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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I clicked on this link and felt and overwhelming need to thank you for helping inmates & the great work you do. I myself have spent time in prison, during this time I believe as a person I started to flower through self awareness. If I was introduced to meditation whilst there I can only imagine the difference it would of made.
Keep up the excellent work & thank you xx
Yes Thank you indeed for sharing your knowledge, especially in Prisons.
I would try much like to know whether you have taught any residential courses in Prisons?
Also whether you have any teachers in England?
Hi, Louise.
I've never done anything residential in a prison. Very few institutions would be open to that, although it has been done. Are you asking about the people who have taught me? Several of my most influential teachers are in England and Wales, as it happens.