Sravasti Abbey Receives Grant for Prison Dharma Program

The Spokane Rotary 21 recently donated funds that will make it possible for Sravasti Abbey’s Prison Dharma Program to create a free DVD teaching series for distribution to prison chapel libraries. The grant allows the abbey, located in Newport, Washington, to purchase video equipment for recording and duplicating Dharma talks in DVD format. The content of the first DVD series will be Venerable Thubten Chodron’s teachings on the thought training text, “Mind Training Like Rays of the Sun.”

Though not part of the its original mission, prison outreach has become an important part of Sravasti Abbey’s commitment to benefit beings everywhere. For many years the community has supported inmates interested in Dharma by sending books, cassette tapes, and CDs to individuals and prison chapel libraries.

Encouraged by Sravasti founder and Abbess, Venerable Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, residents and volunteers correspond regularly with inmates in various parts of the country. Venerable Chodron and other monastics also offer teachings inside prisons and are always warmly welcomed. In recent years, fifty to seventy inmates have participated in the Abbey’s annual “Retreat from Afar.”

“Mind Training Like Rays of the Sun,” will be a ten-disc series. The text addresses how to transform adversity into the path and how to develop a loving and compassionate heart, demonstrating that our lives are more than our past actions and offering the hope of practicing compassion and benefiting others.