The Dharma Rain Zen Center prison program is an outreach program that serves inmates and recent releases from state prisons in Oregon.

     We provide meditation instruction and practice.

     We share Buddhist teachings and work to create Sangha within the prison.

     We work with inmates to foster inner peace and long-term personal transformation.

I wrote this in 2007. It is still on their website: “The first days in prison are guaranteed to be the worst in your life. I “fell” long and hard and felt cracked wide open. My puny but pure heart only allowed truth to come back in. Negativity had no foothold. I was awakened to my Buddha nature, but I was entirely dependent on the sangha and the Dharma to put the insight into practice.” My Zen practice became my behavior blueprint. I took the precepts while incarcerated. After release, I attended services at Dharma Rain and continue the practice.

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