Human Kindness Foundation Vision & Mission

Vision

A world where everyone practices kindness.

Mission

To encourage more kindness in the world, beginning with people in our prisons and jails.

Prison-Ashram Project

The primary work of Human Kindness Foundation is the Prison-Ashram Project, which encourages people who are incarcerated to use their time for focused spiritual growth. We send free books about interfaith spirituality to people in prisons and jails. HKF has books in English and Spanish that teach classic spiritual practices such as prayer, meditation and yoga.

People who are incarcerated have the opportunity to dedicate themselves to an inward journey without the distractions and luxuries that occupy many people in the “free world.” Once someone gets too tired of seeing themselves as a convict just biding their time until their release, they can decide to use the time they’ve been given and transform their prison into an ashram.

‘Ashram’ is a Sanskrit word meaning “House of God.” In the East, an ashram is a place where people live for some period of time in order to strengthen their spiritual practice and self-discipline. Many ashrams are very strict. Residents, or ashramites, abide by an exhaustive schedule and live very simply, without many comforts or luxuries.

We never imagined that hundreds of thousands of people doing hard-core prison time would be interested in such an idea. But within the first couple of years, the letters began pouring in and have not stopped to this day

The Three Principles

The Human Kindness Foundation was founded upon three principles. After reading the scriptures of most of the great traditions of the world, Bo saw three principles just singing off the pages of the Bible, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata, Greek mythology and the writing of the Greek philosophers.

If you distill any of those great philosophical or religious traditions down to some practical advice, three things they all agree on are: live simply, devote your life to service and spend time every day in spiritual practice.

Read Bo’s full lecture on the Three Principles.

Venerable Robina Courtin

Buddhist nun of the Tibetan Buddhist Gelugpa tradition, founder of Liberation Prison Project.

Father Thomas Keating (in perpetuity)

Trappist Christian monk, founder of the Centering Prayer movement.

Gary Zukav & Partner Linda Francis

Spiritual teachers, frequent guest on Oprah and NYT bestselling author.

Jarvis Jay Masters

Buddhist, death-row inmate and author of Finding Freedom.

Mike Thumm

Retired Superintendent of Orange County Correctional Center, a prison in Hillsborough, NC.

Dennis Gaddy

Founder and Executive Director of the Community Success Initiative (CSI), where he draws from his own experience to help others transition from incarceration to success.

Patch Adams

Physician, social activist, and the subject of the 1998 movie starring Robin Williams.

Peter Kuhns

Dr. Peter Kuhns has served as a psychologist in various corrections settings since 2003. Dr. Kuhns has also led staff trainings and served as a consultant with the goal of creating positive, healthy environments for staff and people who are incarcerated.