Teaching Buddhism Inside Prison – Part III: Truthfulness
Mr. B captured my attention from the first class. Rather than set ‘rules of conduct’ or ‘guidelines’ for the classroom, I utilized the Buddha’s recommended precepts for lay people, which include not harming another living being, not taking what is not rightfully given, not creating harm through sexuality, the practice of Right Speech, and not […]
Teaching Buddhism Inside Prison – Part II: Wisdom
7.14.2016 I shared three articles in the month of July about my work teaching Buddhism inside prisons in New York. You can read Part I here, and then go on to read Part II below… The Wisdom of Buddhism “If everyone followed the Dharma, our crime rates would decrease. Most crimes would become extinct; feelings of greed, […]
Teaching Buddhism Inside Prison – Part I: Compassion
07.7.2016 I wrote three articles in the month of July about my work teaching Buddhism inside prisons in New York that were published in The Contemplative Journal. Approaching the Classroom with Compassion “I think that if I’m not right internally with my own suffering, then I can’t genuinely share compassionate and empathetic relationship with others, without furthering […]
Home for the Holidays: Doing the Right Thing
If a coconut falls to the ground the moment that the crow lands on the palm tree, did the crow cause the coconut to fall, or was the coconut going to fall anyway, and the crow just happened to land at that moment? This is the question the sage Vasistha poses to Lord Rama in […]