• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•  
• 
• 
•  
• 

— If one uses this time and experience of being in prison to practice meditation, to practice dharma, then being in prison, even though it is believed you are in prison by outside people, in reality it becomes a retreat for you. —

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Our Teachers

"In search of a spiritual community"

From our Sep-Oct 2007 Liberation Newsletter

Longtime Liberation Prison Project teacher Ven. Thubten Wongmo guides the practice of 32 prison project students across the US and in her six years as an LPP teacher has written to over 200 inmates.

Ven. Wongmo says she feels she has everything in common with her students. “We’re all in samsara; our bodies are impermanent; we all want happiness, not suffering and are under the control of our mental afflictions and karmic imprints. And in our beginningless past lives we’ve all done everything, both bad and good. So how can I judge anyone?”

Among the first group of Westerners to be ordained within the FPMT, Ven. Wongmo grew up in Southern California, spending her high school years at European boarding schools. In the late sixties she lived in communes in New Mexico and later traveled across Europe in a Volkswagen bus.

In Spain she read the book Be Here Now by Ram Dass, which she said deeply affected her mind and “made me realize that what I had been seeking all my life was an Eastern spiritual path and teacher.” From Greece she set off to India “in search of a spiritual community,” ending up in Dharamsala.

After attending a teaching by Geshe Ngwang Dargyey, Ven. Wongmo found what she had been looking for; in 1974 she ordained and has studied, meditated and taught under the guidance of Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche ever since.

Rinpoche advised two of Ven. Wongmo’s students, Aaron Chaney and Vernon Carter, to recite the Black Court Case mantra, The Golden Light and Sanghata Sutras, meditate on the lam-rim and do Vajrasattva purification practices. Both were transferred to work-release centers, “suddenly and without even asking,” and later paroled.

“This is a sign of the power of our holy guru, the benefits of guru devotion and the power of purification with Vajrasattva,” said Ven. Wongmo.

Ven. Wongmo writes to:

Terry Buchanan, Rutledge State Prison, Georgia

David Byrd, released, California

Dale Dunham, Montana State Prison

Randy Ekstrom, Newton Correctional Facility, Iowa

Dainin Jack Jones, Varner Unit, Arkansas

Raymond Larsen, Pontiac Correctional Center, Illinois

Ferril Mickens, California State Prison Corcoran

Gregory Miller, Carson City Correctional Facility, Michigan

Richard Raugust, Dawson County Correctional Facility, Montana

James Robinson, Cummins Unit, Arkansas

Jose Santos, Montana State Prison

James Tinsely, Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, Indiana

Boe Twedt, Shelby Prison, Montana

Malcolm Wright, Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center

David Martinez, California Medical Facility Vacaville

Stuart Bezanson, Montana State Prison

Scott Smith, released, Colorado

William Suesz, St. Anothony Work Camp, Idaho

Ramon Notario, Martin Correctional Institute, Florida

John Lancuchki, Central Arizona Correctional Facility

Dawn Amos, Denver Women's Correctional Facility

Kevin McGowin, Hughes Unit, Montana

George Jackson, Sterling Correctional Facility, Colorado

Michael Biggs, Central Arizona Correctional Facility

Jesse Kaufman, Sterling Correctional Facility, Colorado

James Hawks, Kit Carson Correctional Facility, Colorado

Dennis Leigh, Sterling Correctional Facility, Colorado

Jose Lopez, Sterling Correctional Facility, Colorado

Michael Willett, Airway Heights Correctional Center, Washington

Nathan Ybanez, Sterling Correctional Facility, Colorado

Justin Sciaraffa, Kit Carson Correctional Facility, Colorado

Marcus Clouatre, Sterling Correctional Facility, Colorado

Christopher Krebs, Sterling Correctional Facility, Colorado

Joshua Phillips, Hardee Correctional Institute, Florida