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Frame from Doing Time Doing Vipassana - Full official version Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Doing Time Doing Vipassana - Full official version

Karuna Films LTD
Documentaries
YouTube
1 HN user recommended this documentary1 month2018–2020 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Cited as evidence that meditation can work as prison reform.

A documentary about Vipassana meditation in India's Tihar Prison, led by Kiran Bedi, the prison's Inspector General. It follows inmates who went through the courses and the changes they describe.

“It documents the use of Vipassana as a reform measure at a harsh prison in India” (HN, 2018)

1 recommendations · 2 citations · Documentaries

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@slipperyp Apr 2018 Recommends
on HN thread Vipassana for Hackers [pdf]
There is more information on the method from this documentary Doing Time, Doing Vipassana: [this video] It documents the use of Vipassana as a reform measure at a harsh prison in India and traces the impacts it had on some of the inmates there.
Documentary on Vipassana used as reform at a harsh Indian prison

Citations, criticism and jokes

@abledon Jan 2019 Cites it
on HN thread California inmate takes unlikely path to freedom: podcasting
mandatory meditation: [this video] for someone to just 'sit' and think about their thoughts for 10 days straight without talking, is HELL for a criminal. they are forced to confront reality, or at least their subjective version of it.
Cited as example of mandatory meditation for prisoners
@vekker Mar 2020 Cites it
on HN thread What it’s like to spend four and a half years in solitary confinement (2015)
Sounds like hell, the way he describes it. However, if you'd take those hellish elements away & ensure silence, I think long solitary confinement might work if you teach people how to meditate. That's just not being done enough in prisons right now. See "Doing Time, Doing Vipassana" [this video] EDIT: I know this is probably a controversial opinion to non-meditators, but if you're going to downvote, at least provide an argument for why you don't agree.
Cited as support for teaching meditation in prisons

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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