This is a book of 52 vignettes—stories and teachings about Cuong Lu’s six years as a prison chaplain. Lu shares insights into the prisoner’s mindset, something with implications for us all, whether or not we are in a conventional jail. As a prison chaplain, Cuong discovered that when the men inside allowed themselves to feel their pain—including remorse from committing crimes—knowing and feeling the truth became a source of strength for them. And when the inmates felt listened to, understood, and not judged, it transformed their sense of who they are, and as a result changed their attitudes and their behavior. This book is not just about the prisoners. It’s about all of us. We’re each caught in distorted and limiting ideas of ourselves. We don’t believe freedom and happiness are attainable. But when we come to believe in ourselves, we discover the freedom and happiness already within. Cuong Lu, Buddhist teacher, scholar, and writer, was born in Nha Trang, Vietnam, in 1968. He majored in East Asian studies at the University of Leiden, and in 1993 was ordained a monk at Plum Village in France under the guidance of Thich Nhat Hanh. In 2000, he was recognized as a teacher in the Lieu Quan line of the Linji School of Zen Buddhism. In 2015, he received a master’s degree in Buddhist Spiritual Care at Vrije University in Amsterdam. Lu is the founder of Mind Only School, in Gouda, the Netherlands, where he teaches Buddhist philosophy and psychology, specializing in Yogachara Buddhism combined with the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) School of Nagarjuna.

52 vignettes contain stories and teachings about Cuong Lu's six years as a prison chaplain in the Netherlands.

The book has two audiences: prison inmates who want to start practicing Buddhism and volunteers from American sanghas who want to work with prison dharma groups. The book discusses the basics of meditation, compassion and precept practice within the correctional facility context. Whitney discusses some of the history of Buddhist involvement in American prisons as well as the history of constitutional interpretations of religious freedom as applied to inmates. The book is meant to be as practical as possible and it emphasizes Buddhism in action - through the precepts, peacemaking and sangha building inside and out.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author, an extraordinary story of redemption in the darkest of places.

Calvin Malone has plenty to teach us all about ideas that we rarely associate with the penal system; Dignity. Compassion. Freedom behind bars. He speaks from experience; Malone is nearing the end of a 20-year prison sentence himself. Razor-Wire Dharma is his eloquent, enlightening, and utterly inspiring personal story how he found Buddhism-and real, transformative meaning for his life-despite being in one of the world's harshest environments. Some of his stories are hilarious, some are harrowing, but all express Buddhist wisdom as vividly as any practitioner could hope to do. Malone is living it, and in the unlikeliest of places. For him, the choice of staying true to his principles often requires that he quite literally jeopardize his life, safety, and the few small comforts available to him to try to do what's right. Razor-Wire Dharma makes it clear that if Calvin can do what's right in jail, he can do it anywhere. What's more, it proves that we can, too.

For Calvin Malone, staying true to his principles of altruism, compassion, and nonharming often requires he quite literally jeopardize life, limb, and the few small comforts available to him in order to do what's right. Calvin is nearing the end of a twenty-year prison sentence; he's also a practicing Buddhist. And remarkably, it was in prison that Calvin learned about Buddhism.

Whether mere bumps in the road or genuine crises, we live in a world of unwanted events that no willpower can prevent. In The Art of Disappearing, Ajahn Brahm helps us learn to abandon the headwind of false expectations and follow instead the Buddha's path of understanding. Releasing our attachment to past and future, to self and other, we can directly experience the natural state of serenity underlying all our thoughts and discover the bliss of the present moment. In that space, we learn what it is to disappear. Ajahn Brahm, an unparalleled guide to the bliss of meditation, makes the journey as fun as it is rewarding. The Art of Disappearing, comprised of a series of teachings Ajahn Brahm gave to the monks of Bodhinyana Monastery, where he serves as abbot, offers a unique glimpse into the mind of one of contemporary Buddhism's most engaging figures.

"Prison activist and meditation teacher Fleet Maull shares his journey of transformation and service amidst the anger, violence, darkness and despair of a maximum security federal prison"--Back cover.

When terrible things happen in life and there’s little we can do to change them, the only option seems to be either anger or despair. This is the reality for prison inmates. They have no power over their circumstances. Many have long sentences, some have been wrongly accused and some even await execution. Their environment is often overcrowded, ugly, violent and full of noise, “like being in a rock concert all day,” as one man reported. There is nothing to look forward to and often no one to turn to. For the past twenty-five years, Liberation Prison Project has been a lifeline for prisoners, first in the United States and also in Australia, Italy, Mongolia, New Zealand and other countries, who turned to LPP, asking for Buddhist books and spiritual advice in an effort to find meaning in life when everything else has been lost. This book is a compilation of advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the spiritual director of LPP, in response to letters from more than one hundred prisoners, mainly in the USA, edited into a coherent narrative. Rinpoche’s advice is that, actually, their prison “is nothing in comparison with their inner prison—the prison of anger, the prison of attachment, the prison of ignorance.” That prison, Rinpoche says, they can definitely change. And why should they? Because, simply put, happiness and suffering come from the mind, not the external world. The extent of the heartfelt compassion and love that Rinpoche offers the men who write to him is incredible. He empowers them to never give up on the development of their potential and their ability to help others. The advice in the book is not just for prisoners. It is for all of us.