Goal: $15,000 • Funded: $7,000
(2007) To provide meditation instruction as well as instruction on Buddhist and Shambhala Teachings to prisoners through correspondence courses. Also, to provide books, tapes, videos and other dharma material to prisoners.
The Ratna Prison staff corresponds with and/or visits directly over 500 inmates with a demand that continues to increase daily and supervises study courses with 411 inmates in 37 states.
There are currently two correspondence courses developed by the Ratna Foundation: The Myth of Freedom, based on the text of the same name by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche; and The Power of Patience: Healing Anger, based on the commentary by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Shantideva’s verses on patience.
A third correspondence course on Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche’s book, Turning the Mind Into an Ally, has been developed while hundreds of copies of this book have been donated to inmates. The course will become the introductory foundation to further courses, providing an in-depth study of the Sakyong’s teachings on shamatha and contemplation.