The audio version of the story is a bit different, and I haven't watched the trailer that's embedded yet, but I heard the story this morning. Like I said, pretty interesting stuff about a program that seems to be fairly successful and not all that expensive. You can read or listen through the link. Or not, this being a free country and all... Deep in the Bible Belt, an ancient Eastern practice is taking root in the unlikeliest of places: Alabama's highest security prison. Behind a double electric fence and layers of locked doorways, Alabama's most violent and mentally unstable prisoners are incarcerated in the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility outside Birmingham. Many of them are here to stay. The prison has 24 death row cells, and about a third of the approximately 1,500 prisoners are lifers with no chance of parole. "You're dealing with the worst offenses that have been committed by humans in the state of Alabama," says Gary Hetzel, the warden at Donaldson. The lockup has a history of inmate stabbings, deaths and suicides and is the target of lawsuits. The prison is named for an officer killed here in 1990. During chow call in the isolation blocks, food trays are slid through a narrow metal box built into the cell doors so the inmates can't hurt the officer feeding them.... To date, 430 inmates have gone through the Donaldson Vipassana meditation program, the only one of its kind in North America. There's a waiting list for the quarterly sessions and the state wants to expand the offering to its women's prison. Filmmaker Jenny Phillips made a documentary called "The Dhamma Brothers" about the Alabama program and its unlikely marriage of an ancient meditation practice and an end-of-the-line prison. "They're clashing cultures," Phillips says. "Yet when you bring them together, they fit." Behind the secure prison walls, Grady Bankhead, 60, says he's walking evidence of that fit. A convicted murderer who came within hours of being executed before winning a new trial, he is now serving life without parole. "Before I went to a Vipassana meditation, this isn't what Grady Bankhead sounded like," he says. "I was probably the angriest man in this prison." He says the meditation helped him deal with the root of that anger. "When I was 3, my mother left my little brother and I out in [the] farmhouse, dressed us up like we were going to Sunday school or church, and said she'd be back in a little while," Bankhead recalls. He didn't see her again until he was on death row. His brother had died. The article also has a link to another story and the transcript of another interview with the documentarians and a prisoner or two.
And now that it's reached the mainstream press, some redneck politician is going to demand it be eliminated immediately...
Hey, give the fundies credit: Soon after it started at Donaldson about a decade ago, the prison system's chaplains expressed concern that it might not be in keeping with Christian values. The state put an end to the program. They were attacking it well before NPR got on the story. Luckily.... [/indent]But Hetzel, the warden, saw the dramatic results and brought it back.[/indent]
As a Christian, I want everyone to reach a point in their lives where they know peace. I'm strongly convinced that the only way to achieve that peace is to pursue a relationship with God, so the program in the Alabama prison, while valuable in and of itself, falls short of what is available. If I were the chaplain in that prison, I would want to be able to tell the convicts that a meditation program may be what they need in the short term, but it might not meet all their long-term spiritual needs. My best guess is that most of the convicts already know about the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but they learned partial truths and did not learn the difference between discipleship and going to church on Sunday.
Honest question for anyone: From a church/state standpoint, is a prison chaplain allowed to tell inmates "Jesus Christ. Or you're wasting your time..."?
If the meditation brings them peace, and based on the results, the meditation is doing its job, then why would you say its not working? If God created everything (meditation included) and its perfect, then why would you say that Meditation is a short term solution? Is that what you would tell a Buddhist intern? Would you try and convince him that he's wrong and everything that he was brought up knowing is equally wrong? Who are you? What makes you so sure that the 4.5 billion people that don't follow the Jesus Christ mindset already are so wrong?
StiltonFC is just telling what he believes, I am sure many Muslims, Hindus, Jewish, Zoroastrians feel the same way about Christianity. I think beliving in god/gods is silly, but most people I know are religious and I do not think they are silly!
I never said that! I wrote that I think religion is silly, that is my opinion and not a fact. I am just defending Stilton right to express his opinion/faith, even if I think it is silly.
I'm Catholic and given the nature of most of my posts, I'm a little offended you don't think I'm silly.
In my informal lifelong survey of all the practicing Buddhists and practicing Christians I've known, Buddhists would lead in the seemingly "at peace" department by a country mile. Probably because so many Christians don't seem like they'll ever know peace until they convince everybody they meet to think like they do. The approach of Vipassana and other types of meditation, as per what Buddha taught, is more "Sit down and chill until you work it out for yourself." I think it's pretty awesome that this prison is allowing and encouraging this type of inquiry. I've heard of similar programs in places like San Quentin in the heart of Marin County, but to see this in Alabama is encouraging.
It's worth pointing out that there ARE Christian mediatation practices that have been around for awhile. Here's an organization that was started by a guy named John Main. http://www.wccm.org/ After being taught meditation by a swami, Main discovered there was a tradition of Christian meditation (but only after becoming a monk and, ironically, being told to quit meditating because meditation was "unChristian"): http://www.wccm.org/content/john-main When he returned to the West he became professor of International law at Trinity College, continuing to meditate as part of his Christian spiritual life. In 1958 he became a Benedictine monk at Ealing Abbey in London. He was asked to give up this practice of meditation, as it was not deemed then to be a Christian form of prayer. However, while Headmaster of the school at St Anselm’s Abbey in Washington DC in 1969 John Main was led to a new study of the roots of his own Christian monastic tradition. In the Conferences of John Cassian and the teachings of the Desert fathers he found the Christian expression of the same way of meditation he had learned in the East. Now recognising the teaching and the urgent need for it in the modern world he began to practice again. In 1975 he opened the first Christian Meditation Centre at Ealing Abbey in London and began what was to be the culminating mission of his lifelong search for God and service of others. Realising that this way of the prayer of the heart could guide the search of many modern people for deeper spiritual experience, he recommended two regular daily periods of meditation to be integrated with the usual practices of Christian life. In his teaching he emphasised the simplicity and universality of the practice of meditation as well as acknowledging the fact of its being a discipline. One of the best kept secrets of Christianity, IMO. So secret even monks didn't know of it's role in early monastic life!
Hello Pot. All he said is that he would still want to explain his viewpoint on the issue. That seems completely reasonable. He didn't belittle the idea, nor did he say he would oppose it. There is a way to disagree with something while still being civil.
Seeing how a practice helps hardened criminals and having the first response be "Well, my experience shows me something else works better, so I'd want to tell them that what's helping them eventually won't be enough" doesn't strike you as a little arrogant? Particularly when that person doesn't have extensive experience with Vipassana meditation himself (correct me if I'm wrong), it's just incredibly presumptuous.
where did i say it's not working? the type of meditation described isn't the same as meditating on biblical scripture. it's a short-term solution because it doesn't offer the same kind of peace with the biblical god as being a disciple of Jesus does, according to him. Jesus told his followers to go forth and make disciples. a disciple is someone who follows a teacher, in fact trying to duplicate the teacher. Jesus told his followers that they would do even greater things than he did. if i'm not willing to try to make disciples, how can i say i'm following -- trying to duplicate -- my teacher? because that's what he said.
it all comes down to what the goal is. if your goal is to be able to hit a baseball pitched at 90 miles an hour once out of every 5 at-bats, you will need to learn better skills, unless you're satisfied with being a scrub. if your goal is to be able to do what Jesus did, Vipassana meditation won't train you to do that. it isn't designed to train you to do that. i've never intimated that such a practice isn't valuable or should not be pursued by people who want to meet a particular goal.
I am not sure why we are arguing over a hypothetical situation. If Stilton was the chaplain of a prison he would probably know a bit about prison and rehabilitation and theology. But, he is not, so he's just a guy voicing his opinion... right or wrong. He didn't say anything all that harrowing or terrible or exclusive.
When you said that the program would fall short in the long term. In your frame. You have framed yourself by what another man has told you not by what god has said. You speak of a biblical god, but yet that's a man made entity that was carved out of several books in the 4th century. The bible is simple a "recollection" or "review" of the more popular gospels of the day. Also the Book of Genesis is a straight up rip off of an earlier text from the Sumerian civilization. So basically build an army. In the old testament God is a true warrior! If something is the truth, then people will follow WITHOUT HAVING TO BE CONVINCED! They will see the truth and know it to be good. I've got some land to sell you in the Florida...swamp land.
there's a world of difference, grasshopper, better not working and falling short in the long term. falling short in the long term means that there is more available in Option B than in Option A. that doesn't mean Option A doesn't work. it means that Option A doesn't provide as much benefit as Option B. this is such a tired argument. give it up. there is spiritual warfare going on all the time. buckle up, buttercup.
And you come to this conclusion after long study and practice in both traditions? Methinks you're lacking in the virtue of humility when it comes to spiritual matters. It's one thing to say "This is what's working for me." It's quite another to say "This tradition that I have very limited experience with will only take you so far."
Long term inner peace can be achieved through a variety of methods, only one of them being through christianity.