“Everything in life, you have to pay for, one way or another. In my life—its instant—I do something wrong and its there—pow!” (22:40). This aspect of the prisoner life in third world nations defines the neocolonialism of modern capitalism as a form of marginalizing members of the lower classes, which Buddhism offers a spiritual freedom from this ideology. Since many prisoners in Doing time, Doing Vipassana are forced into minimum or no-wage labor, they rely on mediation to relieve themselves of the burden of their incarceration in such a capitalistic system. Many of the inmates of people of color, but it shows that Buddhist meditation techniques provide a spiritual and mental counter to the materialism of capitalism, which got many of these prisoners into the prison system. The film Dhamma Brothers also defines the impact of vipassana mediation on four incarcerated men that seek out spiritual liberation from the capitalistic effects of the American prison industrial complex. The alarming level of American prisoners of African American and minority descent defines the over focus of Buddhism as an outlet for life-term inmates serving their time in these institutions. Dhamma Brothers defines the use of vipassana method of mediation to relieve the burden …show more content…
The filmmakers decided to experiment with vipassana techniques in order to see the effects of Buddhist spirituality in devolving the effects of materialism and capitalistic conditioning of the inmates: “How the could vipassana course be conducted without compromising security. We had to somehow integrate security right into the vipassana program” (Changing from Inside 14:37). This integration of Buddhist spiritual principles into a 1—day program defines the eventual success of the program to help inmates learn healthy lifestyles choices and the vipassana mediation techniques as a form of internal liberation from such a all-encompassing system of punishment and incarceration. These aspects of documentary filmmaking are also part of the Dhamma Brothers and Doing Time films, since they define the oppressive conditions of being in the prison industrial complex, and the necessity for internal spiritual liberation from a dysfunctional system of imprisonment. In many ways, the positive effects of vipassana mediation illustrate the importance of Buddhist spiritual principles and mediation as a form of internal liberation from the oppression of capitalistic systems of the prison industrial complex in the 21st