Meditation in prisons
The experience of being in prison offers some inmates an opportunity to reflect more deeply on the way they have approached life, and an opportunity to bring about changes.
Wildmind has been active since 2003 in the State Prison for Men in Concord, New Hampshire, working with inmates who have an interest in meditation or Buddhism.
More recently we were involved in working with another group of men in North Central Correctional Institution in Gardner, Massachusetts, although some Buddhists from the Insight Meditation Society, which is much closer to Gardner, kindly got involved and took over the running of this group. This was a boon for the inmates there, since they then had volunteers meeting with them weekly rather than monthly.
Wildmind has been involved in other kinds of prison work as well. Over the last two years we have distributed hundreds of books free of charge to inmates and to prison chapel libraries. Many of these books were donated by a Taiwanese Buddhist organization, while others were damaged copies from Windhorse Publications. We are very grateful for these generous donations.
Wildmind also released one of Bodhipaksa’s guided meditation CDs as an audiocassettes that we supplied to inmates (many prisons will not accept CDs), and hundreds of copies of this have been send to inmates and prisons chapels.
Because of restructuring we decided in 2009 to wind down our book and cassette distribution program, but we continue to be involved in teaching inmates directly.
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Comments
Comment from Joan
Time: August 22, 2007, 3:36 pm
My son is in prison and would like to recieve books or information from you. He needs a paper on letterhead with your name on it and that you offer free books etc. to inmates. Please let me know if you can do this and I will send you his address. Thanks Joan
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: August 22, 2007, 3:41 pm
Hi Joan,
Yes, we can certainly do this. Please use our contact form (see the horizontal navigation links at the top of any page) so that you can give us your son’s address in confidence.
Comment from Nick
Time: December 24, 2007, 7:28 am
I am wondering whether you have established links with Bo Lozoff and his Prison Ashram Project (http://www.humankindness.org/) who have been doing this work for thirty years or so? He is always receptive to links with other organisations who want to promote meditation in prison.
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: December 24, 2007, 11:16 am
Hi Nick: We don’t have any formal links with Bo, although when he was in New Hampshire recently I had the great honor of having dinner with him and I very much enjoyed the event he ran at the prison.
Comment from toni
Time: January 27, 2009, 7:28 pm
helping inmates is like throwing ropes in hell. blessed bodhisattvas. i admire your dedication to relieve the sufferings of sentient beings.
“Bodhisattvasya prajnaparamitam ashritya viharaty acittavaranah. Cittavarana-nastitvaad atrasto, viparyasatikranto nishtha-nirvanah.”
“Depending on the bodhisattva’s Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom, one dwells without any mental hindrance. Because of the absence of mental hindrance, one is fearless; freed from delusory thoughts, one will reach Nirvana.”
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: January 27, 2009, 8:23 pm
Thanks for your kind comment. Prison certainly can be hell-like, and it’s knowing how much I would dislike being in prison that inspires me to teach inmates.
Comment from Rachael
Time: February 21, 2009, 7:26 pm
Thank you so much for this excellent work you are doing. It makes me feel so inspired and more appreciative of all the freedom I enjoy, that your organization works so hard to help prisoners.
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