Discharged or dead: Be not attached

Prayer Flags in Nepal  (Photo by Woudloper)

When you’re a Buddhist lama, your perspectives might be quite different from those of other hospital chaplains.

At least that’s the case with Ngodup Yodsampa, who makes chaplaincy rounds at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.  Originally from Tibet, Yodsampa was forced to flee from the Communist regime.  He then ran a restaurant in Nepal during the 1970s.

“Hippies” back then would ask him spiritually-oriented questions about Tibetan  culture.  Yodsampa began sharing information about “internal pursuit” with them.   After later moving to Germany, he served as an “interpreter for a Tibetan Buddhist teacher.”

These days, Yodsampa “runs weekly meditation groups for patients who have suffered from cancer, brain damage, psychiatric illness, and domestic violence.”  Because patients come and go so rapidly within the hospital environment, Yodsampa continuously reminds himself “not to dwell” and not “to get attached either way.”   

Resources

https://www.statnews.com/2016/05/10/beth-israel-deaconess-hospital-chaplain/?s_campaign=stat:rss 

Copyright May 14, 2016 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved