Contemplative Medicine Conversations:

Tending to Suffering with Equanimity

with Sensei Chodo Robert Campbell, Sharon Salzberg, and Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison

Monday, May 16, 2022 from 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm ET



“One of the great poignancies in life is that we're not ultimately in control. Because of that, what we are looking for is the balance between compassion and equanimity, which allows us to care and yet not get overwhelmed and unable to cope because of that caring.”

– Sharon Salzberg

Building on our experience and expertise in contemplative education, in July 2021, we launched the Contemplative Medicine Fellowship —a year-long program specifically developed for physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants who want to transform their role as clinicians and lead change in the culture of care.

Join us for a free online event with Fellowship faculty member Sharon Salzberg, New York Times bestselling author and one of America's leading spiritual teachers.

Many clinicians entered the field of medicine to be of service to those who are suffering. Yet, in the brokenness of our healthcare system, it can be challenging to continually and wholeheartedly turn toward suffering day after day.

In this webinar, Sharon Salzberg and fellowship guiding Teachers Sensei Koshin and Sensei Chodo will explore the interplay of compassion and equanimity and how the practice of balancing them can sustain a healthcare practitioner's open heart, ease burnout, and promote well-being while caring for the suffering world.

This webinar will be engaging and appropriate for anyone wishing to explore a contemplative approach to medicine, shifting from emotional exhaustion to resourced compassion. It will also provide an opportunity to ask questions about the next Contemplative Medicine Fellowship beginning July 30, 2022.

Speaker Bios:

SHARON SALZBERG

Sharon Salzberg is cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts. She is one of America's leading spiritual teachers and authors, and has been a student of Buddhism since 1971, leading meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. Sharon's latest book is The Force of Kindness, published by Sounds True. She is also the author of Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience, published by Riverhead Books; Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness and A Heart as Wide as the World, both published by Shambhala Publications; and co-author with Joseph Goldstein of Insight Meditation, a Step-by-Step Course on How to Meditate (audio), from Sounds True. For more information about Sharon, please visit: www.SharonSalzberg.com.

SENSEI CHODO ROBERT CAMPBELL, GC-C

NYZC Vice President and Guiding Teacher

In 2007, Sensei Chodo Robert Campbell, co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care — a non-profit organization that focuses on the teaching of Zen and Buddhist practice with the goal to make them more accessible to people all around the world. The center delivers contemplative approaches to care through education, personal caregiving, and meditation practice. To better expand the reach of the program, Chodo co-developed a carefully structured protocol: the Foundations in Contemplative Care Training Program. Today, New York Zen Center's methodologies are internationally recognized—and have touched the lives of tens of thousands of individuals.

Chodo is a dynamic, grounded, and visionary leader and teacher: he has traveled extensively throughout the U.S instructing in various institutions. He has also spent many hours dedicated to bearing witness to the suffering of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Chodo's public programs have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the living and dying. Sixty-thousand people listen to his podcasts each year. His passion lies in bereavement counseling and advocating for change in the way our healthcare institutions work with the dying.

Chodo is widely recognized as a trailblazer and authority on contemplative care; His work has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, Tricycle, Parabola and other media outlets. He is a recognized Soto Zen Teacher with the American Zen Teachers Association, White Plum Asanga, and Soto Zen Buddhist Association.

Academic Appointments

Chodo is part of the core faculty for the Buddhist Track in the Master in Pastoral Care and Counseling at NYZC's education partner, New York Theological Seminary. He is also on the faculty of the University of Arizona Medical School's Center for Integrative Medicine's Integrative Medicine Fellowship and the Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine in San Diego.

SENSEI KOSHIN PALEY ELLISON, MFA, LMSW, DMIN

NYZC President and Guiding Teacher

Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison is an author, Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, and Certified Chaplaincy Educator. After more than a decade as a chaplain and psychotherapist, Koshin co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. The non-profit center offers contemplative approaches to care through education, personal caregiving, and Zen practice. Today, New York Zen Center's methodologies are internationally recognized—and have touched the lives of tens of thousands of individuals.

Koshin is a renowned thought leader in contemplative care; his work has been featured in the New York Times, PBS, Tricycle among other publications. He is the author of Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up (Wisdom Publications, 2019) and the co-editor of Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End of Life Care (Wisdom Publications, 2016).

Koshin began his formal Zen training in 1987, and he is a recognized Soto Zen Teacher by the American Zen Teachers Association, White Plum Asanga, and Soto Zen Buddhist Association. He serves on the Board of Directors at the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care and Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

He has completed six years of training at the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association as well as clinical contemplative training at both Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center and New York Presbyterian Medical Center. He is an ACPE Certified Educator, chaplain, and Jungian psychotherapist.

Academic Appointments

Koshin has served as the co-director of Contemplative Care Services for the Department of Integrative Medicine and as the chaplaincy supervisor for the Pain and Palliative Care Department at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, where he also served on the Medical Ethics Committee.

He is currently on the faculty of the University of Arizona Medical School's Center for Integrative Medicine's Integrative Medicine Fellowship, on faculty of the Integrative Medicine Fellowship of the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine, and he is a visiting professor at the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics, of the University of Texas Health Science Center of Houston Medical School.