The Panel of professionals who addressed “The Use of Prayer and Mindfulness in Healthcare” each spoke from their faith traditions and practices and how their work has manifested in their individual paths. The talk is presented below in outline form. Representatives were as follows:
Buddhist – Kusala Bhikshu, BA
Catholic – The Rev. Joseph J. Driscoll, MDIV
Christian Scientist – Giulia N. Plum, CSM
Jewish – Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, CSW
Muslim – Imam Yahya Hendi, MS
Native American – Terry Tafoya, PhD
Protestant – The Rev. Dr. Teresa Snorton, DMin
The Rev. Natalia Vonnegut Beck, MA – facilitator
Terry Tafoya, of the Native American tradition spoke of how prayer is part of his tradition and that of his community. “Taking a sip of water is prayer,” according to the North American Native Tradition.
Giulia N. Plum, a Christian Scientist spoke of prayer as “a purpose to connect with God, shift our way of thinking, and see our self, our oneness with God”. She says further, “Prayer moves and changes us, helping us be who we are”.
Prayer in Christian Science – helps us get answers to the question Who Am I?
Christian Science is a universal practical prayer based system. Discovered by Mary Baker Eddy. Founded the First Church of Christ Scientist. Always free to choose any method of healthcare. Church membership is not pre-requisite for practice of Christian Science. Mary Baker Eddy lived a deeply prayerful life, love for the teachings of Jesus and for all humanity. She realized there was a science behind the way that Jesus healed, provable scientific laws that could be practiced any time. This was the core of her work as spiritual healer. Cancer, paralysis, blindness, pneumonia, broken bones, heart disease, broken homes have all been cured with Christian Science. Proved in her book – Key to Health with Science and Health. Purpose of prayer is to connect us with God and shift the basis of our thinking from material to spiritual nature. Fundamental to the spiritual perspective is God’s nature and power as good and only good.
This is a practical loving presence. And we are God’s image in likeness. Everything is in us – inseparable spiritual relationship with God. Examples: patient, forgiving, or unlimited. Can show all the qualities that are in Deity. Prayer comes in to help this. It is heartfelt devotion that strengthens us. Prayer lifts and redeems us and frees us. Examine our motives for prayer. Not a pleading for something or a repetition of words.
The effect of prayer is the fulfillment of its purpose.
It aligns our thinking with the all good spiritual power that is God and relieves us from fear, guilt, etc. and other negative states that underpin disease.
Prayer is not an activity of the human mind. Effective healing prayer demands that we live our prayers day by day.
Prayer (Chapter in Science & Health)
Imam Yahya Hendi, of the Muslim tradition, spoke of the “Five daily prayers” which he defined as; “Focus on God, to God we belong and God we return, Glory be to God, God is the greatest and Praise and Thanks”. He says, “a Muslim patient believes in the power of the prayer.” In Muslim “Imam” comes from the same root as “dust.” The Imam claims that his nationality is “dustian.”
ISLAM sounds/ comes from Shalom, meaning peace, the building of peace.
Islam teaches that peace has to be established on different levels.
1.– with God
2.– with others – fellow human beings, nature, environment
3.- with one’s self.
Flesh, Mind, Soul, Heart – 4 elements make the human being.
Vutra. Translated as the thing that makes the human being – the relationship between those 4 elements. Does go thru disorder – called sickness or disease. One has to serve, or deal with the mechanical disorder of the body, mind or the way they function and deal with the inner intangible side – the mind, soul, heart, that is called prayer. Sometimes referred to every good act of the human. Act of prayer is eating, sleeping, intimate relation ship with spouse.
And also the focus of person on God who knows how this works and ask for guidance on how to bring about order
5 daily
Started by focus on God. Can eat, cannot be chewing gum, not drinking water, not talking focus absolutely on God and bring order to that organ.
Make Zhikr – focus on God, say different things. “To God we belong and to him return. “ “Glory be to God.”
“God is the greatest,, praise and thanks be to God.”
Help us with our relationship, recharge, rethink, and step aside to see if we did something to bring about something to create that disorder.
To bring about comfort the Doctor is to use Islamic terminology – Inhallah – god willing. Salaam -Peace be with you. Praise be to God. Patience.
Helpful advice or doctors to interact with Muslim patients:
Even if you don’t believe in power of prayer, the Muslim patient does.
A man was finding his way swimming to a shore of a sea. Noticed the current of water running over him. Looked behind and saw a shark.
Looked up and said, “God help me -I thought you don’t acknowledge me.”
God said, “Yes, I don’t…but the Shark does.”
The shark continued to swim to the man and opened its mouth, but just then as it was getting close it froze. The man said, “Thank you, God!”
Then the shark closed it’s eyes and said “God, thank you for the food I am about to receive.”
Rev. Dr. Teresa Snorton says this about her Protestant faith and belief in prayer, “Prayer articulates that which is most ultimate.”
Theresa Snorton, – CPE – pastoral care. Ordained Methodist minister. Been a pastor, chaplain in psychiatric facility, in hospital, and university medical setting
Presbyterian Seminary, Baptist Grad School, and attends Afro Centrist Church.
Christian faith encompasses a lot of faiths. Make a distinction between patient’s religion and their spirituality.
Basic spirituality – 4 components:
Awareness of the Transcendent
Sense of Belonging
Sense of meaning and purpose
Sense of Creativity
Grandmother baked apple pies – she sang and she prayed. She delivered pies to sick, family of death, loss of job, or someone who needed cheering up. She was a religious woman but her spirituality represented itself in a different way.
Relevant questions are: What is your religion?
What are your private spiritual practices?
How do you have your sense of community, to God and the rest of the world?
Prayer in the Protestant tradition. Martin Luther in protest determined there was another way to worship God and to live with God.
Faith is payer and nothing but prayer. For prayer is at the very heart of religion. Prayer is articulating that which is most ultimate. To a God that is faithful, response.
PUSH – Pray until something happens.
ASAP – Always say a Prayer
FROG — Fully reliant on God.
Reliance on prayer is a central demonstration of faith. Lord’s prayer in New Testament is a model of how to pray.
Answer to prayer is sometimes immediate, sometimes delayed, sometimes no, and sometimes yes.
Prayer is a part of our responsibility and the appropriate way to expect God’s healing and to ask for God’s healing. There was a story of a woman who was very faithful churchgoer.
On the day he died, she said “ I have done what I was supposed to do. Believing in a miracle and God has answered. So now, you’ll pray for me.”
Wide variety of prayer – written, spoken, memorized.
Other – responsive – evangelistic – spontaneous – all at the same time.
Ask about the tradition and the religion, but be aware of the person who lives within those traditions, then you will be equipped to care for the person for whom you are serving.
Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub outlined two aspects of Jewish prayer, “prayer itself” and “the ability to pray” . He says “Pray in order to be able to pray”, identifying five prayers of importance; “ Prayer to the service of the heart, for petition, thankful acknowledgment, praise, to develop self to better relate to God”
Jewish – Behold how good and pleasant it is for siblings to sit together as one.
4 Precepts:
1. Upon 3 things does the world stand – on Torah, on Avuda – service of god – prayer,
deeds of loving kindness.
2. There are 2 aspects to prayer. The prayer itself and the ability to pray.
3. It is the duty of the Jew to cry out to God in times of trouble.
4. He who prays, speaks to God, but he who studies Torah, God speaks to him.
7 points about prayer in Judaism:
1. Prayer is extremely important – but not the whole story. Jewish tradition would take Torah – besides prayer and ritual practice – study and moral living. Don’t serve master to receive a reward. Piety cannot exist in ritual acts only. Man’s
2. Judaism understands prayer as the service of the heart: petition, thankful acknowledgment, and to develop ourselves so we can better relate. We pray in order to be able to pray. One prayer and its relationship to the spine.
3. The Hebrew word – le hip palel – trans. To judge oneself to examine one’s life in relation to god. 613 obligations that touch every aspect of god. 3 times daily life review. Prayer is impossible and also to omit or avoid.
4. Creative tension in prayer life of the jew. Fixed and spontaneous. Between what is on the page and what is in the heart.
5. Fixed and spontaneous prayer – Prayer and the Community. Any human being can come before God, but there is a different dimension if pray as the community of People of Israel. Extraordinary emphasis on communal worship. One prayer – Misha Verhav prayer – quorum of 10 together. Someone called up to the Torah is read now.
6. Hebrew as the language of prayer. Permissible to pray in any language, it is critical for people to understand what they are expressing. The language of Jewish prayer is Hebrew. The vocab. Idioms and spiritual life cannot be conveyed in foreign tongues. And with ancient tradition.
7. Music and chant always a part of Jewish worship. Add quality and actual meaning to add to the prayers. Some prayers prescribed to be said in certain ways. Part of the Jewish trad. Is penetrating thru the prayers. Words can be an impediment to prayers — wordless melody – chant – help us penetrate. Doubtless elicit the relaxation response. Prayer is not meant to be spectator sport
The Buddhist representative Kusala Bhikshu clarified that in the Buddhist tradition “there is no divine to pray to” and that their focus is on “how to end suffering”. He says further about prayer, “ We don’t pray, we practice.”
Buddhist: Buddhism is about doing something. The Buddha was polytheist. When he petitioned the gods to end human suffering they stayed silent. He learned as enlightenment. Called Nirvana. Died at 80. At his death – 18 different schools. 3 major branches of Buddhism existed. The teachings are based on 4 universal truths.
Life is Unsatisfactory. We are born, get sick, get old and die.
Everything that we love cherish and hold on to will be taken away from us. Impermanence and Change.
We will aways encounter people we don’t like and places we don’t want to be.
2nd Truth – We Suffer because we are all selfish.Try to cling and hold on to good stuff, because born with original ignorance, it is impossible to get it right.
3rd Truth – There can be an End to the Suffering. Buddha – The Great Physician.
4th truth – The way to end suffereing is to follow the Noble 8 Fold Path – Right: view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, concentration.
3 Categories – personal disipline, mental purification, and wisdom.
Personal Discipline: Speech action livelihood
Mental purification: Effort, mindfulness, concentration
Wisdom: View and intention
Buddhists do not have a Divine Deity to pray to. A non-theist religion. We don’t know. Do not have a 1st cause. Consider it like a circle. Can believe God as Creator, or big Bang theory. Buddhism’s niche, our focus – how to end suffering. At weddings have little to say, but at funeral, prisons hospitals – people are suffering I have something to say. I don’t tell them to pray. I tell them to practice.
Precept practice is morality, and Meditation is for transformation of consciousness.
Precepts are for mouth and body – not to kill, steal, indulge sex misconduct, lie, consume intoxicating substances
Unskillful speech and action creates suffering. Unconscious thoughts lead into unskillful action
Meditation is for the mind. Allows the Buddhist patient or practitioner into a perfect human being, replacing lower manifestations with higher ones:
Not lust – would have love
Greed – would have generosity
Anger and hatred – would have loving kindness and compassion
Delusion and ignorance – wisdom.
2 Wings of Buddhism are compassion and wisdom.
I am cheerleader and coach. Encourage the practice. The Buddha, and the dharma is their salvation.
Practice expresses and aspiration – – new energy and purifying energy
Inspires our hearts to wisdom and rousing our hearths to awakening.
Med. Professionals . & Buddhist work together
Acceptance, focus on mind and body, and transcend pain and suffering.
Please see Kusala’s website for more details on Buddhist Practice
Referring to morality and meditation. The Rev. Joseph J. Driscoll says that “the experience of prayer is what surges the heart” for the Catholic. He refers to prayer as “a relationship with an outer reality, God, which is the heart of Christian prayer”
The session then moved in to a question and answer session:
Q: In the face of Evil – sitting in front of you, or evil that has befallen one in your community – what practices for evil doer and those who have befallen evil?
Buddhist: — No ultimate evil. We lack concept of ultimate evil because we lack ultimate good. Call it unskillful. People who need to learn new skills. Certain behaviors create suffering. Need to learn new behaviours.
Q: Importance of Stress and Emotional Support – Psalm 133 – What are your traditions doing for a group of homosexual people who are being asked to pass as heterosexuals?
Native American people: Never been an issue. Only an issue when influenced by Christianity.
Protestant: — A burning issue. A lot of judgement that evolves out of doctrine. Some Prot. Traditions have a lot of openness- find a place that affirms them, or get hung up on loyalties, so not to be affirming discussion. Responsibility to find places in midst of suffering to find a place to be affirmed.
Christian Science: — Meeting re AIDS – on one’s identity – a view of ourselves that goes beyond gender and sexual orientation in image and likeness of god. Being essential spiritual beings.
Catholic: — Widely variable opinions, Looked at evil – when not an answer. US Bishops Letter – not to discriminate. Need to respond out of love. In our moral tradition we get caught. In Biology with 13th Century. There is a tension between what we are trying to do.
Jewish: Many different concerns: In the more liberal part of the spectrum can have same sex marriages, and a lot of struggling with it. Homosexuality is an Orthodox issue. Graduate From Rabbinical School started a lobby group meaning – in our image. Let us make men in our image. For full inclusion of lesbians & gays.
Islam: Tho homosexual does not to be accepted across the board. But the strongest teaching is that no one can judge but god, at the end of the day. Not up to you to deal with it. God will deal with it.
Buddhist: A certain equanimity. A monastic tradition sees that everyone suffers. Its difficult not to be in relationship no matter who you are, and all relationships cause suffering.
Q: Insight -A Dance going on as you were changing seats. (referring to the panelists). Seeing a lot of similarities that exist. At the same time each of you were doing such a good job distinguishing yourselves. How is it that you foster – a biologically driven adaptive survival skill, love – how do you deal with the compassion and extending that very expansive connective experience…or how does compassion impact like on a daily basis when there is a conflict between religions?
Catholic: Bottom line question. What would Jesus do in this situation. Comes down to really respecting the other person. With that patient how do I support what gives them life?
Muslim: Come from Palestine – could have a lot to hate. Come to study Judaism on my own. Life is so short, as to bring tears to our faces. To find those difference to celebrate. Find ways to find commonalities.
Christian Science: My mother is catholic, lives at Jewish home in Ct. and I am CS. Thought she would die during the night in the nursing home. What we did – I started to pray immediately. Striving to see the spiritual essence of her life intact. My brothers and I had a priest come and visit her. And a Rabbi showed up and he prayed from his tradition. I stayed with her for a week and read for her aloud, she came conscious and roused.
Protestant: Jehovah’s Witness patient – had some form of cancer and danger of bleeding out. They don’t believe in blood transfusions. Doctor was concerned about that. Wife was so upset couldn’t participate in the decision making. 2 Adults children: one adult child Methodist, and brother was Baptist preacher. Creates a lot of work when there is this kind of conflict. Give everyone a chance to say what was important to them. Then emphasize the need to think about the patient and what they would want. Then everyone felt honored in that process. Not resolve it, and hang in there. Family able to talk together about how they could honor the patient.
Q. Some patients have told them they are supposed to suffer. My training is to decrease suffering. How should I address this?
Catholic: All tied in with punishment. Wise action, contact a catholic chaplain, and give that person the help to understand the tradition and reform that so person can use the tradition.
Bahai faith – Good and the absence of good. Think this is an inherently noble person. Often wanted to ask by patients – we are counting on you, or please save my baby. Wanted to say – no, you please pray for me. Instructed – beseech the mercy of God. Have wanted to do that. So that God will guide me appropriately. Is it crossing a line. Or reassuring to the patient, have to be appropriate.
Catholic: – Wouldn’t use those words. I would say, I will do my best, and know that God’s power will be there.
Muslim: – Patients are closer to God. And have some kind of power. And you do ask him to pray for you and to pray for guidance.
Q. What role does music play at bedside of the dying?
Native America – song is a prayer. Healing prayer and song for joy. Secular songs that are pall songs. When people are in pain want to go back to childhood memories. What song would be remembered. Sufi people — Some songs would comfort them. Children reared in non Indian home, may not no them. Treat all as individual.
Buddhist: Being sick or coming close to death, music may be a distraction. Closest would be chanting. Generally the words of the Buddha – reminding how to practice. Silence would be most conducive to Buddhist practice.
Patients of Jewish original had a lot of grief and anxiety. Didn’t have a view of the afterlife.
Jewish: A great anthology Jewish views of the afterlife. Actually 3 times a day we speak of the resurrection of the dead. And other notions related to the afterlife. There isn’t one very specific dogma or belief system about the afterlife. The normative Jewish notions is that this life is not the whole story, but we main not know. Reincarnation. In medieval Judaism. Explore what they themselves are feeling. The whole issue of dying in Judaisim. Letting go is an issue with the survival imperative in the Jewish community. A shortage of the Jewish. A great belief in medical technology.
Q. What do you recommend for a person who has no religious practice.
Catholics: Chaplains are trained to be multi faith. Administer to anyone spiritual needs.
What is important to you? Spirituality meaning and values. Communicating with them, touching, being with them.
Dr. Benson commented on how he was struck by the universality of the diverse kinds. We hope these conferences will continue for health and well being for all of us.
This panel agreed that one must ask, inquire about the specific practices of a persons faith tradition and avoid assumptions based on the category of a specific religion or philosophy. Because, they clarify, no two Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhist or Native Americans may practice and believe in the same way.
“Prayer and the Catholic Tradition” -Rev. Driscoll
In attending Rev. Driscoll’s afternoon workshop on “Prayer and the Catholic Tradition” I was provided with an in depth view of the Catholic faith and it’s traditions and beliefs around prayer. He spoke of the various experiences of prayer defining such terms as spirit, energy, and spirituality. He delved into the Theological foundations of Christian prayer and referred to such classical writers on prayer as Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, John the Cross, and Catherine of Sienna to mention a few. Rev. Driscoll outlined the “Catholic Content of Christian Prayer” as “Creed, Liturgy, Moral life, Prayer”. And lastly Rev. Driscoll clarified “The Experience of Prayer at the Bedside” speaking specifically about the sacraments and prayers for the dying as outlined by the Catechism of the Catholic Church. He reminds us to be respectful of the patient and families wishes regarding prayer, seeking out what they need specifically during the time of their dying.
Summary
In summary this conference on Spirituality and Healing and medicine seems to be about restoration, discovering and recovering a medical communities spiritual life, and thus the spiritual lives of those served by it. The recognition that this work must be done does not lessen the struggle of this task. As people and their medical communities have become less and less personal, more confidential and technology based, one’s emotional and spiritual life is often not addressed at all, until there is crisis, chaos, or perhaps, death. The wonderful speakers and sponsors of this conference have worked hard and with strong intentions to teach the students at this conference how to better work with their own spiritual life as well as those of their patients. It may be true that what we believe is our reality. And given the ultimate reality of death and suffering in everyday existence it seems we must continue to swim upstream in our fight to restore a spiritual life to healthcare. At least these were the messages that seemed to capture my attention in this gathering. Lastly, recognizing the wealth of knowledge, care, and compassion within the walls of this conference reminded me of what already exists in most people and places, a desire to be cared for, listened to and respected. These are spiritual principles that we all can honor and practice.
