Enjoy Life Liberated from the Inner Prison: Then the Outer Prison Won’t Become the Real Prison

Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Mrt. 2021 · Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive

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When terrible things happen in life and there’s little we can do to change them, the only option seems to be either anger or despair. This is the reality for prison inmates. They have no power over their circumstances. Many have long sentences, some have been wrongly accused and some even await execution. Their environment is often overcrowded, ugly, violent and full of noise, “like being in a rock concert all day,” as one man reported. There is nothing to look forward to and often no one to turn to.

For the past twenty-five years, Liberation Prison Project has been a lifeline for prisoners, first in the United States and also in Australia, Italy, Mongolia, New Zealand and other countries, who turned to LPP, asking for Buddhist books and spiritual advice in an effort to find meaning in life when everything else has been lost.

This book is a compilation of advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the spiritual director of LPP, in response to letters from more than one hundred prisoners, mainly in the USA, edited into a coherent narrative. Rinpoche’s advice is that, actually, their prison “is nothing in comparison with their inner prison—the prison of anger, the prison of attachment, the prison of ignorance.” That prison, Rinpoche says, they can definitely change. And why should they? Because, simply put, happiness and suffering come from the mind, not the external world.

The extent of the heartfelt compassion and love that Rinpoche offers the men who write to him is incredible. He empowers them to never give up on the development of their potential and their ability to help others.

The advice in the book is not just for prisoners. It is for all of us.

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Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche was born in Thangme, Nepal, in 1945. At the age of three he was recognized as the reincarnation of the Lawudo Lama, who had lived nearby at Lawudo, within sight of Rinpoche’s Thangme home. Rinpoche’s own description of his early years may be found in his book, The Door to Satisfaction.

At the age of ten, Rinpoche went to Tibet and studied and meditated at Domo Geshe Rinpoche’s monastery near Pagri, until the failed uprising against the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959 forced him to forsake Tibet for the safety of Bhutan.

Rinpoche then went to the Tibetan refugee camp at Buxa Duar, West Bengal, India, where he met Lama Yeshe, who became his closest teacher. The Lamas went to Nepal in 1967, and over the next few years built Kopan and Lawudo Monasteries. In 1971 Lama Zopa Rinpoche gave the first of his famous annual lamrim retreat courses, which continue at Kopan to this day. In 1974, with Lama Yeshe, Rinpoche began traveling the world to teach and establish centers of Dharma.

When Lama Yeshe passed away in 1984, Rinpoche took over as spiritual head of the FPMT, which has continued to flourish under his peerless leadership.

More details of Rinpoche’s life and work may be found in The Lawudo Lama and on the LYWA and FPMT websites.

In addition to many LYWA and FPMT books, including transcripts and practice booklets, Rinpoche’s other published teachings, from Wisdom Publications, include Wisdom Energy (with Lama Yeshe), Transforming Problems, The Door to Satisfaction, Ultimate Healing, Dear Lama Zopa, How to Be Happy, Wholesome Fear, How to Face Death Without Fear, The Four Noble Truths, Bodhichitta, The Six Perfections and Patience.

Robina Courtin was ordained in the late 1970s and has worked full time since then for Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s FPMT. Over the years she has served as editorial director of Wisdom Publications, editor of the magazine, Mandala, executive director of Liberation Prison Project, and as a touring teacher of Buddhism. Her life, including her work with prisoners, has been featured in the documentary films Chasing Buddha and Key to Freedom.