If you wish to understand yourself, you must succeed in doing so in the midst of all kinds of confusions and upsets. Don't make the mistake of sitting dead in the cold ashes of a withered tree.

• NEW this issue - 
  
  Watch my video "annagram" for this month: Accepting What Is
  
  and our Meditation is Interconnectedness
  
  
  Our Wisdom page this month offers our Commentary and a meditation on Just being or being one who lives in dharma 
  
  an appeal to help with - The Islamic Eid Feast at East Arkansas Regional Unit
  The first Eid feast for Ramadan at Brickeys Prison, the East Arkansas unit, has been set for the evening of September 11. We have helped these dedicated Islamic practitioners every year for about fifteen years now, first at Tucker Max and now at Brickeys. So please help us to help them. Compassion Works for All volunteers will help to bring food as we can. If you or anyone you know would like to donate money for food we would greatly appreciate the help. Also, please send out emails if you can to folks who might like to help. With the money we raise, I will go shopping for the groceries that will be prepared at the prison during the afternoon. If you would like to make a monetary donation please send it to : Compassion Works for All, Eid feast donation, PO Box 7708, Little Rock, Arkansas 72217
  
  Another wonderful thing - the men want to establish a gift to help fund college tuition for someone getting out of high school. They will start a kick-off fund raising drive at this first feast and award the gift at the second feast.
  
  DHARMA FRIENDS -
  If you would like to send a subscription to Dharma Friends newsletter for a friend or a paper copy for someone in prison, please email us at dharmafriends@comcast.net.
  HERE IS LAST MONTH's August ISSUE OF DHARMA FRIENDS

• Mara Leveritt gave a fabulous talk at the Laman Library in North Little Rock on the West Memphis 3. Here is a link to video #1. When you finish, go to YOU TUBE and put in Mara Leveritt in Search and you will find the other 7 videos of the talk.
  

Here is a link to Paypal - We are so grateful for your donations

VIDEOS - Go to our HEALTH page to find many videos that we hope will be helpful to you.

Onesies for conscious parents to celebrate their awakening little ones.... click here to see our selection



JustUsFriends recognizes the relationship between personal growth, health and justice. Only by nurturing peacefulness in our own lives can we create strong, healthy communities.

Welcome to September and to our JustUsFriends.org September offerings

This month we explore the Dhammapada verse, Endowed with Dharma, and ponder what makes a true, wise holy person. In another translation, one of a myriad of translations, this verse is called The Just. So it should be our theme song for JustUsFriends.org - we should be asking: Are we just beings in our world?

On Monday, we were meeting with our Maximum Security meditation group and pondering this same question. We were only ten minutes into our session and already one could feel the bonding and supportive connection that these inmates offered quietly to each other. Our topic was the practicing of kindness. I shared that most all people sometimes felt selfish and greedy; we are all sometimes the one who wants the last cookie! Easy laughter came from the twenty-five men who could identify. And, we continued, at the other end of the spectrum are those holy ones who have achieved such great compassion that their every word and act is kindness. We all have times of doing heartfelt and very kind actions for others as well. There was an equally easy nodding of heads in identification. Most of us flow up and down this continuum, I said. Sometimes we are mean-spirited and self-serving, and sometimes loving and magnanimous. The room full of men, all identified by numbers on their prison whites, shared stories of their daily lives of sometimes being impatient and angry and said they were trying hard to be kinder. One suggested keeping a journal to let go of pain. Another urged the guy next to him to consider that he might be more attached to the negative. They all nod as they agree that they can't change others but must heal their inner pain.

This is not quite the media image of life behind bars for folks who will never leave their lives in prison.

I'm not trying to be Pollyanna and to sugarcoat this reality of folks in prisons. I am saying that people may truly want to heal and dedicate themselves to doing so in spite of enormous challenges.

In this issue, psychologist Jack Hollis shares on the Action page his program of Life Coaching that he will offer to those leaving prison on parole in some Oklahoma prisons.

Working with folks in prisons or those getting out is not for everyone. But noticing those little kids in trouble and on the path to prison, must be. Noticing kids who show signs of future problems is EVERYBODY's job. It takes enormous skill to intervene and get those children help, but help them we must - somehow. The window of healing closes markedly by their teens. But, as we see in our very dedicated prison meditators, we must never give up.

To gain more insight into the early challenges and the great gifts in your life, go to the FRIENDS page and Write Your Life Story.

For some healing support for and lots of meditation videos to encourage you, go to the HEALTH page - and come back every day for another fix.

We are here for you - for ALL of you - as we all practice kindness, as much as we can.

As I say to the guys in the group - Fake it 'till you make it - even as we still watch the greedy little kid inside each of us who wants that last cookie on the plate. Those behind bars are walking their path with hopes of transforming themselves into a person who follows a path of truth and kindness. Our challenges may be just as great - if not so obvious. Hold your hand out to those struggling behind you and reach out to those who can give you support and guidance. Become your highest and Just realization in this lifetime.