Lama Zopa Rinpoche
A Tibetan Buddhist organization and social services project affiliated with the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, since 1996 the project has supported the Buddhist practice of over 20,000 prisoners.
Active mainly in the US and Australia, where we are established as nonprofit organizations in Raleigh, NC, and the Australian Blue Mountains, we also have branches in New Zealand, Spain, Mexico, Mongolia and Italy.
Prisoners first contact us after hearing about our
services from another prisoner or one of our volunteer Buddhist teachers, reading our newsletter, or seeing our name in a book we've donated to a prison library.
The vast majority of inmates who write us are male, poor, estranged from their families and have histories of drug and alcohol abuse; their lives are dominated by violence and suffering and many have been involved in street and prison gangs. Most are desperately seeking means to transform their minds.
Prisoners can’t go to their local Buddhist center to receive teachings, buy Buddhist books and meet other practitioners, so through our programs we bring the Buddhist center to them.
Our Programs
Every month our 200 volunteer Buddhist teachers worldwide and nine staff in the US and Australia look after the spiritual needs of at least one thousand prisoners: through letters, visits and phone calls, by providing Buddhist books and materials, and by supporting prison chaplains and libraries and other Buddhist prison projects.
The project started in 1996 with a letter from Arturo Esquer, a young Mexican-American ex-gangster serving three life sentences at Pelican Bay, one of California’s maximum-security prisons.
Arturo had read Introduction to Tantra (Wisdom Publications), a book by Lama Yeshe, the founder of FPMT, and was moved by Lama’s talk of compassion. He wrote to the organization wanting to learn more.“I’m writing in hope to be able to receive the Foundation’s journal on a regular basis. If possible, I would like to personally get involved in the Buddhist way of life.”
Ven. Robina, at that time the editor of Mandala, the magazine of FPMT, responded to Arturo's request and sent him some books and copies of Mandala.
That year, at his request, she visited Pelican Bay and gave him the Refuge and Lay Vows and later Bodhisattva Vows. As his practice and study grew she continued to advise him. Not long after, other Pelican Bay inmates, including Arturo’s cellmate Francisco Vasques began writing Ven. Robina.
By mid-1997 40 prisoners from all over the US – all of whom had heard about her through word of mouth – were writing and receiving spiritual advice from Ven. Robina. Many also requested visits and took Refuge and the Lay Vows.
In 2000 the project became a nonprofit organization in the US and with the blessing of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the spiritual director of FPMT, officially became a social services project affiliated with the FPMT.In 2001 following the success of the film Chasing Buddha, a documentary about Ven. Robina's life and work, the prison project was established as a nonprofit in Australia. In 2006 branches opened in Spain and Mexico, and the following year in Mongolia; and this year LPP began in Italy as well as resumed activities in New Zealand.
Liberation Prison Project has touched the hearts of thousands of prisoners all over the world.
“It was as if there were no choice but to allow it to grow,” says Ven. Robina. “Here are people whose needs are strong, if not desperate, who are clearly in situations where they have little power to control their own lives. Most, it seems, have nothing, and have no one to turn to. How could we not help?”Be Your Own Therapist - YouTube
Link: http://www.liberationprisonproject.org/
