A Letter to send to your family or friends to invite them to share Dharma Friends and JustUsFriends with you...

In our last meditation group at a maximum security prison, we were talking about the helpfulness of meditation in creating a calm space that arises when faced with chaos or stress so that one need not react to an event from primitive fear and anger. Instead, one can remember meditative equanimity and then make a peaceful decision about the best way to speak or act creating benefit. When talking to these 25 men, we asked if those skills of healing and facilitating communication were taught to them as kids so that they would not make tense times more volatile. Every one of them agreed that NO ONE taught them such communication skills. When things were tough, everyone in their family just reacted upon impulse - often violently! And - they all said - it was this lack of skillfulness and calm communication and lifestyle that brought about the life crisis that sent them to prison. They want their boys and girls and those that they love to grow new tools and to have a chance at a good life.

As Compassion Works for All offers meditation and healing in prisons in our meditation groups and through our Dharma Friends newsletters, one of our strong beliefs is in our ‘drop and ripple' theory! For all of the inmates who find a path and tools for healing, there are hundreds of thousands who were left behind in their families and communities who still face the enormous obstacles and challenges to a successful life. Many of those left behind to find their way -now alone without fathers and mothers - are the children of inmates who are left in even greater poverty. They are living in what are our own versions of war zones in America. They do not have a clue about how to survive or how to transcend such life challenges they face. Many are our next generation of prisoners.

In our prison groups and in our Dharma Friends issues, we emphasize and try to empower those who are growing to become the mentors, guides, teachers, and loving parents and family members that can be drops in the ocean that can start the ripples flowing to healing and new options. Chelle, one of our board members and a gung-ho volunteer had the thought of enclosing a letter in our Welcome Packet that goes to new Dharma Friends prisoner subscribers and to run in the Dharma Friends newsletter. The hope was to facilitate our prisoner participants in reaching out to their families. If family members and children can access our JustUsFriends.org options and videos, and are reading Dharma Friends as well, they will all have a foundation upon which they can build the shared experiences of new ideas and healing tools.

So here is the letter that they can send to loved ones. Hopefully, such invitations will benefit their relationships and their families, and be a drop starting off ripples and changing dysfunctional communities.

It might be that you would want to send out this letter too -with a few minor alterations in the text. Be a drop....

Dear

Here in prison, I receive a monthly newsletter from Compassion Works for All called Dharma Friends. It offers support from ancient wisdom with which we explore our spiritual path, no matter what tradition someone follows. We learn meditation teachings, psychological and emotional healing, and we build a community between those in prison and those out in the world through letters.
Compassion Works for All encourages communication and healing of old family patterns and relationship issues with those I have left behind - like you. One way to support such discussions between us is if we are both reading Dharma Friends issues and using them as a basis for our discussions. I welcome this opportunity to share such healing and growth talks and letters with you and would like to ask you to go to www.justusfriends.org and sign up for the twice monthly emails that will bring you Dharma Friends newsletter and also the JustUsFriends web site updates. There are lots of healing videos on the web site as well, some especially for those with family members and friends who are in prison.

I greatly regret that we are spending this time apart and the challenges that it imposes on our relationship. I also look forward to being able to use all of these traumatic events as a way to grow beyond the issues of our past and find a stronger healing that will benefit not only me and you but all those that we love.

Thank you for considering sharing Dharma Friends and this part of my life with me. I hope it helps you as much as it has helped me.

Love,