從“靈性生活”走向“靈性護理”:以我國佛教安養院臨終關懷實踐和思想為例=From “Spiritual Life” to “Spiritual Care”: A Case Study of Hospice Care Practice and Thought in Chinese Buddhist Nursing Home
To promote the diversified development of the elderly care system, since the implementation of the policy of encouraging religious organizations to set up nursing homes and rehabilitation homes, over 50 Buddhist monasteries have opened care centers for Buddhist elder people. This paper focuses on the hospice care practice and its guiding ideology, and discusses how to interpret the practice of "Wang Sheng" from the perspective of anthropological reciprocal theory. "Wang Sheng" is a Buddhist terminology, which indicates future life after death in this life cycle. "Zhu Nian", or chanting Amitabha mantra, means the dying person asks others to help him or her chant mantra, so as to enhance his/her personal belief in future life. As an organizational form of institutionalized elderly care and hospice care in the Buddhist community of our country, the care center set up by Buddhist temples is characterized by providing spiritual support and comfort for the elderly while relieving the burden of elderly care for both individual homes and the society. Through presenting the daily life and spiritual belief of the elderly in their old ages(spiritual life), this paper analyzes the practice of mutual aid and mutual benefit through chanting mantras in various forms of nursing homes.I n other words, "spiritual care" is a form of spiritual consolation involving the meaning of life and the view of death, and the key to the transition from "spiritual life" to hospice care.
