Buddhism in Britain

Healthcare Chaplaincy at the Buddhist Society

On Sunday I attended a healthcare chaplaincy meeting at the Buddhist Society. Dr Desmond Biddulph, the Vice President of the Buddhist Society  introduced Keith Munnings who proceded to talk to us about the progress the Buddhist Healthcare Chaplaincy Group has made in setting up and agreeing accreditation procedures for Buddhist chaplains wanting to work (invariably on a voluntary basis) in the NHS. Tim Battle, a CofE minister heads up the multifaith chaplaincy group which is agreeing a single accreditation process for each faith group, including Christianity.

The BHCG will present their process at the end of March or thereabouts to the Multifaith Chaplaincy committee. It is good to see the Bud.Soc. sponsoring this initiative.

The meeting was attended by around fourteen or so, a largish group (5) regarding the Forest Sangha as their home tradition. There is clearly some work to be done on the draft accreditation process, but there are detailed competencies and background information and these can be found at the Buddhist Society web site or at: http://www.buddhacommunity.org/lay_ministry_day.htm.

You can register an interest in healthcare chaplaincy via http://www.thebuddhistsociety.org/events/index.html

TripleGem think tank

I have had an enjoyable and busy two months or so setting up the new TripleGem (TG) enterprise. This has a website at http://triplegem.terapad.com. I investigated various technologies for websites and decided that terapad offers a good package for a blog and news based website. The terapad incarnation of TG will serve as a good proof of concept platform.

Hopefully TripleGem is going to be more that just a website. Hopefully it will act as a catalyst for a range of activities. Quite what these will be I do not know. I have described TG as a think tank since this provides plenty of scope, but I hope that TG will partner with charitable initiatives, as well as act as a focus for discussing news and issues that impinge upon Buddhism in the UK and the West.

Even though as Buddhists we are taught to regard words and concepts as uncertain, we are still very much conditioned by them. I am sure that the mental image conjured up in some minds by 'think tank' is of some intellectual, opinionated and pushy pressure group. If TG does go down this path it will fail, and I would not want to be part of it. Others perhaps see it as a long-overdue initiative which cuts across Buddhist traditions and which might flesh out some initiatives and plans for applying Buddhist approaches to contemporary issues.

But I trust in the good sense and wisdom of those who engage with TG to guide it along the middle way between... what? Perhaps indulgence in theories, ideas, conventions and structures on the one hand, and indulgence in emptiness, vacuity, impulse and randomness on the other. Or indulgence in worldly concerns at one extreme and indulgence in avoiding the world at the other extreme. We can get attached to just about anything...like the belief that Buddhists should not think. Or that we should not attach to anything. It is easy to fail to realise that non-attachment means that we do not attach to non-attachment either.

So If you want to suggest activities or ideas for TG to consider, or you want to get involved, have a look at the website http://triplegem.terapad.com and make contact.