Page 71 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

fr om caratIve fact or 1 to C a r i t as Pr oC e s s 1
be done for this planet and humanity at this point in human history
(Young personal communication, 2006).
We can become part of a global vision of health and human
transformation to help purify the toxins and poisons; the negativity of
violence, abuse, war; the noncaring and disregard for the human-
environment-universe connection for self and all living things.
Perhaps the new role for Caritas Nursing is to transform the vision
of human health and healing by engaging in service to self and society
at a different level by creating the “energetic field of Caritas” through
both overt and subtle practices that transmit and affect the field of the
whole.
Nurses can do this one by one and become part of creating a
deeper level of humanity by transforming fundamentally what hap-
pens in a given moment, in a given situation, by experimenting with
Being-the-Caritas-Field. This is the truly deep, noble work of nursing
that transcends the conventional way of thinking about the depth of
nursing’s contribution to society, the level of commitment and com-
passionate service to self and system and society.
When and if nursing and nurses reach this depth of being, beyond
conventional knowing and doing; when and if nurses attain this new
depth of wisdom; when we proceed with knowledge and practices
that others do not know or see, we then have a responsibility to offer
it to others, to interrupt the world’s patterns of violence and noncar-
ing. In this line of thinking, there is a connection between Caring (as
connecting with, sustaining, and deepening our shared humanity) and
Peace in the world.
In the Buddhist mind-set, nurses in this deeper model of “Being-
the-work” become bodhisattvas: those who bless others and who
become a blessing to self and others. These nurses then become Great
Beings, heroines/heroes of an evolved Caritas Consciousness who are
awake and actively affecting the entire universal field of humanity.
This may seem far-fetched to many, but it is an emerging model of
awakening and evolving within our caring humanity, away from our
lethargy of nonawakened states. Thus, this level of awakening allows
nursing to emerge into qualitative ontological states of wholeness. I
share this view, in that my personal shift toward a deeper inner awak-

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