link banner

Welfare / Hospice Websites

BuddhaNet’s Hospice and AIDS Directory

Listing of Buddhist Hospice Services, HIV/AIDS Projects and other Hospices Resources in BuddhaNet’s ‘On Death and Dying’ section. This section also has articles on Caring for the Dying and Bereaved.

Thamkrabok Foundation (Treatment of Drug Addiction)

The Thamkrabok Foundation was established in 1996 to create a more formal link with the Thamkrabok Monastery in Thailand, famous throughout the world for its radical but effective treatment of drug addiction. For more info on the Thamkrabok Foundation, contact Brian Haffenden on 9345 1182.

The Engaged Zen Foundation (Buddhist Prison Ministry)

The Engaged Zen Foundation is an independent organization of Buddhist practitioners involved with prison ministry. We are dedicated to fostering zazen (seated contemplative meditation) practice in prison. Meditative training alters the functioning of the mind of the practitioner and these changes manifest with the development of positive perspectives on life. Using the time available during imprisonment to foster the practice of zazen, sitting in dynamic, lucid awareness, serves prisoners on release by enabling them, through their own efforts, to reenter society with a disciplined, patient, nonviolent and compassionate frame of mind.

ANGULIMALA (Buddhist Prison Chaplaincy Organisation, UK)

Following consultation with the Home Office Prison Service Chaplaincy, ANGULIMALA was recognized in March l985 as the official representative of Buddhism in all matters concerning the prison service. Its objects were defined as: To make available facilities for the teaching and practice of Buddhism in Her Majesty’s Prisons. Specifically: To recruit and advise a team of Buddhist visiting chaplains to be available as soon as there is a call for their services; To act in an advisory capacity, and to liaise with the Home Office chaplaincy officials and with individual chaplains within Her Majesty’s Prisons; To provide an aftercare and advisory service for prisoners after release. ANGULIMALA therefore does not favour any form of Buddhism over another and has the backing of most major Buddhist organisations in the UK. ANGULIMALA’S spiritual director is Venerable Ajahn Khemadhammo.

Buddhist Psychology (Amida Trust)

This site contains information about the Amida Trust training programmes in applied Buddhist psychotherapy, psychology and Fully Engaged Buddhism. Amida Trust is a Pureland Buddhist foundation with a particular interest in engaged work. Our Dharma Teacher, Dharmavidya David Brazier is the author of Zen Therapy, The Feeling Buddha and The New Buddhism. Amida Trust sponsors projects in Zambia, India, Sarajevo and UK and has a world-wide membership. It has a particular interest in Buddhist psychology and its application in many settings.

Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation

Founded by Master Cheng Yen Based on the spirit of Mahayana Buddhism. Charity work in Nepal, Mongolia, Northern Thailand, North Korea and many other third-world countries. The world third largest Bone Marrow Registry. 3 hospitals in Taiwan, free clinics in USA and Philippines. 1 dialysis centre in Malaysia.1 Medical college and nursing college in Taiwan.

Websites:

www.tzuchi.org.tw (Chinese)
www.tzuchi.org.tw/en/ (English)

Karuna Hospice Service

Karuna is located in Brisbane, Queensland, in Australia. It offers compassionate home-based care for individuals and their loved ones who are facing a life-threatening illness. Karuna cares for adults and children who have a life expectancy of less than six months and who: normally reside in the Brisbane suburbs north of the Brisbane river; have a carer available and; have a general practitioner who is willing to be involved in home-based care.

Zen Hospice Project

Zen Hospice Project is located in San Francisco. Inspired by a 2500-year-old spiritual tradition, Zen Hospice Project encourages and supports a mutually beneficial relationship among volunteer caregivers and individuals facing death. This nationally-innovative model of conscious care provides a spectrum of collaborative volunteer programs, residential care, and trainings which aim at cultivating wisdom and compassion through service. Zen hospice has also started an educational venture, the Institute on Dying. Its mission is to seed the culture with new approaches to end-of-life care. Through educational programs, intensive trainings, public dialogues, experiential workshops, and consulting services, the Institute works to reaffirm the spiritual dimensions of dying.

The Clear Light Society

Our Vision: One person in every family! One person trained in the Clear Light Practices for the Dyiing. The Clear Light Meditation for the Dying is that process. A nonsectarian practice, it prepares the mind of a dying person for moving into an open dimension of radiant clarity. This enormously multiplies the possibility of not only becoming one with the light, but resting there for a longer duration, with inconceivable spiritual implications. The Tibetan meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche declared this teaching a Mind Treasure suitable for this time and for people of all (or no) belief systems.

Buddhist Peace Fellowship

The Buddhist Peace Fellowship is 21 years old and 5,000 members strong. Our style of open-minded, open-hearted engaged Buddhism, our expanding programs in Asia and the United States, and our lively, immediate journal, Turning Wheel, serve as a beacon for Dharma activists committed to transforming the world and themselves. Through BPF, Buddhists of many traditions are invited to explore personal and group responses to political, social, and ecological suffering in the world.

Prison Dharma Network

Prison Dharma Network (PDN), a nonsectarian Buddhist support network for prisoners, prison volunteers, and correctional workers was founded in 1989 by Fleet Maull, a then federal prisoner. PDN is an affiliate of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship and a village of the Peacemaker Community. Our Mission is to support prisoners in the practice of contemplative disciplines, with emphasis on the meditation practices of the various Buddhist traditions. PDN also supports prisoners in the practice and study of the Buddhist teachings and promotes the Buddhist path of wakefulness and non-aggression as an ideal means of self-rehabilitation and transformation.

Buddhist Recovery Network

The Buddhist Recovery Network was established earlier this year and supports the use of Buddhist teachings, traditions and practices to help people recover from the suffering caused by addictive behaviors. Open to people of all backgrounds, and respectful of all recovery paths, the organization promotes mindfulness and meditation, and is grounded in Buddhist principles of non-harming, compassion and interdependence. It seeks to serve an international audience through teaching, training, treatment, research, publication, advocacy and community-building initiatives. Jack Kornfield is the Network’s Patron, and Kevin Griffin, Noah Levine and Professor G. Alan Marlatt are among the Network’s founding Board members. We are setting up a register of Buddhist Recovery Meetings on the website (eg ‘Eleventh Step’ meetings which include a period of meditation, Dharma discussion groups formed by those in recovery etc).

[ Submit a Buddhist website to BuddhaNet’s Web Links via e-mail with a brief description – 50 words ]