Udumbara Chaplaincy programs are a growing and integral part of its mission to engage the community at large. This is a significant opportunity for members to put their study and practice into action for the benefit of other beings.

Chaplains primarily focus their efforts in the areas of hospice, prison work, social welfare, and mental health.

The modern hospice movement began in the 1940's when Dr. Cicely Saunders of England sought to provide a haven where people could die with peace and dignity. She began St. Christopher's Hospital as 'a place of meeting'. Physical and spiritual doing and accepting, giving and receiving, all have to be brought together. The dying need the community, its help and fellowship. The community needs the dying to make it listen. We are all debtors to those who can make us learn such things as to be gentle and to approach others with true attention and respect.

Chaplains serve as home visitation volunteers, providing spiritual support to hospice patients and their families. Chief among their activities are listening and being a presence, listening to the feelings expressed by patients as they journey through the final phase of their life and also bearing witness to their life's stories as they do a life review. Other ways of providing assistance include running errands, providing transportation and sometimes doing bereavement work with families. Chaplains participate in memorial services, lead hospice volunteer training workshops and can serve on the Council of Volunteer Advisors.

Chaplains engage in written correspondence with prisoners in various facilities around the country providing support for their Buddhist practice and spiritual counseling during their period of incarceration. They can also provide them with books and other written materials along with meditation supplies. Chaplains continue to offer guidance and assistance to inmates during their transition and beyond following release.