Medicine in Japanese Buddhism

Buddhist institutions were first established in the Japanese archipelago in the 6th century ce. In the same period, the ruling families incorporated Chinese-style medicine and Daoist ritual healing techniques into Japanese culture and society. By the 8th century, Buddhism had become a dominant cultural force in Japan. The Japanese Buddhist textual tradition was shaped by translations from Sanskrit into classical Chinese, and Chinese texts remained paramount for all branches of scholarship. In the ensuing centuries, a rich and hybrid ritual, material, and intellectual culture emerged from combining these various religious and scholarly traditions, as well as elements of the local tradition of kami神 (gods) worship. This also resulted in a distinct tradition of Buddhist medicine, which blossomed in the Kamakura period (1185–1333). The esoteric (or tantric) tradition of Mahāyāna Buddhism with its idea of mutual empowerment (kaji加持) and unification of the ritualist and a buddha, bodhisattva, or other Buddhist deity, directing their power to heal, protect, etc., was the prevailing paradigm. Other traditions developed over the course of the centuries, too, notably Pure Land, Nichiren, and Zen Buddhism, and the vinaya restoration movement (Shingon Ritsu). These also had an impact on the ideas and practices of healing and medical care. All shared the aim of providing the means for salvation and ultimate liberation from sickness and suffering. Lay patrons in early and medieval Japan funded the construction of hospitals and other care facilities as well as medicinal gardens. The Japanese monastics who studied the classical Chinese medical texts and treated their patients following the ideal of the compassionate bodhisattva were also familiar with basic ideas from Indian Āyurveda from translated sutras and commentaries. As such, etiology and diagnosis in the Japanese Buddhist context included epistemic and cosmological thought from both China and India. In the Buddhist context, rituals such as elaborate fire-offering ceremonies (goma護摩) were commonly used to take care of patients of all ages. Buddhist treatments also included empowered medicines, acupuncture, and moxibustion. Buddhist priests provided palliative care, and deathbed rituals were conducted to protect the dying from evil forces and prepare them spiritually for a good death and future birth. Buddhist medical practitioners not only included monastic doctors, usually called sōi僧医 in modern literature, but also various kinds of exorcists and healers. These groups produced talismans and amulets, and offered protective rituals within the paradigmatic framework of Japanese Buddhism. Pilgrimage to sacred sites at Buddhist temples provided a way for monastics and lay people to find healing and support. The external treatment of afflictions often went hand in hand with internal, mental, or cognitive methods such as various forms of meditation. These methods were primarily practiced by the monastically trained, but some, such as naikan内観, “internal observation,” were practiced by a wider circle of practitioners. Buddhistic methods were also used to treat animals.

Open dialogue and co-production: promoting a dialogical practice culture in the co-production of teaching and learning within nurse education

Purpose The evidence base associated with Open dialogue (OD) continues to develop. However, much of the literature associated with this “whole system philosophy” is focussed within therapeutic clinical practice. The purpose of this paper is to explore another key aspect of OD within a higher education context, the creation of “dialogical practice culture” and the application of key OD principles to enable an open, empowering ethos which permeates all aspects of teaching and learning and supports co-production. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a collective auto ethnographic approach to reflect on their experiences of developing and delivering a series of co-produced seminars within pre-registration mental health nurse education over a period of 4 years. This paper explores the data produced through this process focussing on the pedagogical impact and challenges of applying OD principles to teaching and learning practice. Findings The paper highlights the way in which two core principles of OD, resonate with the co-production process within teaching design and delivery. Moreover, the paper illustrates the impact that threading these principles throughout teaching practice can have: enhancing the learning environment and facilitating mutual empowerment, and thus supporting the students’ development of empowering therapeutic practice with service users. A significant theme in these reflections has been the nature of empowerment and the necessity to openly address power differentials and relationships. Originality/value This innovative paper is the first to explore the application of OD principles within a nurse education context; considering how they support co-production and enable an empowering culture. This exploration helps to provide a foundation for further inquiry and research.

Mentoring and Supervision for Women of Color Leaders in North American Higher Education

Reflecting on their mentoring and supervision experiences as Latina and Black women leaders in higher education, this article proposes that Women of Color employees are more effective when supervisors give them space to draw upon their own rich histories and cultural wealth in their professional lives. Viewed through the lens of Relational Cultural Theory, which grew out of the work of Jean Baker Miller and colleagues providing culturally relevant, affirmative supervision is a growth-fostering experience for both employee and supervisor. The tenants of RCT include authenticity, growth-fostering relationships, mutual empathy, and mutual empowerment as aspects of supervision that are particularly effective for employees with multiple intersected identities working in higher education spaces. The authors make recommendations for supervisor training that would allow supervisors to draw upon the cultural capital of their diverse employees to provide healing from oppression and build resilience through validation of cultural assets and approaches to leadership.

New Challenges and Changing Opportunities: The Differing Responses of Transnational Solidarity Organisations in Germany

In her study of the German case, Zschache shows that the activism and discourse of local transnational solidarity organisations (TSOs) in Germany display a considerable amount of similarities. In particular, the author argues that solidarity work has become more political, insisting more strongly on an advocatory, rights-based approach. She also draws attention to the importance of collaboration as a means to enhance the effectivity of solidarity work and to promote mutual empowerment as a crucial principle of solidarity. Moreover, the author offers new insights into how TSOs react to changing circumstances, engage in joint learning and promote innovations. In this context, the discourse of solidarity that seeks to transcend specific target groups and commits to a more integrated, cross-sectoral approach is particularly salient.

Collaborative Agency in Civic and Community Engagement: Narratives of College Students Working Toward Generative Partnerships

The development of democratic citizenship and youth leadership requires an ability to collaborate with others in ways that are jointly empowering. In this study, we sought to understand how students at an urban liberal arts college in the United States framed their own and others’ efficacy and responsibility in narrative accounts of situations they faced in civic and community engagement. We were interested in how young people learn and work alongside local stakeholders, rather than serve on behalf of people and communities considered to be in need. We aimed to gain insight into occasions in which collaborative agency emerged, or failed to emerge, in the coordinated activity of individuals engaged in the creation of intersubjectivity, shared commitments, and perceptions of group accomplishment. We collected narratives over a 4-year period from 123 Bonner Scholars, campus leaders whose scholarship includes a substantial weekly commitment to service. Our analysis of stories featuring or problematizing collaborative agency showed students grappling with limits of collaborative agency, but also generativity and interdependence. They described civic agency and leadership with other students, non-profit partners, and citizens. In some settings, we heard students striving for a collaborative solidarity, moving beyond collaborative agency toward relationships affording mutual empowerment.

Mentoring and Supervision for Women of Color Leaders in North American Higher Education

Reflecting on their mentoring and supervision experiences as Latina and Black women leaders in higher education, this article proposes that Women of Color employees are more effective when supervisors give them space to draw upon their own rich histories and cultural wealth in their professional lives. Viewed through the lens of Relational Cultural Theory, which grew out of the work of Jean Baker Miller and colleagues providing culturally relevant, affirmative supervision is a growth-fostering experience for both employee and supervisor. The tenants of RCT include authenticity, growth-fostering relationships, mutual empathy, and mutual empowerment as aspects of supervision that are particularly effective for employees with multiple intersected identities working in higher education spaces. The authors make recommendations for supervisor training that would allow supervisors to draw upon the cultural capital of their diverse employees to provide healing from oppression and build resilience through validation of cultural assets and approaches to leadership.

Decolonization and development: Reimagining key concepts in education

In view of the importance and urgency of transformation within post-colonial educational settings, this article considers key concepts in relation to re-curriculation efforts. It specifically discusses how the concepts of development and decolonization are typically understood and how they can be reimagined through the realism provided by the African moral philosophy of ubuntu. Ubuntu foregrounds deeply relational and immaterial notions of power, and through its lens development can be thought of in terms of ‘mutual empowerment’ and decolonization as a process of ‘constructive resilience’. The author elaborates on these definitions and draws on a practical example from an educational project in Limpopo, South Africa, to show how this can be operationalized and translated into the genesis of materials and methods that facilitate participatory citizenship.

OC 8391 AFREENET (AFRICA ETHICS EXCELLENCE NETWORK): A NETWORK OF NATIONAL RESEARCH ETHICS COMMITTEES ENGAGED IN THE REINFORCEMENT OF THEIR CAPACITIES

BackgroundThe establishment of research ethics committees (RECs) in charge of reviewing research protocols answers the need to regulate with an ethical framework the development of clinical trials, biomedical research and technologies affecting human health. The first RECs were instituted at the national level in the 60 s, and were gradually put in place in Africa as a result of research projects development in the area of epidemics such as HIV infection, and to meet one of the major requirements of the Helsinki Declaration and the international ethical Guidelines CIOMS: ‘each research protocol involving humans has to be reviewed by an independent ethics committee’. However, RECs in Africa are still facing various challenges in the accomplishment of their missions. Among them, RECs located in the West-African French speaking area are reporting an urgent need for networking and coordinating their effort.Supported by EDCTP, AFREENET (AFRica Ethics Excellence NETwork) is a 3 year collaborative project between three RECs, respectively in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Benin, and coordinated by the Ethics Unit of Institut Pasteur (France), which aims to reinforce RECs capacities.The project will lead to reinforcement of training capacities through a long-term strategy to establish mechanisms to ensure and update members’ training, and to develop a pool of ethics trainers. Based on RECs experiences, network activities will permit to share and identify valuable practices on global ethics oversight, such as monitoring, SOPs, regulatory issues and sensitisation. The preparation of Ethics Committees for the potential occurrence of outbreaks will be specifically addressed through an Outbreak preparation plan built upon lessons learnt from the Ebola crisis.Creating synergies and mutual empowerment between „African RECs will increase their visibility, their capacity for advocacy and their recognition as key actors of a responsible ethics research framework at the national, regional and international level.