The Dhamma Brothers: A Documentary
This is a documentary film made by Jenny Phillips "a cultural anthropologist, psychotherapist and now documentary filmmaker."
The Dhamma Brothers is "a documentary she began in 2002 chronicling a 10-day meditation retreat in Donaldson. She interviewed the 36 participating prisoners (called “the dhamma brothers” after the Dhamma, or dharma, the term for the collective teachings of the Buddha) for hours, discussing their childhoods, their crimes, their struggles to get through each day in lockup and the Sisyphean challenge of trying personal transformation inside an often-hopeless prison culture...."
Although, "meditation" is universal, Vipassana meditation is what Buddhists know as "meditation."
“We were finding that after this 10-day course, inmates were better able to control their anger and better able to conduct themselves,” said Dr. Ron Cavanaugh, director of treatment at the Alabama Department of Corrections, who worked with Ms. Phillips to bring Vipassana meditation to Donaldson. “The initial group had about a 20 percent reduction in their disciplinary histories.” After the course ended and the film crew returned to Massachusetts, the Dhamma brothers continued meditating daily, with a longer sitting once a week."
Source: The NY Times: "Staring at Death, and Finding Their Bliss"
I find the article intriguing as it shows the extreme contrast between African American inmates (Brothers) and Dhamma in Buddhism which we might have taken it for granted as we (Thais) were pratically born into it - as opposed to Americans or African Americans who were born into ... consumerism?
Anyway, I think I am pretty darn lucky! (cross fingers & triple knock on wood!)
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