Check It Out: Dhamma Brothers (2009)

Meditation is finding the medicine for the sickness we have created by ourselves"

Following a previous post about this past weekend's fundraising effort on the part of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and other celebrities to fund the teaching of transcendental meditation to at-risk youth, I received a comment from fellow blogger Erik about a movie for which he had seen the trailer, The Dhamma Brothers.

As the film's title ("East Meets West in the Deep South") implies, The Dhamma Brothers is set in the deep south, but not just any part of the Southern experience, but in an Alabama penitentiary populated by primarily minority inmates. The East/West angle comes into play as the documentary follows the efforts of teachers and inmates to exact a degree of personal and cultural change when it becomes the first maximum-security prison in North America to hold an extended Vipassana retreat, an emotionally and physically demanding course of silent meditation lasting ten days.

Focusing on the potential for transformation in the most horrific environment possible, Dhamma Brothers follows and documents the stories of the prison inmates at Donaldson Correction Facility who enter into this arduous and intensive program.

Among the varied experiences I myself have had as an educator is teaching (GED, pre-release) programs in a number of different correctional (men's and women's prisons, county jail) facilities. My thoughts regarding the value of introducing meditation techniques to at-risk students, hold true relative to its value for the incarcerated. The terrible anguish, anger and sadness is palpable in these places, and while some might suggest this lot in life is deserved (and I would not disagree), there is some validity to mediation's ability to contribute to a sounder, safer persona and prison community.

The reality is that some (many?) of these men and women will be released. Without limited assistance provided to these individuals while they are incarcerated (and in many states none are offered due to budgetary constraints), often the time served only contributes to the overall degradation of the human soul. Why not provide these willing individuals an avenue for dealing with the pain, anger and sorrow that lead them down this path of personal and community destruction?

I look forward to tracking down The Dhamma Brothers and giving it a viewing...

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!