Vipassana Meditation Lowers Violence in Alabama Prison

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Permalink Reply by ednshell on February 4, 2011 at 7:32am

I'm telling you, the diets of prison inmates are the worst!  A case could be made that it is cruel and unusual punishment.  When they do these prison courses, the food is made by volunteers on the outside and brought in, same stuff served in outside courses with lots of fruits and salad.

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Permalink Reply by Sultana on February 4, 2011 at 8:18am

I enjoyed watching this. Betty is wonderful.

I'll look for the next part and also "dhamma brothers"

Thanks, el-bo.

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Permalink Reply by ednshell on February 4, 2011 at 7:40am

Oh wow, this is actually a story on yahoo today! :D

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Permalink Reply by Sultana on February 4, 2011 at 12:01pm

It really sounds interesting to me, Lana.  I hope you'll blog or in some other way let us know about your experiences once you've completed your course. :)

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Permalink Reply by ednshell on February 4, 2011 at 7:35pm

That's so cool! :)  Is he a Vipassana teacher or some other kind of teacher?  I bet he has some great stories.

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Permalink Reply by ednshell on February 14, 2011 at 4:39am

Yesterday, NPR did a story on Vipassana in an Alabama prison. If you didn’t catch it on the radio, you can hear and/or read about it:http://www.npr.org/2011/02/08/133505880/at-end-of-the-line-prison-a...

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Permalink Reply by Sultana on February 14, 2011 at 10:56am

Thanks, ednshell.

I read the article/summary on NPR. It must be a very powerful technique to have such a huge effect on these men. 

The only part that annoyed me was how, despite the obvious positive effects,  because the teachings are ascribed to the Buddha, the prison chaplains discontinued the workshops for a few years because it didn't match up with their own religious (christian) agenda. Sheesh.

Anyway, nice to read about a positive light somewhere in our often dark world.:)

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Permalink Reply by ednshell on February 14, 2011 at 12:57pm

It is a wonderful story!  I read the book called 'Dhamma brothers', it is a great read and also the movie by the same name is really powerful.  You can see the trailer here:

http://vipassana-dhammabrother.com/film.html

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Permalink Reply by Mera/Feather Story on February 14, 2011 at 1:10pm

Any kind of meditation would be helpful to these prisoners...how many of them have been previously exposed to mind-altering experiences that take no consumption of anything...probably not many.  It really could be a great opportunity for them to improve themselves if more options like this were available and if their diet was truly cared for with a vegan-base...really they could grow their own gardens and eat the foods they've grown. Why has this not been considered in all this time that the prison system has been in existence and all the expenses it takes to run these things???

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Permalink Reply by Maureen on March 23, 2011 at 9:27am

That's a really inspiring article.  It reminds me of an episode of Oprah where Glenn Close spoke about 'Puppies Behind Bars', an organization that "trains inmates to raise puppies to become service dogs".  The close bond between inmates and dogs was able to dramatically change inmates' behaviours and their perspective—so much so that an entire jail was closed as so many were "recovered". 

For more info: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-close/why-i-went-to-prison-for_...

http://www.puppiesbehindbars.com/

 

First meditation, then puppies ... next, LFRV! :D

 

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