A doctor disagreed. "She needs really good medical care to get her diabetes under control," the physician said.
So Koshin gently pushed his own theory that the woman might become "more compliant" if she received some sage advice from practitioners at the holistic center.
The discussion was left at that.
During a recent round of visits on the oncology floor, Allen, the chaplain-in-training, knocked lightly on patients' doors before entering. He moved silently into their rooms and sat beside them, ignoring TVs blaring pop music or squeals from "The Price is Right."
On this day, the patients included a Burmese man with nasal cancer who had requested time with a Buddhist chaplain. The patient appeared weighed down by the white sheets atop his slender frame. "You seem very tired. Do you feel bad today?" Allen asked the man, who requested that his name not be published. The patient nodded. He was too sick to eat, but he wanted to practice breathing exercises to relieve his pain.
He struggled to sit up in bed. Then he closed his eyes as Allen coached him in a soothing voice. "Take a nice, deep, cleansing breath," Allen said. "Blow out all that toxin from your face, your nose, your eyes, so you can bring peace and calm to yourself."
Next, Allen visited Victoria Exconde, who was facing breast cancer surgery. A Roman Catholic from the Philippines, Exconde broke down in tears as she discussed her condition and the difficulty of going through it without her late husband by her side.
The two then recited a Christian prayer together.
"Thank you, father," Exconde said.
"You don't have to call me father," Allen replied good-naturedly as he got up to leave.
Supporters of the Zen chaplains program say the monks' presence brings a calming influence to the often frenetic hospital floors, and that patients, for the most part, are open to them.
"I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that a lot of our patients don't really know what a Buddhist monk does," said Terry Altilio, a social worker in Beth Israel's palliative-care department, which focuses on relieving suffering of seriously ill patients. "For a lot of patients, there's a curiosity and an openness you don't necessarily see with rabbis, priests, etc."
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The Zen chaplains do not limit their services to patients.
Koshin recently accompanied a Catholic priest to tend to a couple whose infant had died at the hospital, explaining that "the priest didn't want to go alone because he'd never been with a dead child."
