BHASA : Buddhist Home at SAraha is Saraha Institute's local initiative for altruistic, wisdom and compassion-based senior care here in our local community of Eugene, Oregon.
Kindly regarding our own lives as we age, friends with our own minds. Kindly looking outward towards the lives of others, learning to care from early on, and acquiring the ability to do so. Growing up ourselves, and building relationships of trust. Sincerely and practically helping as needs and opportunities arise.
BHASA means to advocate and embody courageous altruism, a creative and cooperative social approach to senior care. Carrying these thoughts into fruition, on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of each month, Saraha will hold 2 monthly BHASA events. Which are...
... a free-form potluck gathering social event from 4 - 5:30 pm on the 2nd Sunday of each month ...
... and an elder-oriented meditation, or other topical subject, teaching event, at the same time, on the 4th Sunday of each month ...
How and Why? In this country senior needs for aging and dying, when addressed institutionally, break down into distinct categories such as at-home care, retirement communities, active and assisted living, nursing homes, hospital, hospice and funeral homes - each configured differently to address different types and stages of care. Given this type of piecemeal and standardized approach, it is easy to loose sight of the fact that living, aging and dying presuppose an unbroken spiritual continuum that each person faces in an individual way.
Elder Community, Elder Care, Uniting the Great Divide...
Understanding and addressing this complex continuity needs to become the unifying basis for senior care. Even the best institutions are only geared to fulfill certain needs. When their "care plans" are revealed, they generally contain protocols for feeding, housing and the administration of medications. Physical acts intended to embody the means of care. But suffering, which care is meant to alleviate or prevent, and happiness, which it is meant to entail, are experienced nowhere other than the mind. Spiritual means mind, and every kind of care is, at its origin, root and fruit, nothing other than spiritual.
Taking a Spiritual Approach...
So, in addition to the material comforts that care facilities can provide, and what we can afford, there is vast scope for positive participation of the individual in her own aging process. There is also the opportunity for one's chosen society, family and friends, to support and contribute to these efforts. The earlier that steps in this direction are undertaken, the more likely they are to bear fruit. Although we may seem temporarily stuck, in fact our approaches towards living and dying are completely variable. Even in the face of hardship, our lives are capable of becoming stable, fearless, joyful and & replete with positive meaning. Our own inner, good intention, and the ultimate permeability of our situation are the crucial points.