Buddhism Finds Place in Nation's Prisons

May 30, 2001

Source: The New York Times

On May 30, 2001, The New York Times reported that "Buddhist meditative practices have...begun to take root inside the nation's prison system. Some organizations, beginning with Zen Mountain Monastery [in the Catskill town of Mount Tremper], have moved to help...Buddhism's foundational principles...seem well suited to prison life. The teachings, in brief, declare that life is characterized by suffering and that suffering has a cause (which is desire), but an individual can be freed from suffering."