Buddhism For Inmates

Kelsang Tekchog is a Buddhist monk from the Kadampa Buddhist Temple in San Francisco. He coordinates a project called Freeing the Mind. What follows are excerpts of an interview with him about the project.

"Through Freeing the Mind, we make Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche's books available to prison inmates across North America. We work in conjunction with Tharpa Books (the distributor of Geshe Kelsang's books).

"The project started with a very small advertisement that was published in the Buddhist magazine, Tricycle, 8 years ago. It simply said that if an inmate was interested in Buddhist philosophy or Buddhist meditation, they could contact us. Once you put an ad in a magazine and that magazine finds its way into a prison, it's there forever. Those magazines don't disappear; they continue to get re-circulated. I still get letters from prisoners who just recently saw the ad! We currently correspond with approximately 500-600 inmates.

"In the first letter we send, we describe a breathing meditation and include a passage about meditation from Introduction to Buddhism. Over the years of correspondence, they ask questions about how to develop a daily practice and later describe how their practice is going. As a result of the project, there are some inmates who form study groups or meditation groups and we are really keen to help them by offering good reference material, such as Joyful Path of Good Fortune .

What follows are some inspiring excerpts from inmates' letters:

“My meditation practice is going pretty good. I do it twice a day. When I get out in July, I'm intending to go to a monastery...Please let them know that what you are doing works and it does help a lot of people. The lotus in you and a lotus for you.”

“One thing that is ironic is that I had to come to jail to learn about Buddhism. My actions brought me here, but also they gave me a great gift. I had been looking for so long [and thinking] that something was missing in my life. I think I have now found it.”

“I believe I am understanding more than I ever have before and this new book reassures me that I am on the right path. The mantra is now my friend. The beloved peace of mind that it brings is becoming my precious abode within where I can see without eyes, hear without ears, and I know that [because of] all these years in prison, the search for something that was never there is finished. It was always right here all the time.”