Ratna Peace Initiative

10/08/2026

COOKIES

This inmate in Pennsylvania has been doing compassion practices like tonglen:

“If you were to ask me how practice is going? I can do a lot more pull-ups than when I started...LOL! I notice places that I’m much stronger now. Tonglen has been a habit for 3/4's of year now. I’m a lot more mindful, and I spend a lot of time feeling less stingy. Yet not much is new under the sun!! I want my cookies, I don’t want my cellie to have them, and should he offer me his cookies, there’s a good chance I’d have four cookies! LOL. Joking, truth is, I did give him my cookies, and he was so damn happy about it that I couldn’t help but smile. It was an actual fact that I experienced real joy giving him my cookies and seeing his joy.”

10/08/2026

One of the things the US takes away permanently from felons is voting rights:

The state permanently disenfranchises people with felony convictions unless pardoned or successfully petition one.

10/06/2026

An inmate in Michigan doing our "Power of Patience" course:

“I’ve turned to the teachings on anger from this particular course time and time again over the past eight months, as I have learned to navigate how to help people who try my patience, cause problems for the education program here, or who play extremely loud and vulgar rap music. What has proved to be most powerful from Shantideva’s teaching is the idea that when we are harmed, mistreated, insulted, or wronged in some way, we should be grateful–grateful for the chance to practice patience. Grateful for the chance to generate karma with positive consequences. Well, it works. I’ve discovered a new kind of peaceful abiding–a new kind of compassion for the aggressor and the fool in me, and a new kind of compassion for the aggressor and the fool I meet.”

09/18/2026

Here's a response from a Louisiana inmate who just finished all three of our Buddhist courses:

"I am grateful for your patience, wisdom, and insight. Because of the Ratna Peace Initiative, I am a better person and I'm not stopping. I plan to study the Dharma, Shantideva, Trungpa, and many, many other Dharma teachers as long as I am able."

09/12/2026

NEW BLOG AND NEW BOOK

I've written some account of my new book, I'll Begin in the Middle, and we will officially launch it Sunday, Sept. 27th, at 1933 Juniper St., in Longmont, CO, going 5:30 till sundown. There will be a reading by the poet, conviviality, food and refreshments. All welcome!

I’ve always been interested in artistic process and accounts of how certain works came to life. On a furiously windy day a couple years ago in Boulder–I believe it was April–Xcel Energy cut the power to a lot of neighborhoods, no doubt trying to avoid what had happened with the Marshall fire t...

09/04/2026

This kind of article, when you here what people who made it out of prison have to say, affirms my impression that everything starts with your willingness to put yourself out there and maintain the effort.

Having a criminal record creates hurdles for people seeking employment. Discrimination and conditions of release such as meeting with parole officers compound the typical challenges of job hunting.

08/25/2026

BUILDING MORE MASSIVE PRISONS

I'm personally not of the opinion that you will ever get rid of prisons completely, certainly not with the kinds of societal ill health we continue to foster. The main point in this article is that prisons have been built and continue to be built as some kind of more "humane" alternative, that doesn't really relieve the problem but extends it. Aim that money at creating healthier neighborhoods, better schools, and economic conditions, and you're addressing a lot of the reason we are forced into heavy policing and incarceration. But since prisons have risen to the level of being their own industry, there are various interests that will always be pushing them on the tax payer dime. Discerning how to spend the money to reduce crime before it starts seems more worthy to me than forcing us to support more massive institutions.
--Gary Allen

The historical record shows that the glossy language of “reform” contributes to the normalization of prisons and jails.

08/06/2026

DISAPPOINTMENT BECOMES INSPIRATION

I’ve often thought that the main help prison offers the world as well as the people imprisoned there is that it potentially destroys their view of themselves and how they deal with their life. Five or six years into an 18 year sentence, say, having made a complete and utter mess of your life, you might start to recognize that it’s essentially your fault, and that’s when a ray of light starts to break through. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche:

“...Disappointment becomes inspiration. In that sense, that something is not seen is the beginning of seeing. For instance, if you are studying music, the starting point is to realize how unmusical you are. If you are studying art, the starting point is to realize how unartistic you are. That’s a hopeful situation. That you have the intelligence to see how unartistic or how unmusical you are is the starting point. Hopelessness is the starting point. That is extremely powerful actually, and the most positive thought that you could have. It is an extraordinarily positive thing to discover how bad things are. [Laughter]”

08/05/2026

Here's a "mental health facility" which apparently can't take care of the most fundamental issues of living in the place:

After The Marshall Project found scores of fires set by men at a Joliet prison, legislators want improved fire safety and mental health treatment.

07/23/2026

This inmate gets Shantideva's teaching concisely, and it certainly makes sense for dealing with all the things you're denied in prison:

Why be unhappy about something
If it can be remedied?
And what is the use of being unhappy about something
If it cannot be remedied?

"I appreciate this verse because it reminds me not to focus on things that are outside my control. Either I have the influence to solve the issue, so need to take action to remedy the situation, or the issue is outside of my control, and I need to let it go and keep moving forward."