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Thai monk informs hospice crowd
By MOLLY MOORHEAD SAN ANTONIO -- Buddhist monks have a duty to teach people how to have a peaceful death. They instruct patients on meditation, massage therapy, music therapy and herbal medicines. But Mettanando Bhikkhu, a monk from Thailand, has introduced another concept of care for the dying in his country: hospice care. Bhikkhu learned about the American hospice model in 1998 and has since made several trips to the United States to increase his knowledge. This past fall, he helped establish Thailand's first hospice center. The government-supported facility in Bangkok primarily serves cancer patients. "People in other parts of the world don't know about hospice," Bhikkhu said this week. As a guest of Hernando-Pasco Hospice, he spoke to health care professionals and volunteers about appreciating cultural differences when caring for terminally ill patients. "In a multicultural place like the United States, end-of-life care is very important," Bhikkhu told a group of about 100 at Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club. He also spoke at Glen Lakes Country Club north of Weeki Wachee. Dressed in bright orange robes, the 46-year-old monk projected tranquility and a light sense of humor as he navigated through his presentation on PowerPoint, which he termed "amazing." "Health care personnel need to understand cultural diversity to understand the patient," he said. His speech included an overview of Eastern religions and some examples of cultural variations. Bhikkhu explained how reluctance to take pharmaceutical drugs is common in Asian culture because many people believe the medicines could cause mental defects in their next lives. It's also important to know the role of family members and learn who will make decisions for a dying patient, he said. In some cultures the relationship between mother and son is strongest, while in others it's the bond between mother and daughter. Bhikkhu's own journey into studying end-of-life care began when he met a 51-year-old breast cancer patient who came to him to learn about meditation. The woman, a Christian, was declining rapidly and wondered why God was punishing her. "She was living a miserable life," Bhikkhu said. Meditation helped her find peace, and she lived eight more months. "She saw in her meditation the place she would be living after she passed away," he said. The experience led Bhikkhu to pursue the subject further. He was accepted to Oxford University in England, becoming the first Buddhist monk to study there, he said. He later earned a master's degree in theology from Harvard University. He also holds a doctorate and a medical degree. While it's vital to appreciate patients' cultural backgrounds, Bhikkhu said it also can be beneficial to integrate treatments that might be foreign to them into their care. Meditation isn't widely advocated in the American medical community, but Bhikkhu swears by its effectiveness. "You can adapt it as relaxation therapy, self-realization therapy, and it can be helpful," he said. He said there are two periods of life when people are most likely to benefit from meditation: the childhood years and three to four months before death. "A dying patient is gifted to meditate," he said. "The mind comes to a state of peace very fast." In Buddhism, there are 32 possibilities of what happens to people after they die. In one scenario, people pass into an interim state when they don't know they're dead. Each state is considered either favorable or unfavorable. Nirvana is the ultimate state. The word means to "blow out." "Nirvana is a mystery that Buddha left for people to find out," he said.
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