This week we are sharing a paper written by Corey Scott Jensen, a Dharma Rain sangha member and an inmate at Oregon State Penitentiary. Gyoshi provided the following introduction to Dharma Rain’s prison program and Corey’s paper: 

DRZC’s prison program began in earnest in 1997 with visits by Getsushin Brox to two men on Oregon State Penitentiary’s (OSP) death row. The program has evolved over the years, and we now have groups in eight different state and local facilities. In our OSP group, we begin each year with a sangha forum where we discuss how the group has been working and whether we want to make any changes going forward. This year several of the men voiced that what they miss sorely is being able to help others. I reminded them that they are Dharma Rain Zen Center sangha members, and suggested that one way to help their sangha sisters and brothers would be to share about their experience practicing within the prison walls. This article by OSP inmate Corey Scott Jensen is in response to this. 

Click here for more information about Dharma Rain’s prison program.
(COVID-19 note: Currently volunteer access to all Oregon state prisons has been suspended. With no visitors and no internet, the incarcerated are almost completely cut off from the outside world. We are looking for ways to support them within these constraints.)