Human Kindness Foundation

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The Human Kindness Foundation, founded by Bo and Sita Lozoff, is a non-profit organization which stresses a way of life based upon what is presumed to be three common principles taught by the great sages of all religions:

simple living
a dedication to service
a commitment to personal spiritual practice.

The foundation sponsors the Prison-Ashram Project and schedules Bo Lozoff's talks, workshops, and concerts. Bo has led events in hundreds of prisons, hospitals, churches, universities and spiritual centers around the globe.

[edit] Prison-Ashram Project

The primary purpose of the Prison-Ashram Project is to inspire and encourage prisoners and prison staff to recognize their depth as human beings and to behave accordingly.

In 1973, Bo Lozoff and Ram Dass came up with the idea to help prisoners to use their prisons as ashrams if they were tired enough of seeing themselves as convicts just biding their time until they were released. Ram Dass funded the work and Bo began corresponding with prisoners using their feedback to develop spiritual materials especially suited to that environment.

Neither Bo nor Ram Dass ever imagined that hundreds of thousands of hard-core convicts 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. By 1975, the Prison-Ashram Project had become Bo's full time job, and that same year Sita committed herself to the work as well. Bo and Sita have visited over 500 prisons, leading thousands of workshops. Bo's books have become "the convicts' Bible" in institutions around the world. All of these books are sent free of charge to any prison inmate who requests them.

Bo teaches a balance between communion, which is an entirely inward, transcendent experience, and community, which includes everything else -- our behavior toward others, our worldly goals, our treatment of the planet and its resources, etc. His writings and talks, therefore, center both on personal spiritual practice and committed social activism. The Prison-Ashram Project encourages prisoners to take responsibility for changing their prisons, their communities, and the world.