April–June 2009, Volume 36
Features
Religion and Health
The Role of Religion in Providing Total Health Care
by Moichiro Hayashi
To someone directly and officially concerned, it would see that hospitals should not only treat diseases of the baby but should deal with ailments of both mind and body.
Religion and HIV/AIDS—A Changing Relationship
by Gunnar Stålsett
AIDS and religion have been a discordant couple, but most religions have a clear humanitarian agenda. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is one of today’s leading humanitarian challenges.
Poverty and Human Health: Strategic Challenges
by Katherine Marshall
Many religious approaches to health focus on the world’s least favored citizens, especially those who are desperately poor or face exclusion, discrimination, and displacement.
Bodyworks: Body-Mind Health and Ascetic Practices
by Tullio Lobetti
There seems to be a certain continuity in the activities of ascetic practitioners that stems from a different understanding of one’s body.
Compassion, Health Care, and Buddhist Monks
by Pinit Ratanakul
Many Thai clerics are highly regarded by the public for their social work and deeply sympathetic attention to serious health issues.
The Great Turning for Global Healing
An Interview with Dr. Joanna Macy
Dr. Joanna Macy is an American Buddhist teacher, writer, and activist in the campaign for environmental and social justice. When Dr. Macy was in Tokyo in November to participate in the twenty-fourth General Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, Dharma World interviewed her on the significance of the Buddha’s teachings for global healing.
Health and Poverty
by Rosalina Melendres-Valenton
Despite the ambitious development goals laid out by the government, church, and other nongovernment agencies, the Philippines has not been able to sustain the economic growth required to reduce poverty.
Religious Communities Take the Lead for Children
by Stephen Hanmer, Aaron Greenberg, and Ghazal Keshavarzian
Children constitute a large percentage of the world’s poor. There is a strong consensus across most religious traditions about the importance of caring for and supporting them.
Religion and Health
by Taye VanMerlin and Kazzrie Neval
The effect of having a strong religious foundation positively correlates with the ability to cope with and heal serious illness.
An Interspiritual Approach for Modern Medical Care
by Wataru Kaya
The author notes that he arrived at his approach through his relations with many psychologically disturbed patients and the psychoanalysis he himself has received.
The Benefits of Buddhist Breathing Techniques
by Akikazu Takada
A renowned physiologist and Zen practitioner describes why breathing, which is something we are always doing anyway, should be so strongly connected with our minds.
Reflections
The Pleasure of Studying the Dharma
by Nichiko Niwano
Life inevitably brings with it various forms of suffering. Shakyamuni teaches us how to gain the wisdom to discern the causes of this suffering.
