This week on the ID Project Podcast, IDP Prison Project Coordinator Michael Carey Interviews Acharya Fleet Maull.  They discuss the current state of the prison system in the United States, Fleet's experience as a dharma practitioner while inside prison, and the challenges of re-entering society after prison. This is…

New research suggests meditation may improve certain brain regions and help them with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress.

The Massachusetts General Hospital researchers said in a statement that changes in brain structure in people who practiced eight weeks of mindful meditation suggest the practice goes beyond simply making people feel better because they are spending time relaxing.

Meditation has long been recommended by practitioners as a way…

This year, the United States will release nearly three-quarters of a million people from prison, a record high.   Nationally, 2.3 million people are in prison in the United States, and 95 percent of them will, at some point, get out and go home.

Society has a strong interest in keeping them home — in helping them to become law-abiding citizens instead of falling back into their old ways and returning to prison.  But American programs for newly released prisoners echo the typical…

I have been told, by the powers that be in the Florida DOC, the average grade level of a prisoner in our state is 6th.  This is  challanging to say the least when some is trying to expeirecne the dharma beyond sitting meditation.  TIbetan texts especially can be challanging However,  a  lot of prisoners are karmicly drawn to it whether they understand it or not--or at least well enough to explain how they underddrand it to others.

What I think I will attempt to do is design a…

I’ve worked with “slow” learners all of my 26 years as a teacher. But nothing matches the lack of understanding, insight and plain common sense that many of our politicians and their constituents show when it comes to the treatment of ex-offenders, people who by the law of the land have served their time, paid their dues, made amends, learned their lesson, been punished—whatever language matches your view of justice.

I’m thinking about ex-offenders and voting rights. In many states…

Raven Drum Foundation's "Veteran Resiliency Project" and Resiliency Radio is a program of the Raven Drum Foundation, a nonprofit founded in 2001 by my wonderful friends Rick Allen, drummer for Def Leppard, and his wife Lauren Monroe, MA, CMT. I feel very honored to know them and be a part of…

Spirit Light Outreach has been delivering inspirational books to prisoners for over five years now.

Free copies of the books offered to prisoners can be viewed at:

http://SpiritLightOutreach.org

Love, Light and the Peace of God,

Joe Wolfe, founder and ex-prisoner…

Matthieu Ricard has graciously agreed to join the PDN Board of Spiritual…