Prison volunteer workshop
Venerable Thubten Chodron 
Prison Dharma 
Dec 6, 2015 A workshop for Buddhist volunteers who work with incarcerated people was conducted in Singapore. Venerable Thubten Chodron discussed her experience and what she learned from her years of working with incarcerated people and groups. She answered questions, and explained techniques and approaches for helping those in prison and those who have been released.
- How the social and family background of incarcerated people influences their life choices
- The bias of the justice system and treatment of people imprisoned in the USA
- The teaching topics that incarcerated people relate to better and benefit from
- What types of meditation techniques to use with incarcerated people
- The benefit of the retreat-from-afar for incarcerated people
- The importance of treating the incarcerated people with respect
- Working with an incarcerated person on death row who was executed
- Teaching techniques for working with anger
- How to establish trust with groups and lead group discussions
- Training lay volunteers for prison work
- Presenting meditation techniques in a secular way for non-Buddhists
- Working with incarcerated people to prepare them for release and support after release
Buddhist prison volunteer workshop (download)
Venerable Thubten Chodron
Venerable Chodron emphasizes the practical application of Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives and is especially skilled at explaining them in ways easily understood and practiced by Westerners. She is well known for her warm, humorous, and lucid teachings. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1977 by Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in Dharamsala, India, and in 1986 she received bhikshuni (full) ordination in Taiwan. Read her full bio.
