Clinical Meditation Certificate Program and Retreat
Based on the Japanese clinical meditation program developed by Rev. Oshita Daien through nearly 40 years of work in applying meditation in clinical settings, we now offer an English version of the program.
Oshita Daien’s innovative system organizes myriad world meditation styles into four categories. So that rather than a one-size-fits-all application of meditation to needs of a patient or individual, meditation types can be better adapted to fit a person’s needs.
This is a very involved training program with 4 phases:
1) Application: Applicants submit detailed essays about their experience and intentions for joining such a program. Through the essays and an online interview, we will try to ensure this truly is the right program for you and be able to adapt certain aspects of it to fit your own professional needs.
2) Preliminary Remote/Online Training: Once you begin the program, you have access to a variety of readings and videos that introduce various parts of the 4 meditation categories, explain their background, and sample video meditations to follow. You will practice the different styles yourself and write journals about your journey with the practices, and reflections about how you think they can apply to your own life and work.
3) One Week Training Retreat: All participants from the cohort will gather at the monastery in Japan for an intensive week-long retreat. You get to stay at a 1000+ year old expansive mountain top temple complex, Hida Senkoji. We will have numerous in-person meditations together, along with dialogs about the practice and its application in different settings. the last portion of the week will also include role-playing activities when you will guide meditations for others in various conditions. The feedback from these exercises, along with follow-up advising and discussions, will help refine both your own capacity to help others through a meditative practice, and also help us reflect on our own meditation experiences in more depth.
4) After returning home, you will begin some practice with applying these methods with friends, colleagues, and others you know. You will submit further journals about your experience, and we will join you for online reflection and feedback about your experiences and any issues that arise. After accumulating 15 hours of leadership experience, and submitting all required journals, you will qualify for the initial certification.
Certification: After completing requirements for all stages of the program, we will issue your Clinical Meditation Teacher Level 1 certificate.
Included in costs are:
– All communications, consultations, and training before and after the retreat (includes bilingual Clinical Meditation Introductory book, other readings, and 40-day program with numerous videos)
– Room, board, and all training during the retreat (please note that as a retreat, food is lighter on purpose: 2 main meals plus snacks will be available; also please ensure we are aware of any allergies or dietary needs).
– Certificate at end of program
About Oshita Daien: Oshita Daien now has more than 3 decades working in and transforming hospitals and hospices in Japan. He opened one of Japan’s first university chaplaincy programs, created a public spiritual care training program, created the clinical meditation system and training program, and has authored or co-authored over 15 books. He ordained as a Shingon Buddhist priest in Japan, but also trained as a Theravada Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka. He then worked as a researcher at Kyoto University, studying meditation traditions around the world as well as psychology and care. He became the abbot of Hida Senkoji Temple for many years and a Maha-Acharya (high ranking priest), before recently passing on abbot duties of the temple.
About Jishin Michon: Jishin is also ordained in the Shingon tradition, but previously trained in Theravada and Zen, as well as ordaining as an interfaith minister. Jishin received a MDiv in Buddhist chaplaincy and a PhD in cultures and histories of religion, while researching Japanese innovations in spiritual care. Jishin teaches part-time at Ryukoku University, leads retreats through Inward Journeys Japan, and is editor of A Thousand Hands: How to Care for Your Buddhist Community and Refuge in the Storm: Buddhist Voices in Crisis Care.
About Hida Senkoji Temple (retreat site): A beautiful, expansive and historic temple located on the edge of the Japanese Alps in Gifu Prefecture. The mountain top temple includes a forested pilgrimage route, numerous temple buildings and important cultural properties, and stunning mountain views. The temple also features the World Harmony Meditation Center, especially used for retreats and clinical meditation trainings. One of its most famous historical inhabitants was Enku, a Buddhist priest who traveled Japan hundreds of years ago visiting and caring for thousands of disaster victims. He is known to have carved many thousands of small Buddha statues to give to such people, and numerous famous old statues are still preserved at Hida Senkoji today.
[images of Global Peace Meditation Center located at Hida Senkoji Temple, and a center for training in Clinical Meditation]
[images of an Enku Buddha carving at Senkoji Temple, one of the famous temple trees, and some of the temple grounds]
[Rev. Jishin leading a prayer and reflection at a disaster site in Northern Japan]