and dying, grief and loss

• Critical Incidents: trauma, addiction, suicide, homicide, domestic violence

Scheduled Dates for 2007-8

Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

September 21
October 19
November 16
December 14
January 18
February 8

March 14
April 11
May 9
June 13
July 18

Program Components

• Eleven monthly day-long classes, held on Fridays

• Monthly support groups

• Individual mentoring meetings with faculty (every other month)

• One hundred hours of volunteer chaplaincy

• Assigned reading and written assignments

• Bi-monthly peer support sessions

• Visits to various Buddhist and other religious centers (including attending unfamiliar religious services or gatherings)

• Field trips to hospitals, psychiatric wards, morgues, homeless shelters, juvenile halls or other service centers

• Optional related classes

It is now possible to receive graduate credits for the chaplaincy training program through the Institute for Buddhist Studies in Berkeley.

Elective Study

To complement the training program the Sati Center plans to offer several optional daylong classes on Saturdays on particular subjects relevant to chaplaincy work. In the past these have included classes on the History and Teaching of Engaged Buddhism, Buddhist views on death and dying, contemplative psychology, and Buddhist/Christian dialogue.

For More Information

Please contact the Sati Center at 650.223.0311 (voicemail) or karuna@sati.org for more information about the program or to receive an application (available in June). To download an application for the program check here in June 2007.

Applications are reviewed during the month of August.

Criteria for Enrollment

The training program is designed for people who have a committed and ongoing involvement with Buddhist practice, teachings and way of life. With this in mind, the requirements for entering the program are the following:

• Letter of recommendation from a Buddhist teacher

• Regular and committed Buddhist practice and study for at least four years (or previous chaplaincy training)

• Three Buddhist retreats of at least one week or the equivalent

• Statement of purpose

• An in-person or phone interview

Tuition

The cost for the eleven-month program 2007-8 is $1350. There is an application fee of $25. A limited number of partial work-exchange scholarships may be available.

Sati Center for Buddhist Studies

The Sati Center has been offering classes in Buddhist Studies in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1997. Our perspective balances scholarly inquiry with serious meditation practice. We believe that study and practice work together to deepen one’s realization of the Dharma and to help manifest that realization in the world. For information on ongoing Sati Center programs please visit us at www.sati.org or contact us at karuna@sati.org or 650.223.0311.

Location

Classes will be held at the Insight Meditation Center at 1205 Hopkins Avenue in Redwood City, California. The center is located about thirty miles south of San Francisco and is a twenty-minute drive from San Francisco Airport.