Doing time Doing Vipassana

[Guest guest]

 

I tell you that this was the highest spiritual film.

Can you believe this: Placing 1000, some very hardened prisoners in an Indian penitentiary from different religious backgrounds in a 10 day silent meditation retreat. Having them come out and shed tears and hugging the head of the prison.

 

 

DOING TIME, DOING VIPASSANA

Winner of the Golden Spire Award at the 1998 San Francisco International Film Festival, this extraordinary documentary takes viewers into India's largest prison - known as one of the toughest in the world - and shows the dramatic change brought about by the introduction of Vipassana meditation. In giving Doing Time, Doing Vipassana its top honour, the jury stated that:

"it was moved by this insightful and poignant exposition on Vipassana. The teaching of this meditation as a transformation device has many implications for people everywhere, providing the cultural, social and political institutions can embrace and support its liberating possibility."___________ Winner of the 1998 NCCD Pass Awards of the American National Council on Crime and Delinquency. A distinguished panel of experts found Doing Time, Doing Vipassana to be worthy of recognition and deserving of special acclaim:

"..The National Council on Crime and Deliquency is honored to recognize your excellence in communicating the complex problems of crime to the American people. We hope this award will serve as a constant reminder that your work can make a difference.."

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

 

 

This is the story of an ancient meditation technique named Vipassana, which shows people how to take control of their lives and channel them toward their own good.It is the story of a strong woman named Kiran Bedi, the former Inspector General of Prisons in New Delhi, who strove to transform the notorious Tihar Prison and turn it into an oasis of peace. But most of all it is the story of prison inmates who underwent profound change, and who realized that incarceration is not the end but possibly a fresh start toward an improved and more positive life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These people have shown that reform can work if it is self-reform. Their success has been so dramatic that recently the Indian Government decided to apply Vipassana in all the country's prisons. Other countries are becoming interested as well. The filmmakers spent about two weeks inside Tihar Central Prison in New Delhi and Baroda Jail in the Indian state of Gujarat. They interviewed inmates and jail officials, and filmed in places rarely accessible to film crews, whether Indian or foreign.

 

About The Film

 

Two women filmmakers from Israel, Ayelet Menahemi and Eilona Ariel, initiated this independent project. In the winter of 1994-95 they spent five months in India, doing intensive research on the use of Vipassana as a rehabilitation method and its dramatic impact on foreign and Indian prisoners.The authorities were unusually cooperative, allowing the team free access to two Indian jails. The documentary begins with the story of Tihar Prison - a huge and notorious institution housing 10,000 inmates, 9,000 of them awaiting trial. When a new Inspector General, Kiran Bedi, was posted there in 1993, Tihar entered period of rapid-fire change. Bedi had earned a reputation as an energetic but controversial officer in the Indian Police Service. At Tihar she launched a series of reforms improving prison conditions.But she wanted to achieve a deeper transformation, and when she came across Vipassana she was convinced that this was the tool she needed. Bedi learned that the technique had been tried before in other Indian jails, with astonishing results. The film briefly tells how Vipassana originated and how it was used in other prisons. A Vipassana course consists of 10 days of intensive practice, during which participants maintain complete silence. The strict requirements of such a course, imposed on a strict prison system, had created major challenges. When Vipassana courses started in Tihar, results were immediate and dramatic. Many prisoners were deeply affected by the experience, and their attitudes changed drastically. The success led to one of the most extraordinary events to take place in a prison anywhere: in April 1994, at a special facility inside Tihar, one thousand prison inmates participated in an 11-day Vipassana course - the largest ever held in modern times.This led to another unprecedented event: within the precincts of the prison, a meditation center opened, offering regular Vipassana courses to the Tihar inmates. David, an Englishman serving a sentence in Tihar and a Vipassana student, volunteered to work in "the Vipassana Ward." The last part of the film present the inner journey travelled during a Vipassana course, and examines the technique in more detail. Why does practising Vipassana have such a marked effect on people's behaviour and attitude? What do they realize and what do they actually do during a course? A few prisoners - Australian, British, African and Indian - tell of their experiences and their newly acquired outlook on life. The film concludes with a moving scene from Baroda Jail, showing the superintendent greeting his charges outside the meditation hall at the end of a Vipassana course.

 

http://www.karunafilms.com/Dtdv/Dtdv.htm

 

[Guest guest]

That's a great movie, isn't it?

 

Here's a nice article about meditation in prisons:

 

http://www.westword.com/issues/1998-10-08/news/feature2.html

 

Realization , " lostnTRANCElation "

<unbound@h...> wrote:

>

>

>

> I tell you that this was the highest spiritual film.

> Can you believe this: Placing 1000, some very hardened prisoners

in an Indian penitentiary from different religious backgrounds in a

10 day silent meditation retreat. Having them come out and shed

tears and hugging the head of the prison.

>

> DOING TIME, DOING VIPASSANA

[Guest guest]

Hi Rob and the group.

 

In another part of the filme, Goenka wanted to give the vipassana

course to hardened prisoners that were always kept in chains. He

said that he could not give the course to them unless the chains

were removed. They finally agreed but said that they would have

guards with shot guns and if the prisoners tried to get up they

would shoot them.

 

The Doctor who has the group sitting in his home here in Honolulu

also goes into the prison here to teach them Vipassana.

 

To me this is a real miracle to have Hindu, Muslims and other

religions bond in spirituality.

 

Aloha,

Alton

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Realization , " Rob " <editor@r...> wrote:

>

> That's a great movie, isn't it?

>

> Here's a nice article about meditation in prisons:

>

> http://www.westword.com/issues/1998-10-08/news/feature2.html

>

> Realization , " lostnTRANCElation "

> <unbound@h...> wrote:

> >

> >

> >

> > I tell you that this was the highest spiritual film.

> > Can you believe this: Placing 1000, some very hardened prisoners

> in an Indian penitentiary from different religious backgrounds in

a

> 10 day silent meditation retreat. Having them come out and shed

> tears and hugging the head of the prison.

> >

> > DOING TIME, DOING VIPASSANA