Conference Report
BEING A COMPASSIONATE PRESENCE
In other conference settings, such an admission might have been a cause for concern, but she pressed on. “It is impossible to come up with one definition of spirituality and spiritual care that we all agree with,” she said, “and if you think about it, that makes sense, because we are all coming from a different place. We all have different life experiences and understandings of spirituality and spiritual care. Not being able to define it and fix it into a nice conceptual box is actually a good thing, because there is more space to see what it is in the moment, with the person we are with, rather than our concept of what it should be.” Over the following two days, speakers from a wide variety of disciplines, professional backgrounds, medical specialties and trainings offered their own perspectives on spiritual caregiving. Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, a Catholic Sister of Charity who has worked with the homeless and disadvantaged in Ireland for many years, said spiritual care was about caring for someone “in a deeply human way... compassionately and, above all, with a deep respect.” Dr Ira Byock, a specialist in hospice, palliative and end-of-life care from The work of Rigpa's Spiritual Care Programme, which hosted the conference, is inspired by the vision that Sogyal Rinpoche set out in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, in which he called for a more compassionate approach to the way in which we care for the living, and for the dying. The conference was timed to celebrate the opening of Rigpa's new Spiritual Care Centre at Dzogchen Beara on the south-west coast of In his talk on the opening morning, entitled The Heart of Compassion, Sogyal Rinpoche addressed a theme that continued throughout the conference. “If we truly want to help others, we must first help ourselves,” he said. “We can begin, first of all, by getting to know our own minds.” As he described the great benefits of meditation, Rinpoche showed that the twin subjects of the conference, compassion and presence, were inextricably linked. “As we connect with the purity of our inherent nature through meditation practice, what is revealed is our fundamental goodness—the good heart. Kindness, compassion and love simply exude; and as you integrate the practice mindfully in your life, the more you will find that not only you are in touch with yourself, but completely in touch with others.”
Describing the gathering in Killarney as 'revolutionary', Jon Kabat-Zinn said: “This conference is all about presence. It is not so easy to actually show up, even in your own life, never mind for another person. There are an infinite number of moments when we only see what we want to see, and we don't see what we don't want to see. We don't even see our patients, because all we see are our concepts of them, our negative emotions towards them, our fears. None of that's a problem, if you are aware of it. If you are not aware of it, it can sink your boat and actually cause harm to the patient—and you won't even know it's happening. This is why awareness is so fundamental. Without awareness, we have no idea who we are or what we are doing, even if we are extremely well trained and competent.” Some of the speakers described how their own spiritual practice had helped them to support patients who were sick or dying. Dr Ann Allegre, a Rigpa student who is medical director at Kansas City Hospice in the Ursula Bates, a clinical psychologist from Quality of life Dedicating his talk to Dr Mount, who was not able to attend, Dr Gian Borasio observed that when he started his medical studies in As well as presenting studies and statistics, Dr Borasio and his fellow speakers told personal stories about the people they had cared for, and shared what they had learned from their patients. Palliative care, they said, could not be limited to the relief of physical symptoms. It was, explained Dr Ira Byock, about “treating what makes sense, what is reversible, what supports a meaningful quality of life as defined by the person and their family, but also not abandoning people to figure out how to live fully through the end of life; helping in that regard as well, getting beyond the avoidance or denial of dying that really diminishes the fullness of life.” Important milestone Dr Gian Borasio described the conference as “a very important milestone in the effort to bring awareness of spirituality and spiritual needs back into modern medicine”. He said: “It was there centuries ago but it got lost through the advent of technological success, and now we are slowly bringing it back again. This conference is a very important first step in the journey, at the end of which it should be regarded as a self-understanding professional competence of every physician and healthcare professional to be sensitive to spiritual needs, as much as we are starting to understand that healthcare professionals need to be sensitive to cultural issues, gender issues and psycho-social issues. To put spiritual issues on the same level, not just in palliative care but throughout medicine, is the goal that will be ultimately reached, and this conference is an important milestone on the way to that.” But for this to be successful, he said, studies would need to prove to healthcare administrators not only that spiritual care contributes to the well-being of patients, their families, and the carers themselves, but that it saves money. “To us it's a side-effect, but to them it's the most important thing, which is why we must prove it to them. We need to have a cost-efficient health system. If bringing in spirituality not only improves the well-being of all involved but even saves money and produces scientific data, then all the better. It is a win-win situation.
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Jon Kabat-Zinn highlighted the importance of mindfulness and awareness as he presented his pioneering work in bringing mindfulness-based techniques into the mainstream of medicine and society. 