QiGong Prison Ministry

Mainstream validation

noreply@blogspirit.com (Judy TRETHEWAY) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:07:00 -0800

Mainstream validation for the healing potential of Qigong and Tai chi!

From Harvard:

Women's Health Newsletter

From the Mayo Clinic:

Special Report

Call to Prayer essay

noreply@blogspirit.com (Judy TRETHEWAY) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:46:00 -0800

Call to Prayer Essay 3.6.pdf

Praying for our Prisons
to become places of healing and peace
“Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow
prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you
yourselves were suffering.”
Hebrews 13:3 NIV

Love Never Fails
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but
have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a
clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and
can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I
have a faith that can move mountains, but have not
love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor
and surrender my body to the flames, but have not
love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does
not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not selfseeking,
it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of
wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with
the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always
hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they
will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled;
where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we
know in part and we prophesy in part, but when
perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I
was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a
child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man,
I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor
reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I
am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13 NIV

When you pray prayers of hope and blessings upon those
you know and conditions of the world,
Do you include the prison system?
Do you include the bad guys? Most of us don’t.

Perhaps we should not make prayer our last resort, perhaps now is
the time to activate our faith. It’s time to look with our spiritual
eyes at the condition of our prisons, the increasing levels of fear that
we live under, and the cycles of violence. The problem has moved
way beyond what money can solve. Scarce public funds are calling
us to activate alternatives, to see our problems through the eyes of
opportunity, to try out new viewpoints.

This paper is a call to prayer, a call to activate our spiritual powers
as a community, a community that cares about our collective future
and seeks opportunity for everyone to live into their potential.
This is a call for a new vision to arise for our criminal justice
system and community safety, a vision based on doing unto others
as we would have them do unto us.
We are all victims of the way it is now.
We suffer, not only when we are the direct victims of a violent
crime, but also when we witness the daily news reports and our
hearts grow fearful and callous. And all of us suffer as precious
resources for education and youth programs are diverted away from
our own children and our community’s children into incarcerating
criminals. We are all victims of crime.
We are also victims of our society’s approach to punishment. We
expect to be protected from harm when criminals are locked away,
yet most of those who are released (75%) come back a few years
later to commit more crimes, causing more fear, more punishment,
more victims, more cost.1 And the many who return to prisons for
parole infractions keep our prisons overcrowded and expensive.
What neighborhood is safe? Whose family remains untouched? The
only safety is in breaking the cycle.
Pointing our fingers at prison administrators, at the correctional
officers, at those locked inside, misses the point. We are in this all
together. As a human family, we do not have the choice to discard
anyone. An inefficient, insensitive system which continues the
patterns of cruelty and is gobbling up our collective resources exists.
Our prison problem is so enmeshed and vast, our minds falter
trying to grasp how we got here or how to get out.
This is why we are calling for a spiritual solution. The answers
which seem to be beyond our reach are reachable when we ask for
help from God. When guided by God, fear and hatred, injustice
and incorrigible behaviors transform. Together, let us ask for help
and see what Love can do. Love never fails.

The cure is change
The only real cure for criminal behavior is inner change, a change
of heart, a change of attitude, a change of purpose, a change in
resources and skills, a change in the conditions that gave birth to
the criminal behavior and attitude. What is needed for those who
commit crimes is the opportunity to find a new purpose to their
lives, new skills, education and a new sense of how they belong to
our community, whether they are to spend the rest of their lives
inside the walls or return to our neighborhoods.
What is needed for our communities, our society, is for each of
us to leave aside our vengeful, banishing punishment style, and
commission our prison and jail system with the correction, healing
and uplifting of those we send into their care. Programs cultivating
skill development, education and inner value cost much, much
less in the long run than continually warehousing and training
troublemakers.

How can normal law-abiding citizens make a difference?
Prayer. Simple prayers for healing.
How many times have you read the paper or watched the TV news
and heard of some terrible crime and prayed a prayer for the bad
guy to get all the punishment he could, life without parole, death.
“Rot in hell,” you cursed, or thinking of our current prison system,
“You’ll get what you deserve!”
Most of us have. It’s natural when we feel so violated and
vulnerable to wish that such terror should never happen to anyone
else again. We desperately want crime and violence to stop forever.
When you cast someone into hell in your heart, with your words,
with your tax dollars, with your votes, when you pray to throw
them into our current prison system forever, to lock them up and
throw away the key, you pray a prayer of vengeance.
Consider a different approach. Ask yourself, would I wish prison
for someone I knew, a wayward grandson, a neighbor? Probably
not. Then a prayer of … May they never do harm again … is an
honest prayer. And a prayer that will lift you up when you pray it.

Try this prayer next time you hear a story of violence:
Pray that the evil be cast out of those we call “bad guys.” Pray
that they find a new life purpose. Pray that somehow, some way,
a healing grace penetrates all obstacles and breaks open the old
patterns and guides a new way forward. Pray for healing. Pray that
no one is ever hurt again by this person and this person will come
to know their value as a child of God. Pray that he2 turns his life
over to correcting the wrongs he has committed in gratitude for the
grace and mercy he has received.
Given a choice to heal and contribute positively to their
community even the most violent choose healing.3 & 4 It is not
always easy or quick or permanent to change some of our deeply
troubled citizens. But to throw them away without trying, that’s
a crime, that’s a sin. To cast someone, anyone into Hell with our
prayers is not the prayer Love would have us pray.
We lock parents up for child abandonment. Yet we collectively
abandon those who break the laws without questioning our
actions. We complain loudly about the consequences, the massive
amounts of dollars spent on our criminal justice system,5 about the
dangerous streets and crime in our communities, about the expense
of security systems for our homes and businesses.6 We are more
willing to spend our hard earned dollars answering to our fears,
than to dare express our love or hope for a different future.

What craziness is this?
Until our wallets and state budgets are impacted, we don’t even
pay attention. Then we question why we are spending so much on
these bad guys, and not on our kids.7 Good question.
Better Question: Why aren’t we spending the money wisely?
Why are we throwing away our precious resources on a vicious
and growing cycle that cultivates criminal behavior? If we spent
our incarceration dollars wisely, we’d have plenty for our children,
their education and their safety, and plenty to educate the bad guy’s
children and put a stop to this cycle.8

A prayer filled vision:
Let us consider the funds we spend on prisons as investments
in our current and future safety. Let us imagine that we can
fundamentally retire or rewire the prison system because the cycle
of criminal behavior has been broken, because society cared,
because we cared. Change happened because we started with prayer.
We took responsibility for the nature of our prayers. We started,
where we all can start, in our own hearts.
What does it take to get movement in this direction?
It’s already happening, here and there. People are seeing, if not the
sinfulness of our behavior, then the wastefulness of our behavior.
What does it take to get better movement in this direction?
Creative minds, intelligent thinking, applied wisdom of experience
and research in personal transformation and criminal behavior.
Compassionate tough love. Discipline. Consistency. Willingness.
Willingness to try, fail, try again. Hope. Grace.

What activates these positive forces?
Prayer: the applied spiritual energy of concerned people.
Where do we start? What do we want?
Let’s start with what we all want: accountability, responsibility for
actions, remorse, the ability to discern right from wrong and an
end to all the excuses and justifications. We want the ‘bad guys” to
feel bad about what they did, and know how much suffering they
caused. We want them to be accountable for their actions and
take responsibility for their own healing and right their wrongs.
We want the law of the land, the law of our hearts, to honestly be:
“Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
We want the victims of crime made whole. We want to feel safe in
our homes and in our neighborhoods.

Praying for our Prisons
Next time you hear of a tale of crime, be shocked, and despair over
the broken lives that have broken more lives. Then pray. Invite love
and hope, rather than fear or hatred, to flow through your heart.
Pray for ourselves: Begin with me. Unlock the prison gates of my
heart and release my stereotypes and negativity. Let my compassion
flow into the darkest places within the world and within me.
Pray for the victim: May their healing come quickly. May they grow
even stronger through this ordeal. May they receive the support and
love they need not become bitter. May their anger be released in
healthy ways as they rise above this turmoil to find peace again.
Pray for the witnesses and the families of the victims: May the horror
of these days awaken a deep compassion in their hearts. May the
support they provide for their suffering loved one open up a flow of
love inside their families that will grace many for years to come.
Pray for the officers, judges, jurors, and other professionals tending to
the investigation, arresting and prosecuting: May they be open to
possibilities and unbiased in perception. May they know peace in
their hearts and firmness in their resolve to best serve all.
Pray for the perpetrators of the crime: May they awaken to the
human consequences of their actions and take responsibility for
their lives. May they know the character building consequences of
remorse, and find their own way through despair into an opening
of self understanding and honest rebuilding of their lives. May
they receive the healing resources that match their needs and
abilities to change and grow. May they find love and strength as a
consequence of the discipline and hardship which they must bear
as a result of their incarceration. May they serve their time in a
manner that brings forth the best in themselves and their prisonmates.
May they never intentionally harm another person again.
May those who cannot or will not be healed be cared for with
respect and protection from their own worst nature.
Pray for their families: May they have the strength to persevere
in their support and visits despite so many hardships. May their
families get the support they need to find their way without their
father or son, mother or daughter. May the “sins of the fathers” be
healed so that their children might realize their own potential as
healthy contributing citizens.
Pray for the parolees: May they find “welcome home” banners in
their neighborhoods and churches. When they leave prison, may
they receive the support they need to to lead an honorable life.
Pray for the men and women who have the jobs to supervise and
care for the incarcerated: May the officers who must remain
vigilant watching for wrongdoing, also have the compassion to
guide these men forward with a positive tough love. May the
administration find its way through the bureaucracy of logistics and
legal maneuvering to create policies to transform the lives of the
incarcerated and the whole prison system. May our prison system
become respected for its applications of the best in human potential
wisdom. May we measure our success in the ever-diminishing
need for prisons, and the ever-increasing feelings of safety in our
communities.
Pray for the parole officers: May they find an engaged society where
businesses feel protected and comfortable taking a risk and hiring
these newly trained and transformed individuals. May they find
fulfillment through successful reentry with adequate resources.
Pray for the chaplains, teachers and mental health professionals: May
they apply the best of their tradition’s wisdom for healing and
transformation. May they be capable of the personal challenges
of helping people heal who have violated our sense of what’s right.
May they know they are not alone in their efforts and caring.
Pray for the prison environment: May the cell-blocks and yards be
cleansed of the build-up of fear, hatred, revenge, violence and terror
that has saturated their walls. May the atmosphere transcend fears
and find forgiveness, release despair and discover hope, surrender
shame and encounter creativity, find no place for revenge and
abundant room for the practice of compassion.
Pray for the spiritual well being of all concerned: May all the guides,
angels, ancestors and teachers of divine nature be aroused and
activated. May we all learn how to ask for, and receive God’s
grace. May the will of God for each human to achieve their fullest
potential be realized through our correctional system. Amen

Applying our faith
This call to pray for our prisons is a reflection of our deep trust that
God is at work in the prison system, already there, never absent.
Our prisons were created with the faith that people could change
when given time to do penance (thus penitentiary).9 Our prisons
can reflect this faith. Compassionate caring can turn lives around.
Our prisons can reflect our faith in the overriding power of good
inherent in all life. Our future can be different.
Our prisons have cycled into the Hell that we abandoned them to
become. A cast-off bureaucracy filled with cast-off humans. We
would rather not pay attention. We must.

Must we forgive?
Are we being asked to forgive and condone the crimes? Forgiveness
is a complex action, and many layered. There is much about
forgiveness that we each have to sort out and come to terms with
when we answer our faith’s call to “love our enemies.” Let us always
hold forgiveness as a possibility, and begin where we can, praying
honest prayers from the truth in our hearts today.

Shifts happen
Many men declare that going to prison saved their life. They have
changed; they are no longer the person they once were. Now still in
prison, they seek ways to redeem themselves and contribute.10
We who have worked with men and women inside prisons, have
witnessed a great hunger for healing; we have seen big change with
miniscule resources. Change in the face of addictions, temporary
psychosis and life threatening violence. Imagine how many more
men and women behind bars could find their way back to healthy
citizenship with the intelligent use of our resources and hopeful
prayers.

Where we go from here is up to us
Everything changes. What we have now can get worse or better, or
even much, much better. We must bring to bear the most powerful
force of transformation that is foundational to all change, the Force
that created life itself, the Force that cares most about our future.
We call this by many names: Infinite Presence, Transformational
Power, God, Allah, Creator, Love. We sense it everywhere yearning
to be brought into fullness in our world, in our lives, and yes,
yearning to be brought into fullness in our prison system and
within each and every prisoner. People of all faiths know that it is
the Holy Will for each and every one of us to heal and know love.
To Pray for Our Prisons is to call upon the Light of God, already
deep within each of the prisoners, within each of the employees,
and within every family that has been affected. To pray for our
prisons is to call upon God to heal us all.
To Pray for Our Prisons is to call upon this Force that cares not
just for the future of each of the individuals involved, but for the
very fabric that binds us all together. We pray so that we may heal
the notion that we can cast off any part of our community, or any
member of our human family. We pray for our prisons so that we
might live in communities safe, healthy and full of kindness.
To Pray for Our Prisons is to acknowledge that what we know (of
causes and solutions) is only partial. The answers lie not in us, but
in inviting the Power of Love to move through us.
Are we ready to question our systems of punishment, to
embrace the potential in everyone? Are we ready to protect our
neighborhoods with wisdom and compassion rather than fear and
vengeance? The time is now. We are ready.

Stopping the cycles
We cannot stop the cycles of violence by doing more violence. We
cannot protect our children and our neighbor’s children by turning
their fathers into monsters. We cannot bring our community into
a bright future when we condemn so many to a festering darkness.
We need prisons to pull people out of society when they are
harming others and harming themselves. We must protect
each other from the worst of human behaviors. We must take
responsibility for the most vulnerable and protect them by
incarcerating those that bring poison with their presence; poisons of
rage, hatred, greed, callousness, and pride.
Our prisons are filled with a huge spectrum of spiritual,
psychological and physical types of people and problems. The
stories are sometimes fair and sometimes not. Prayer can serve
them all. We do not need to have a particular recipe for success; we
can leave that in God’s hands.

It’s time to move mountains
We can take inspiration from studies that have demonstrated the
positive effect that prayer has on healing from heart attacks,11
and the dramatic reduction in violent crime (20%) with group
meditation in Washington DC (summer of 1993)12 We can
intercede in violent behaviors with prayer. We can heal with prayer.
The greatest power we have is to invoke the power of the Holy.
Prayer costs us nothing but the releasing of hope from our hearts.
We are not talking about more expensive programs, more
psychological therapy, and better food. We are talking about
the power of God, the power of love, the power of prayer. We
are praying for all of us to participate, to care about our prison
problem; to apply our faith. That has not been tried. We have
a mountain to move, let us begin today, let us begin with prayer.
When the foundation of our actions and attitudes is prayer, all
things are possible.

Pray the prayer from your own heart.
Nothing is more powerful than your heart’s desires laid into the
lap of the Infinite with trust. When our caring is made manifest by
the action of prayer, then our intentions join with the prayers of
people of all faiths and traditions, and miracles happen. Let us join
together in visualizing something different: prisons as institutions
of healing and peace. We don’t have to know what it would look
like, nor how it would come to pass. We just offer up our hearts
desire for something better for all concerned, and trust.
The higher road, with prayers of hope, and programs of healing,
will bring us all forward to a community of kindness and
compassion. This is a much better choice than following our
fears, and the poisonous prayers of condemnation, which are
casting other humans to the ongoing hell of our current style of
punishment.
Where we go with our prayers, will be where our future lies. For
years we have abandoned our worst enemies to their fate in our
prison system. We have banished them, packed them one on top
of the other, with more of their own kind to teach them. We have
wished for them “hell” and hell is what they received. Are we
surprised that they come back devils? Are we surprised that they
come back more violent and more angry? No, we didn’t think
about all that, all we wish for is for them to be punished. We let
our resentment rule our hearts and guide our actions. We followed
our childish human tendency to get even and withhold love.

It is time to see what love can do
These are childish ways. It is time to put them aside. It is time to
see what love can do. It is time to pray. It is time to pray for our
own hearts to become large enough to pray that the bad guys, our
“enemies” heal. It is time to pray a prayer of compassion, rather
than a prayer of hatred and vengeance. It is time to invoke the
power of the Holy to shine in all of our hearts and take us to a new
level of kindness, a new level of morality, a new potential, for those
who are locked inside, for those that tend to them, for everyone
caught in the story’s web, for ourselves, for our future. It is time to
see what Love can do.

End Notes
1. Recidivism rates vary across the country. Seldom do you see less than 75%, often much
higher.
2. “He”: for the purpose of writing and reading ease, we have just used the pronoun “he”, as
90% (check) of those incarcerated are male.
3. Dreams from the Monster Factory: A Tale of Prison, Redemption, and One Woman’s
Fight to Restore Justice to All by Sunny Schwartz and David Boodell (Jan 6, 2009)
4. For programs and studies see our blog: prisonpotential.blogspot.com or
prayingforourprisons.blogspot.com
5. Current expenditures per man per year in CA state system averages $43,000
6. Money saved through healed men, means they don’t cycle back to prison, and $30-40k is
freed up for programming, or non-prison needs.
7. In 2006, federal, state, and local government spent $214 billion for justice, including
police protection, corrections, and legal and justice activities. Corrections alone amounted
to nearly $69 billion,[i] a sum that is dead even with the national budget for education.[ii]
Each prisoner costs our taxpayers approximately $30,000 per year, a stark difference when
compared to $1,024 per year spent to educate each of the 67 million students.
[i] http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/eande.htm
[ii] http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/index.html
8. 70% children of the incarcerated following their parents into the system. http://www.
amachimentoring.org/aboutus.html
9. Beyond Prisons: A New Interfaith Paradigm for Our Failed Prison System by Laura
Magnani and Harmon L. Wray (April 1, 2006)
10. These men have committed to joining us, accepting our prayers, visualizing their
penetration into each and every aspect of the prison systems across the planet.
11. Be Careful What You Pray For...You Just Might Get It by Larry Dossey (Sep 23, 1998)
12. Social Indicators Research - Volume 47, Issue 2, June 99 “Effects of Group Practice of
the Transcendental Meditation Program on Preventing Violent Crime in Washington, D.C.:
Results of the National Demonstration Project, June--July 93” John S. Hagelin, Maxwell
V. Rainforth, Kenneth L. C. Cavanaugh, Charles N. Alexander, Susan F. Shatkin, John L.
Davies, Anne O. Hughes, Emanuel Ross, David W. Orme-Johnson, pp 153-201
see also: http://www.alltm.org/pages/crime-arrested.html

back page

Our prisons are crying out for a new vision.
Let us turn to the source of true healing.
Let us open our hearts in prayer.
Let us pray for hope. Let us pray for change. Let us pray for peace.
Let us pray for Love to prevail.
Pray any time, all the time, for all dimensions of this system: the
victims, the prisoners, the families, the correctional officers, the
administration, the parolees, everyone impacted.
Your prayers are received and welcomed into the heart of the
prisons by dedicated, spiritual, incarcerated men and women of all
faith traditions.
We began focusing on Tuesday evenings at 7:30 with the prisons in
Folsom (California). This prayer campaign has spread quickly to
penetrate all aspects of the prison system everywhere, all the time.
Love is seeking a way forward. How might you join us?

For the story behind this project,
prayer cards and other materials:
www.prayingforourprisons.blogspot.com

Judy Tretheway and Myrna Echols of Compassionate Action in
Sacramento were the primary authors of this essay.

Prayer Campaign

noreply@blogspirit.com (Judy TRETHEWAY) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:05:00 -0700

A new facet of my Call, has been slowly evolving and now seems ready for exposure beyond the few men inside and few friends outside that have helped nudge this forth.

We believe that fundamental to the transformation of our criminal justice system, and specifically our prison system, is the transformation of our society's collective heart when it comes to caring for those who transgress against us. Our collective approach to punishment has magnified criminal activities and behavior. Vengeance brings short term relief, not healing. We are our society. Each of our opinions, viewpoints and prayers merge together into our collective approach.

Changing a system as challenged and quagmired as our prison system, requires a deep shift. It requires the expression of hope, the belief in human potential, and the trust in human creativity to find a better way.

We believe that fundamental to inviting change into our way of punishment, is to invite prayer into our hearts. By taping into the spiritual power of our own desires for a better way to be found, multiplied thousand fold, the Creative Power will be released and new choices will arise. We must want a new and better way, that does not destroy, but builds new lives for those incarcerated, and a new inclusive community of caring.

This campaign began with the recognition that our "prison problem" is a spiritual problem. At all levels, we are not loving our neighbors. So we turned to seeking spiritual answers because the situation is dire, and most importantly to unleash the potential creative powers of the Holy Spirit. You don't put a band-aid on cancer. You don't send a politician down to reform Hell.

We started gathering monthly in prayer and visioning. From this arose simple prayer campaign: "May our prisons become places of healing and peace." A prayer card came next, then an inspirational essay to color the simple prayer with our intentions. There is a two page version focusing in on the prayer, and a four page booklet encouraging us to turn to the true source of transformation for help.

Way has begun to open for circulation of these ideas, prayers and materials through numerous churches, prayer circles and good people everywhere. We hope soon to have someone help us with a web site, until then we have a blog at www.prayingforourprisons.blogspot.com.

Won't you join us in prayer?

Prayer for our Prisons

noreply@blogspirit.com (Judy TRETHEWAY) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:34:00 -0700

Praying for our Prisons
to become places of healing and peace.

"Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering."
Hebrews 13:3 NIV

How many times have you heard of some terrible crime and prayed a prayer for the bad guy to get all the punishment he could, "Rot in hell," you cursed, or thinking of our current prison system, "You'll get what you deserve!"

When we cast someone into hell in our hearts, with our words, with our tax dollars, with our votes, when we pray to throw them into our current prison system forever, to lock them up and throw away the key, we pray a prayer of vengeance.

Consider a different approach. "May they never do harm again" is prayer that will lift you up when you pray it. Pray that they find a love-filled purpose to their lives. Pray that somehow, some way, a healing grace penetrates all obstacles and breaks open the old patterns and guides a new way forward, for them, for everyone.

Next time you hear of a tale of crime, be shocked, and despair over the broken lives that have broken more lives. Then pray. Invite love and hope, rather than fear or hatred, to flow through your heart.

Pray for ourselves: Begin with me. Unlock the prison gates of my heart and release my stereotypes and negativity. Let my compassion flow into the darkest places within the world and within me.

Pray for the victim: May their healing come quickly. May they grow even stronger through this ordeal. May they receive the support and love they need to not become bitter. May their anger be released in healthy ways as they rise above this turmoil to find peace again.

Pray for the witnesses and the families of the victims: May the horror of these days awaken a deep compassion in their hearts. May the support they provide for their suffering loved one open up a flow of love inside their families that bring healing for generations.
Pray for the officers, judges, jurors, and other professionals tending to the investigation, arresting and prosecuting: May they be open to possibilities and unbiased in perception. May they know peace in their hearts and firmness in their resolve to best serve all.

Pray for the perpetrators of the crime: May they awaken to the human consequences of their actions and take responsibility for their lives. May they know the character building consequences of remorse, and find their own way through despair into an opening of self understanding and honest rebuilding of their lives. May they receive the healing resources that match their needs and abilities to change and grow. May they find love and strength as a consequence of the discipline and hardship which they must bear as a result of their incarceration. May they serve their time in a manner that brings forth the best in themselves and their prison-mates. May they never intentionally harm another person again. May those who cannot or will not be healed be cared for with respect and protection from their own worst nature.

Pray for the families: May they have the strength to persevere in their support and visits despite so many hardships. May the families of those incarcerated get the support they need to find their way without their father or son, mother or daughter. May the "sins of the fathers" be healed so that their children might realize their own potential as healthy contributing citizens.

Pray for the parolees: May they find "welcome home" banners in their neighborhoods and churches. When they leave prison, may they receive the support they need to lead an honorable life.

Pray for the men and women who have the jobs to supervise and care for the incarcerated: May the officers who must remain vigilant watching for wrongdoing, also have the compassion to guide these men forward with a positive tough love. May the administration find its way through the bureaucracy of logistics and legal maneuvering to create policies to transform the lives of the incarcerated and the whole prison system. May our prison system become respected for its applications of the best in human potential wisdom. May we measure our success in the ever-diminishing need for prisons, and our the ever-increasing feelings of safety.

Pray for the parole officers: May they find an engaged society where businesses feel protected and comfortable taking a risk and hiring these newly trained and transformed individuals. May they find fulfillment through successful reentry with adequate resources.

Pray for the chaplains, teachers and mental health professionals: May they apply the best of their tradition's wisdom for healing and transformation. May they be capable of the personal challenges of helping people heal who have violated our sense of what's right. May they know they are not alone in their efforts and caring.

Pray for the prison environment: May the cell-blocks and yards be cleansed of the build-up of fear, hatred, revenge, violence and terror that has saturated their walls. May the atmosphere transcend fears and find forgiveness, release despair and discover hope, surrender shame and encounter creativity, find no place for revenge and abundant room for the practice of compassion.

Pray for the spiritual well being of all concerned: May all the guides, angels, ancestors and teachers of divine nature be aroused and activated. May we all learn how to ask for, and receive God's grace. May the will of God for each human to achieve their fullest potential be realized through our correctional system. Amen

To Pray for Our Prisons is to call upon the Light of God, already deep within each of the incarcerated, within each of the employees, and within every family that has been affected. To pray for our prisons is to call upon God to heal us all.

To Pray for Our Prisons is to call upon this Force that cares not just for the future of each of the individuals involved, but for the very fabric that binds us all together. We pray so that we may heal the notion that we can cast off any part of our community, or any member of our human family. We pray for our prisons so that we may live in communities that are safe, healthy and full of kindness.

To Pray for Our Prisons is to acknowledge that what we know (of causes and solutions) is only partial. The answers lie not in us, but in inviting the Power of Love to move through us.

Love is seeking a way forward. Prayer will open many pathways for our criminal justice system and our prison system to become institutions promoting healing and peace, safety and justice. Prayer begins in our hearts. Let us pray.

For the story behind this project and support materials:
www.prayingforourprisons.blogspot.com

Abbreviated from a longer essay by Judy Tretheway and Myrna Echols of Compassionate Action in Sacramento, CA. This 2 page prayer is available as a pdf booklet, and as a word document. The longer version is available as a pdf for your own reading, reprinting, or contact us for copies.

Qigong Videos

noreply@blogspirit.com (Judy TRETHEWAY) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:56:00 -0700

Home flowing through a head cold, I collected up quite a number of Qigong videos on You tube of the various forms that I either teach or am curious about. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/user/judytre1

URL:

Bird's Eye View

noreply@blogspirit.com (Judy TRETHEWAY) — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:10:50 -0700

Google Map view of the Prisons

QiGong Institute

noreply@blogspirit.com (Judy TRETHEWAY) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:52:00 -0700

An even better all access to all kinds of information, video, podcasts and technical articles on QiGong:

http://qigonginstitute.org/html/qigonghealth.php

April 25 World Tai Chi and QiGong Day

noreply@blogspirit.com (Judy TRETHEWAY) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:28:06 -0700

Cuirous about QiGong... here ia brief description on the NIH page:

http://nccam.nih.gov/news/thismonth/april09.htm

Teaching on the streets

noreply@blogspirit.com (Judy TRETHEWAY) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:55:00 -0800

Its been a long time since I taught outside of the prison. I have been invited by One House of Peace to offer a Monday evening QiGong class here in Sacramento. This class will integrate wisdom from both ancient and contemporary QiGong traditions. We will learn movements, visualizations and meditation practices to cultivate a profound sense harmony, as well as renewed health and vitality. Together we will apply QiGong healing techniques to personal, intra-personal, societal and global issues purposefully invoking global as well as personal peace. If you're in town and want to join me I'd love to practice with you.

It will be a 6 week series Monday evenings, February 2 - March 9 .... 6:10 pm – 7:30 pm, $72. you can come at 5:30 for the daily sit at the house if you wish. To Register: judy@onehouseofpeace.org or 916-921-2172

From the flyer: JUDY TRETHEWAY has been teaching QiGong in prisons, healthcare and recreational facilities since 1996. Currently she teaches 5-7 classes a week inside Folsom prison. This is the first opportunity “people on the streets” have had to study with her in years. She has an active spiritual direction practice and as served our community as a Hospice and Hospital Chaplain.

One House of Peace

1470 27th Avenue • Sacramento CA • 916.456.1795
www.onehouseofpeace.org

A good read

noreply@blogspirit.com (Judy TRETHEWAY) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:55:00 -0800

An Interview with Doug Booth in Seeds of Unfolding

Finding Freedom on the Inside
by Sally Sommer

Doug, how did you get started teaching meditation in the prisons?

I understood the teachings of the Buddha to be directed at the relief of suffering and I saw the prisons as places where suffering is at its worst, perhaps, and wondered if meditation would help. I had read books by Bo Lozoff, whose work in this area for the past 25 or 30 years has been very helpful to inmates. About four years ago I called up the assistant warden and program director of the Santa Fe Penitentiary, south facility, and asked him if he'd like to have a free meditation program. I called it "stress reduction/meditation" to make it more palatable to the mostly Christian administration. He said yes, so

http://www.seedsofunfolding.org/issues/xvuk/features.htm

Imagining transformation

noreply@blogspirit.com (Judy TRETHEWAY) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:09:00 -0800

There are two sayings that have been moving around me for a while. I’m not offering them up as Truth with a capital “T”. I would like to offer them up as a starting point to explore some ideas about spiritual transformation of the prison system and our roles as volunteers, and even more specifically, our coming together in this newly formed group.

You can’t imagine what you have not experienced.

You can’t solve a problem with the same consciousness that created it.

We have been pulled together by unseen forces; as individuals dedicated to quickening the Field of Love inside our jails and prisons. As stars in a galaxy, we have been swirling around the same source field, living out our own unique way of manifesting Love’s desire to penetrate the walls and offer itself as a viable choice.

We have been called inside to help build an infrastructure of wisdom and experiences for those locked up to realize their potential and become catalysts for their own and the collective’s healing process. Inside, in our own groups, in our own ways, we bring forth the experiences that allow us each to imagine in a new way.

Now we are invited to bring our behind-the-walls experiences of this Field of Love’s potential outside; and invite them to fuel an imagination of a humanity that no longer needs to scapegoat and demonize its troubled brothers and sisters. We are tending to the sprouting vision of our society’s evolution beyond the need for punishment.

We are a part of a consciousness that has come to know and deeply trust that there are no “others.” We are expanding this awareness inside an institution reflecting a different worldview. We have experienced the collective spiritual soul with these folks who have been cast out as demons. We have imagined and witnessed the transformative potential made flesh inside the most barren of wombs.

Many people outside the walls are actively engaged in a new a paradigm, a consciousness actively working out of love rather than fear. There are not so many who have had the experiences we have had from which to apply this new consciousness to the evolution of our criminal justice system.

We have experienced, so we can imagine.
We are a part of the new consciousness needed
for the evolution of the criminal justice system.

We can release the criminal justice system from its old paradigm into a new vision.
We hold in our personal fields of awareness the energetic seeds for an evolutionary leap. We hold the vision of seed becoming fruit.
We are here today as the Field of Compassion cultivates its own becoming.
May we listen deeply and serve humbly.