A guide to the virtues of compassion, and how one can learn to train one’s innate capacity for compassion
Medicine and Compassion is the first book to present authentic Tibetan Buddhist teachings tailored for a Western professional audience. Beyond encouraging compassion in healthcare givers, the book explains the nature of compassion, and how we can train during our lives to make our compassion more stable, inclusive, and effortless. A collaboration between a reincarnate Tibetan lama and an American doctor, the book is taught in simple language, but with profound meaning. The ideal book for any person looking to give their own compassion a boost.
What the critics are saying | Reviews of Medicine & Compassion
I was dumbfounded by how much Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche comprehends the emotional challenges facing doctors in relationship to their patients. He nails it time and time again. Magnificent! I shall continue to reread it just for the pleasure of the teachings, for the clarity of his mind, and the purity of his heart. This is a very worthy project.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, M.D.
creator of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and author of Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness and The Mind’s Own Physician
Medicine and Compassion is a wonderful guide for caregivers to develop compassion and skill in helping others from their deepest heart. A very practical, easy to read, and much needed book.
Judith Orloff, M.D.
psychiatrist and New York Times bestselling author
Among recent Buddhist publications, Medicine and Compassion is unique in being directed at medical professionals. In it, Chokyi Nyima pairs homespun advice for providing the best possible care for patients with expositions on Buddhist understandings on suffering and embodiment. In the introduction, David Shlim, MD, discusses a common problem among doctors and health care workers, namely that they often erect an emotional barrier between themselves and their patients. Chokyi Nyima offers an alternative approach, one that applies the Buddhist training in compassion to establish bonds of trust in the doctor-patient relationship. Interesting adaptations of Buddhist principles are offered [on such subjects as] the art of healing and how to assist patients through the dying process. The book concludes with chapters that introduce the Tibetan Buddhist understanding of the death process and a brief overview of Tibetan medicine.
Buddhadharma Magazine
It would be a mistake to think that only an adherent of Buddhism could gain from reading, reflecting, and acting on this book’s ideas. Medicine and Compassion provides practical guidance to anyone who seeks to become more compassionate.
Harvey V. Fineberg, MD, PhD
former president of the U.S. Institute of Medicine (now National Academy of Medicine), former provost of Harvard University, and former dean of the Harvard Chan School of Public Health
This book will be of value to any health worker who has a sincere wish to help his or her patients and who wants to nuture that wish without burning out. It will also be of value to any health worker who once had this wish and would like to recover a deep sense of caring and compassion. There is also much of value here for those who care for the terminally ill. [The book should also be read by] anyone involved in the teaching of health workers, especially those who provide clinical care.
Journal of Travel Medicine
Get the free study guide companion to Medicine & Compassion
Medicine and Compassion is easy to read, but occasionally difficult to understand. The new Study Guide is designed to augment the book, reviewing chapter-by-chapter the key points, and helping to place them in context. The Study Guide can also be used to study Medicine and Compassion in a group setting.