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Christian Growth Opportunities for Adults
Back to - Adult Forum - 2009

PRISON MINISTRY

Supporting Central New York’s Prisoners and Families Inside and Out.

Our mission is to promote an understanding, within our parishes, of the challenges and opportunities faced by the incarcerated as well as by re-entering men, women, and their families, and to encourage and support ministries in order to assist this community

http://www.prisonministry-edr.org/

Theme: Receive, Repent, Reconcile and Restore have many applications far beyond prison ministry. As an example, one of the exercises I use in the jail is to recite one of the barriers to personal happiness and fulfillment  and how to overcome them.

Specifically, Happiness Barrier no 3: Negativity. Solution: Let Go.

The exercise talks about "Your prison is nothing in comparison with the inner prison of ordinary people: The prison of attachment, the prison of anger, the prison of depression, the prison of pride" wrote Lama Zopa Rinproche to a California prisoner, a student of the Liberation prison project, which offers Buddhist teachings to people in prison.

Some view this statement as a bit of an exaggeration. But negative, compulsive thoughts do have a quality of stickiness to them, Jonpa says. How you see things and the way you experience the world are strongly linked, making it critical to adopt a positive outlook". You interact with the world through your senses and mind, he says. If you can find a way to stand at the doorway of your senses, you can have a say in how you experience the world."

The Buddhist view, by contrast, is that happiness is what you get when you give up a neurotic state of mind, Courtin says. "It’s empowering", she says "because knowing you can change it gives you the courage to look inside, pay attention, and take responsibility for your thoughts." Rater than judging negative thoughts, Courtin advises observing them with compassion. Then ask yourself, "What can I do about this?"