Founded in 2008 by Roshi Joan Halifax, the Upaya Buddhist Chaplaincy Program is a visionary and comprehensive two-year training program for a new kind of chaplaincy intended to serve individuals, communities, the environment, and the world.

We focus on altruistic and compassionate service, and on social transformation from a systems perspective. The training is intended to prepare people to have the skillful means to transform all forms of suffering, including suffering induced by structural violence.

Over the last 20 years, we have seen a huge growth in the presence of Buddhism in the West and what it has to offer as a way of life and a means for transforming suffering in the world. In the course of the Chaplaincy Program, faculty and students study suffering, its causes, the end of suffering, and the way that suffering can be transformed (the Four Noble Truths). Our studies, practices, processes, and projects are all based in the profound motivation to end suffering in the world and in our lives. The “how” of this altruistic intention is the heart of our training.

Our students are bringing a compassionate presence and skillful means to the health care system, the prison system, environmental work, peacemaking, education, business, and the arts.

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