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Pencil drawing made by Liberation Prison Project student Dylan and gifted to LPP, November 2018. Image courtesy of LPP.
Since 2001 Liberation Prison Project (LPP), an FPMT project, and San Francisco, California, US tour company Himalayan High Treks have been working together to enable people to go on pilgrimage. Twenty-two pilgrimages have been offered so far, raising a grand total of nearly $182,000 for LPP. Ven. Thubten Chokyi, director of LPP, shares the story.
The Buddha advised his students that after his passing, pilgrimage should be made to the holy places to help purify previously accumulated negative karmas, even the five heinous actions.
Liberation Prison Project (LPP) has been partnering with Himalayan High Treks since 2001 to organize pilgrimages to Buddhist sites in India, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Borobudur, a ninth-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Indonesia. We have been blessed to have inspiring teachers leading the pilgrimages, including FPMT registered teachers Ven. Robina Courtin, Geshe Tenzin Zopa, Ven. Tenzin Chogkyi, Ven. Amy Miller, and Jon Landaw.
India and Nepal pilgrimage led by Jon Landaw, Dhamek Stupa, Sarnath, India, October 2012. Photo by LPP Australia office administrator Kevin Ison.
Following the pilgrimages, many participants join our team of volunteer Dharma mentors, writing to and visiting LPP students in prison. Many who go on the pilgrimages are already LPP Dharma friends who want to support LPP through the fundraising contribution. They have told us that going on pilgrimage was a transformative and powerful experience, and they are able to share that experience with the inmates they support.
Artwork celebrating Losar, year of the pig, by Liberation Prison Project student Raven Jones, gifted to LPP, February 2018. Image courtesy of LPP.
The nearly $182,000 raised from these pilgrimages has been used to provide free resources to our students in the US, subscriptions to Mandala magazine, copies of the Liberation Tibetan calendar, and the giving of refuge and bodhichitta vows. The funds have also been used to provide support to prison chaplaincy and Dharma students who mentor our students by correspondence.
LPP has provided around 20,000 resources to inmates, including FPMT study and practice materials. All of our students receive FPMT’s five-session Buddhism in a Nutshell course when they first contact us, as an introduction to the Dharma. Many prisoners are engaged in FPMT’s fourteen-module Discovering Buddhism study program, and one student is engaged in FPMT’s most advanced study program, the Masters Program, which consists of six years of study and a total of one year of retreat. Raven Jones, one of our students in the US, has already completed the Masters Program under the mentorship of Ven. Sangye Khadro.
In late 2018 one of our students in Australia took refuge and another plans to take refuge in 2019. It is so heart warming to see the ripening of the Dharma in such harsh and challenging environments. It takes great courage and determination.
When Rangjung Neljorma Khadro Namsel Drönme (Khadro-la) was in Australia in 2014, she offered refuge to one of our students, and many of the Education and Chaplaincy staff were delighted to join in the happy occasion. The student has since completed the first thirteen modules of Discovering Buddhism and has become the first prisoner to do a nyung nä retreat in prison. He said the only major obstacle was that he couldn’t leave the fresh fruit on his altar throughout.
Khadro-la after her first prison visit holding a portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, created by a Liberation Prison Project student on the occasion of Khadro-la’s first visit to Australia, Thubten Shedrup Ling Monastery, Bendigo, Australia, April 2014. Photo by LPP visiting chaplain Libby Mowlam. When it was presented to her Khadro-la promised to offer it directly to His Holiness.
There are many similar inspiring stories of transformation in prison that have been shared with us by LPP coordinators in New Zealand, Italy, Mongolia, Mexico, France, and the UK, and LPP students in Asia, Africa, and South America.
We appreciate Himalayan High Treks staff, as well as all of the individuals who have offered their support over the years by joining or leading a pilgrimage organized by Himalayan High Treks that benefits LPP.
For more information about Liberation Prison Project, visit their website:
http://www.liberationprisonproject.org/
For more information about Himalayan High Treks pilgrimages, visit their website:
http://www.himalayanhightreks.com/index.html
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