The Liberation Prison Project

"The word "kadampa" refers to those who are able to see the Buddha's teachings as personal advice that applies immediately to their own lives. "
-Kadampa Center website

Today's virtual visit takes us, for the first time in this blog, to southeastern U.S.A., to the Kadampa Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Kadampa Center for the Practice of Tibetan Buddhism in the Gelugpa Tradition was founded in 1992 by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche who is also the Spiritual Director of FPMT (Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition). The center is part of the global network of FPMT centers that perpetuate a spiritual community of practitioners as well as publications and community projects.

One project at the Center that immediately caught my attention was the Liberation Prison Project. An affiliate project of FPMT, the Liberation Prison Project has, since 1996, been supporting the practice of Buddhism by prisoners worldwide. Volunteer teachers offer guidance and tools to prisoners and visiting teachers go into the prisons to offer teachings and meditation.

Prisoners typically learn of the project by way of another prisoner who has become engaged with the Buddhist teachings. The Liberation Prison Project often initiates outreach after a prisoner sends a letter seeking material and support.

“Our aim isn’t to make people Buddhists; it’s to help them develop their human potential,”
-LPP's Founder, Ven. Robina Courtin

The efforts of bringing Buddhist teachings to prisoners is one I find tremendous. As with many other posts and "virtual visits," what was intended today to be a look at a dharma center in North Carolina led to knowledge of an international organization and effort to bring the dharma to those who seek it, but do not have the resources nor freedoms to simply go to a local dharma center. As can be intuited from some of my other posts here, I am interested in Buddhism on many levels, but an area that particularly draws me is practice and awareness that leads to a major transformation in lives.

In reading the bios of the volunteer teacher's on the LPP website, it's immediately clear how that transformative nature of exchanging Buddhist teachings relates to both the teachers and the prisoners experiences. Andre Smith's (a North Carolina based LPP teacher) story is directly reflective of this. You can read it here. In essence, the idea of any individual who has lost someone dear to them to a violent crime to then turn their energy and efforts towards bringing teachings of compassion and self understanding to prisoners is tremendous. Many prisoners are stigmatized due to their own record of crime, but while in prison many do have the capacity to transform their thinking and their lives. It may be difficult, and at times even inappropriate, to view prisoners as victims, but in a sense it is a victimization of the self. The potential of suffering that human's are capable of creating for themselves and others can reach disastrous proportions.

Efforts such as the Liberation Prison Projects bring the teachings of the dharma to a very particular place of need, even more so as prisoners are themselves seeking it out.

On the Vajrayana

In yesterday's posting (April 19) I started off looking at a dharma center in Missoula, Montana. This led to my question of accuracy in referring to Tibetan Buddhist dharma centers as both Mahayana and Vajrayana in practice, which then led me to getting into a bit of communication with a couple of folks at Mandala Magazine (of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition). I felt I couldn't quite proceed with this particular question unanswered. The question itself touches on the very nature of the different yanas, or vehicles, a body of knowledge I haven't even fleshed out completely in understanding yet myself. I look forward to approaching further understanding when I can engage with various Buddhist teachers, yet in this moment, the FPMT representatives provided an excellent and concise response.

They not only provided that, but also some valuable articles regarding FPMT's history as well as Buddhist teachings.

The one I refer to today was published by Carina Rumrill in a recent issue of Mandala Magazine and is a rich, informative as well as humorous explanation of the tantra, or Vajrayana. The text is an excerpt from one of Lama Yeshe's, the founder of FPMT, works.

I was completely engaged and returned to read the piece several times through, because of the directness taken in handling the discussion of how tantra can be related and manifest in "modern" society. The text was written in the later decades of the 20th century, but one can intuit how the same perception applies for considering tantra's application for the decades to come in the 2000's.

This particular issue, of how one interacts, interprets and manifests the lessons in centuries old teachings in a society that is, in many ways, radically different from when and where the teachings were originally scribed, has begun to surface with regularity as I read more on the interpretation and assimilation of Tibetan Buddhism in Western society. It is, perhaps debatably, one of the core "concerns" in the dialogue of how these teachings and philosophies can be transmitted in lands and cultures so distant and foreign from its origins.

A quote from the article:

"As time passes, everything changes – culture, people’s mentality and behavior, the environment and so forth – so the way that the teachings are presented also has to change. Today, when everything moves so fast, we can’t necessarily use methods that in earlier times took a long time to accomplish. Lord Buddha himself said that when the culture changes, delusion, mentality and behavior also change, so even the vinaya rules have to be adjusted, because in their original form they may no longer benefit. We should therefore understand that Lord Buddha taught in order to help beings according to their individual need, so naturally, as time passes, the way his teachings are presented and practiced might also have to change. Even in times of nuclear war there’d still be a skillful way to practice Dharma.

If the teachings are not suited to the times and way of life, they’re very difficult to practice. I mean, if the only way to reach enlightenment was to ride a snow lion around Amsterdam we’d really be in trouble.

However, the practice of tantra is very well suited to twentieth century life. Life today is full of pleasure but we also have a tendency to be easily confused and dissatisfied. Therefore we need a method whereby we can transform the energy of all our everyday life experiences into the path to enlightenment; we desperately need that kind of skill. So that’s what tantra offers us."

From: Vajrayana, by Lama Yeshe as published in Mandala Magazine

First, I really enjoy the snow lion analogy, it definitely draws up a humorous vision.

But what I really appreciate about this article, the line of thought I am increasingly seeing expressed in other Lama's and Buddhist teachers words, is the value in not rejecting one's society and surroundings in order to feel capable of engaging on a particular spiritual path. I have increasingly come to understand, for myself, that such rejection creates a conflict which does not often have at it's heart the potential for transformation, but rather paves the way for disappointment and dissent.

One may seek the sense of 'warriorship' at the heart of many of the teachings and even affect critically needed social change in their own societies through that spiritual motivation. To approach such efforts with compassion, with awareness of societies mutable nature as well as awareness of the benefit in seeing traditional teachings through the prism of our own modern day conditions and needs....perhaps this can also create more fertile grounds for appropriate understanding and action.

FPMT via Montana

Tashi Dhargye: The Eight Auspicious Signs - Combined Form

"Image(s) courtesy of Osel Shen Phen Ling," Bob Jacobson

This morning's visit had me returning to the expansive landscape of Montana, searching about for dharma centers there. I came across the site for Osel Shen Phen Ling and took some time to peruse the "Virtual Thangka Gallery," where you can find the above image and many more.

Yet when I started looking into the center, I had one of those moments of realizing how little I knew- how some of even the seemingly basic concepts and historical facts of Tibetan Buddhism were still a bit tangled in my mind.

If you're reading this blog, you are perhaps likely to be familiar with at least the fundamentals of the Tibetan Buddhist lexicon. I am by no means an expert. In fact these pages are a medium for me, and perhaps even some readers, to learn more. I welcome constructive critique as well as "correction" contributions. I am quite clearly basing much of what I write about various centers from what I read on the web and while I hope it is accurate at least for the moment, things change.

Osel Shen Phen Ling in Missoula, Montana follows in the tradition of the Gelug-pa lineage and is an affiliated center of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). As I learned these bits of information about Osel Shen Phen Ling, I realized my own confusion about the relationships between the traditions and lineages. Osel Shen Phen Ling is an FPMT affiliate, yet follows a lineage, Gelug, that I had been under the impression of as being "Vajrayana" related. Questions arose:

Is Mahayana generally regarded as an umbrella over the Vajrayana tradition?

Are Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu and Gelug all lineages that can be seen either as Vajrayana or Mahayana?

The three traditionally regarded 'Yanas,' Sanskrit for Vehicle or Path, in Buddhism are: the Hinayana, Mahayana and the Vajrayana. I have entitled my own online 'project' here 'The United States of Vajrayana,' as my virtual trekking to various dharma centers and their histories is USA focused and I previously considered Tibetan Buddhism to be Vajrayanic at heart.

Osel Shen Phen Ling is affiliated with The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, which is affiliated to an abundance of centers worldwide as well as involved in numerous charitable projects across the planet. FPMT was founded by Ven. Lama Thubten Yeshe and is currently spiritually directed by Ven. Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. The list of FPMT's activities is tremendous.

With my unresolved questions, I decided to call FPMT directly and ended up on the phone with Carina Rumrill, editor of FPMT's Mandala Magazine, in what led to a very insightful and helpful discussion. I will be communicating a bit more on this route and look forward to sharing whatever I learn. Early on in this project of virtually exploring different dharma centers and organizations nationwide, it is immediately and pretty amazingly clear how linked the histories of many projects and centers are.

FPMT is headquartered in Portland, so on future virtual treks (or actual revisitations of the Pacific Northwest) I know I will enjoy reading up on the history of this dynamic organization.

Update: Within the scope of a few emails and morning hours, I receive a concise and direct explanation from another FPMT individual (thanks Michael J.), confirming Tibetan Buddhist Centers as Mahayana and Vajrayana in practice and nature. Vajrayana comes under the scope and practice of Mahayana, so Vajrayana practitioners are also Mahayana practitioners, though not always the other way around.