About Me
My life has been and will continue to be one of service to all beings. I am grateful to be supported by members of my spiritual communities (some of whom volunteer in hospice) and friends who are current or former chaplains. I plan to build on these friendships and network with local chaplains and those doing similar work to help each other and further the respect for the profession (in medical, social, and political circles).
This work appeals to me for three reasons:
1. I accompanied my mother while she was in transition in hospice for two years, visiting every other week, often with my partner Heidi. We met with a hospice chaplain who gave us resources to make our visits sustainable for us and supportive for Mom. Through these visits I realized that being present and supportive was a great service to a person who is suffering. I would like my work to primarily consist of providing a nurturing presence.
2. I can use my experience as a Christian and a Buddhist, and my study of both religions to serve a variety of people from an interfaith perspective. I can bring my whole self into a relationship drawing on a variety of practices and ways of connecting learned over my life and study.
3. I believe I can help caregivers as well as patients to have a good quality of life by practicing deep listening and loving speech. I can share practices for self-care when appropriate. I also see this as an exciting time to be involved in hospice as more people see the value of this option.
My life and work experience support this training in three ways. The first is that I have a strong grounding in practice with my local Buddhist sangha/congregation learning and being supported to sit silently with the skills of deep listening, and loving speech. The second is my aspiration to follow Thich Nhat Hanh's Mindfulness Trainings and the Bodhisattva Vows. My life has been and will continue to be one of service to all beings, much like my father as a minister and academic, and my mother as a social worker. Third, my experience traveling and living in Asia, and working alongside, and serving people from, a variety of backgrounds gives me skills in cultural competency, openness, and sensitivity that will be great assets in this work.
My Planned Journey of Study: I am engaging in similar work as a volunteer (currently with the No One Dies Alone program), and will continue to do so during my chaplaincy training as an intern in a Clinical Pastoral Education program at a local hospital.
2017- March 2019: Upaya’s Chaplaincy program.
Summer 2019: I am beginning a four-year program with Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry to earn a Master of Divinity to complete my Christian training to earn the required credits to become a board certified chaplain. During one of the summer sessions I will earn my first unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE).
September 2022: After the study at Seattle University I will spend an academic year with a local hospital as a resident to earn the additional three units of CPE, finishing my initial study and credentialing process in 2023.
At that point I will be a Christian Buddhist or Interfaith Chaplain. I cannot do this study and work without the support of my friends and family. I am entering this journey to devote my life to serving the community more directly in this focused way.
On Saturday Sept. 16th, 2017 I was ordained as a lay member of the Order of Interbeing(OI), a community of Zen Buddhist practitioners committed to the integration of spiritual/mindfulness practice and social engagement. The OI was founded by Thich Nhat Hanh in 1966 as a way to respond to the sufferings of the Vietnam War. The commitment to OI is one of personal practice and building spiritual community. It involves a commitment to study and practice with the 14 Mindfulness Trainings of the Order of Interbeing. We receive a “true” name in conjunction with our ordination. A group that ordains at the same time becomes an “ordination family.” Our family is the “Dwelling” family, and my new dharma name is “True Insightful Dwelling.” A dharma name speaks to who we already are, and it is an invitation to cultivate and embody the name even more deeply.
Contact Me:
jmalcomson (at) yahoo.com
