The FPMT’s (Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition) Liberation Prison Project (LPP) celebrated the end of 2014 with a film night at the Vajrayana Institute in Sydney on 14 December. Attended by more than 50 enthusiastic Buddhist practitioners, the night was a resounding success. The main attraction was the screening of the movie Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint, an appropriate choice in view of the LPP’s extraordinary work in helping prison inmates transform their lives. The LPP regularly holds film nights to bring awareness to its programs and the successes of its students.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche. From liberationprisonproject.org
The Tibetan Buddhist poet-yogi Milarepa is said to have destroyed his village, deliberately taking many lives through the practice of black magic. After some time he transformed his life and under the guidance of his root teacher Marpa, became enlightened in the same lifetime.
“The prisoners really relate to Milarepa’s story. It gives them hope that they can turn their lives around,” said the LPP's international executive director and Vajrayana Institute’s spiritual program coordinator, Venerable Thubten Chokyi. “The audience at our film night suggested we show Milarepa to our Dharma students in prison to inspire them.”
She recalls, “I spoke to the audience about one of our guys that I visited last year, who asked, ‘Do you mean that I can be a good person and a bad person in the same lifetime?,’ to which I replied, ‘You can be a good person right now.’ He had obviously been told that he was a bad person, and suddenly realized that wasn’t his whole identity. This moment remains with me as a powerful reminder of the mental challenges we all face when wanting to lead a meaningful life.”
Many of the program’s students request to read Milarepa’s life story, songs, and poems, and have created both poetry and artwork themselves. This inspired the LPP to launch the Liberation Exhibition of Prisoner Art and Poetry at Maitland Gaol, a former prison that is now a cultural center, in 2012. The exhibit has continued to tour regionally over the last two years.
Milarepa, Tibet. Circa 15th century, parcel gilt silver and lotus base in gilt copper. The Nyingjei Lam Collection. From asianart.com
When the LPP was first started in the USA in 1996 it was called the “Milarepa Project,” until FPMT spiritual director Lama Zopa Rinpoche changed the name to LPP. It came about when Venerable Robina Courtin, the editor of the FPMT’s magazine Mandala, was contacted by a Mexican gangster incarcerated in California who was seeking support to practice Buddhism in prison. After responding to his request, correspondence with prisoners quickly grew, and the LPP was established.
The LPP began in Australia in 2001, and its international program has been operating out of Sydney and the Blue Mountains since 2010. Over the years, it has offered free resources and support to every prison in Australia, touching the lives of over 3,000 inmates. To date, the program has distributed over 35,000 Dharma books, DVDs, CDs, and magazines, as well as LPP calendars, which feature at least one artwork produced by its students and one image of Milarepa each year. It also provides volunteer Buddhist chaplains, who run Dharma classes and meditation sessions in the prisons on a regular basis, and maintains correspondence with inmates taking structured courses in Buddhism. Additionally, during 2014, it organized special prison visits by various well-known teachers.
Venerable Thubten Chokyi is a resident nun at the Vajrayana Institute in Sydney. After taking on the role of a Buddhist chaplain, visiting prisons throughout New South Wales, she became the LPP’s Australia coordinator, and was appointed its international executive director in 2010.