Medicine and Compassion: A Tibetan Lama and an American Doctor on How to Provide Care with Compassion and Wisdom

by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, David R. Shlim, Harvey Fineberg (Foreword by), Donald Fineberg (Foreword by)

Overview

Who cares for the caregivers? No matter what inspires a provider's commitment, the wise words found here will soothe and rejuvenate while offering practical advice. A new 10th anniversary expanded edition.

It is estimated that nearly one-third of the U.S. adult population acts as informal caregivers for ill or disabled loved ones. We can add to these countless workers in the fields of health and human service, and yet there is still not enough help to go around.
Sure to be welcomed by caregivers of all types, this new edition of the groundbreaking Medicine and Compassion can help anyone reconnect with the true spirit of their caregiving task. In a clear and very modern voice, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and Dr. David R. Shlim use the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism to present practical tools for revitalizing the caring spirit.
Offering practical advice on dealing with people who are angry at their medical conditions or their care providers, people who are dying, or the families of those who are critically ill, Medicine and Compassion provides needed inspiration to any who wish to reenergize their patience, kindness, and effectiveness. The warmth and care in these pages is sure to strike a resonant cord with medical professionals, hospice workers, teachers and parents of children with special needs, and those caring for aging and infirm loved ones.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614292258
Publisher:	Wisdom Publications MA
Publication date:	05/12/2015
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	803,403
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche is the abbot of one of the largest monasteries in Nepal, with over 250 monks. He was born in 1951 in Tibet and fled that country with his family when he was eight years old. He trained in Sikkim, then founded his monastery near Kathmandu in 1976. He has focused on making authentic Tibetan Buddhist teachings available to Westerners. He has authored six books, and he regularly visits and teaches at retreat centers in many countries, including his North American retreat center in California, Rangjung Yeshe Gomde.
David R. Shlim MD ran the world's busiest destination travel medicine clinic in Kathmandu, Nepal for fifteen years, and was the attending physician for all the survivors of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster chronicled in Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air. He currently lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Preface xi

Medicine and Compassion

Prologue 1

Overview 3

1 Human Nature 5

2 The Causes of Suffering 13

3 What Patients Are Looking For 21

4 Combining Wisdom and Compassion 27

5 Impermanence, the Body, and the Senses 33

6 Dualistic Thinking and Why It Is Important 41

7 Conceptual and Nonconceptual Compassion 47

Training 53

8 What Does It Mean to Be a Spiritual Practitioner? 55

9 Developing a Compassionate Attitude 65

10 The Key to Compassion 71

11 Learning to Meditate 79

12 Learning to Monitor Our Mental State 91

13 The Qualities of an Authentic Teacher 97

14 Examples of Enlightened Resolve 105

15 The Need for a Teacher 113

16 Different Kinds of Teachers 119

17 Cultivating a Calm Mind 127

Practical Advice 135

18 The Best Possible Care 137

19 Coping with Difficult Patients and Situations 143

20 Easing the Process of Dying 153

21 The True Meaning of Death with Dignity 163

22 Tibetan Medicine 169

Index 179

About Medicine and Compassion 191

About the Authors 193