Gangaji's free CD for inmates ($15 for the rest of us): "Questions from the Inside" has just been released. Inmates worldwide wrote Gangaji questions from county jails, Federal facilities, even death row. Chris Mohr reads the letters and Gangaji responds. Sometimes Chris asks a followup question. This is Gangaji's opportunity to speak directly to those who are least able to see her in person. Their questions are much like the questions all of us ask, except that they often…

Hello PDN friends...

I live in NYC and have time to volunteer. Does anyone know of any Buddhist - related projects that might need help?

Thanks for sharing, listening

Kelly

I could have been with monks in the Himalayas, surrounded by majestic mountain peaks

by Anneke Lucas, January 11, 2012 for ElephantJournal.com

When we entered the linoleum-tiled,…

Re: “What is the value of self-observation and how can it be attained with sincerity?”

“…  As long as I am looking at life from a particular point of view or from a particular experience I have cherished, or from some particular knowledge I have gathered, which is my background, which is the 'me', I cannot totally. I have discovered intellectually, verbally, through analysis, the cause of my dependence, but whatever thought investigates must inevitably be fragmentary, so I…

In m Krishnamurti class, I was asked::

“ What is the difference between awareness and concentration according to K?”

“… Attention is not the same thing as concentration. Concentration is exclusion; attention, which is total awareness, excludes nothing…” (Krishnamurti, p31, emphasis mine).

It all comes down to what Milarepa said about demons – befriend them, take them to tea.

Whatever your demons are, you are free to work…

My take on fear has evolved over time.

After an assault, I carried a pistol with me for a time. I thought I would be less fearful with this.

At Naropa University, a school rooted in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition, we discussed Abhaya - Fearlessness. It is complex. Essentially, for a long time I understood it as fearlessness without hubris.

Discussing warriorship, I came to understand that being a Shambhala Warrior means adopting enough abhaya to be open and gentle. I…

By Eric W. Dolan for The Raw Story - Monday, January 9, 2012

Richard Van Wickler, the Superintendent of the Department of Corrections in Cheshire Country, NH and member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, said in an interview that drug addicts should be shown compassion rather than jailed.

He…

Arizona’s legislature recently passed a law charging prison visitors a onetime $25 fee as a way to help close the state’s $1.6 billion budget deficit. Middle Ground Prison Reform, a prison advocacy group, challenged the law in court as a discriminatory tax, but a county judge upheld its constitutionality.

Fees like that, slapped on prisoners and their families, couldn’t be more…

By Judy Silber on September 29, 2010 for CrossCurrents on KALW

Riots, overcrowding, death row … there…

“Chaplain Ed's Thinkn's on the Matter” by Edward Yrisarri Jr. brings conversations about topics of eternal interest with the incarcerated to the general public - PRNewsChannel.com…

A prison is a trap for…

By Lodro Rinzler for the Good Men Project

A few years ago I was…

Michigan prisoners offered opportunity to practice meditation

By Adam Tebbe for Shambala SunSpace

Sokuzan Robert Brown, a Soto Zen priest in the lineage of the late Kobun Chino Otogawa,…

I learned of Krishnamurti while a student at Naropa University. I was finally "coming around" - I finally wasn't drinking, I was mindful during classes, and I was "on fire" for what was once the annoying, yet required, meditation.

I went online to research dialogues folks had enjoyed with Chogyam Trungpa rinpoche (Naropa's founderthe man I never met who changed my life forever).

I found a video of his dialogue with some fellow named Jiddu Krishnamurti. I'd heard the…

Inmates to get peek into prison history from perspective of freedom struggle

by S. Vijay Kumar for The Hindu…

The Prison Dharma's Evolution

from Northwest Dharma News

On November 17 five Buddhist teachers and volunteers arrived at Steilacoom, Washington, showed their IDs to a corrections officer and stepped…

I leave for my final required CIIS academic intensive in a couple of days. I had been looking forward to the trip. Seeing so many members of my cohort in one place, discussing Systems Theory and Complexity with folks who care, and enjoying the Pacific Ocean right outside of our hotel can be quite the beguiling prospect.

One of my cohort members posted a news article in support of the Girl Scouts trans-positive policies (in accepting trans children into their fold). The…

February 17, At the Safefouse Outreach Center, 6:30-9

Yoga for Trauma and Addiction - -client care and self care is designed for counselors, therapist  and other professionals whose clients have issues with trauma and addiction. Yoga for Trauma and Addiction was created by Yoga Teachers, Geri Topfer, Penni Feiner and Yoga Therapist, Nancy Candea, who collectively have spent hundreds of hours working in rehab centers, shelters, and jails. Their clients…

December 13th, 2011

By Rachel Signer

Earlier this year the Supreme Court ruled that California prisons were…