Practice of Taking Care of the Sick in Vinaya, and Modern G.R.A.C.E. Program to Prevent Burnout Syndrome Among Clinical Practitioners

Abstract

Practice of taking care of the sick among ordained practitioners during the Buddha’s time seems to have carried critical importance. Therefore, five conditions of a good caregiver for the sick and five conditions of a difficult patient to take care are elaborated in Vinaya. This paper surveys the context as to why the practice of nursing had such an importance in Buddhist practice from the standpoint of mindfulness meditation and modern clinical education in nursing. The author will share the insights obtained from university education of spiritual care about the third condition of a good care giver for the sick (giving care with loving kindness, not from an expectation of something); the awareness of the unconscious motivation to become a care giver will support him/her to survive and attain emotional maturation through the difficulties of clinical practice.
Roshi Joan Halifax created the G.R.A.C.E. program in order to prevent burnout syndrome in terminal care, with her students who practice Buddhist meditations and also are educators in the medical environment. We will examine this G.R.A.C.E. program from the perspective of traditional understanding of Buddhist meditation practice: mindfulness (sati-paṭṭhāna), the three steps of learning (sīla, samādhi, paññā) and the four boundless hearts (appamaññā). Especially in the analysis of the near-enemy and far-enemy of four boundless hearts explained in Visuddhimagga, the emotional maturation of medical practitioners in the clinical human relationship will be examined from the standpoint of integration of ambivalence psychoanalytically.
Towards the end of this paper, readers will hopefully have some better understanding about how ancient meditation practices had a fundamental impact on the humane maturational process and how we can improve modern medical practice and education by utilizing those ancient experiential wisdoms.