Contemplation and Community

The Boundless Freedom Project was founded on the belief that everyone—regardless of past circumstances—deserves access to tools for healing, reflection, and transformation. Beginning in 1997 with a small group of practitioners serving one California prison, the project has grown to reach more than 500 incarcerated individuals across 15 prisons, offering programs that foster meditation, mindfulness, and community. People experiencing incarceration face significant stress, and when they leave incarceration, obstacles to reintegration into work and community

Boundless Freedom’s programming has two primary arms. Buddhist Pathways provides in-prison religious services rooted in Buddhist teachings, while Mindful Prisons offers secular, trauma-informed practices in meditation, movement, and community. Both are co-created with formerly incarcerated leaders, which grounds the work in lived experience and deepens its credibility. Beyond prison walls, Boundless Freedom sustains participants through post-release sangha, virtual retreats, and ongoing processing groups, ensuring that the support continues long after a sentence ends.

Hemera’s Role

Hemera’s work with Boundless Freedom was shaped by a shared conviction that contemplative practice must be accessible to people in underserved or high-stress environments. Our support helped seed and advance their work at pivotal stages, including funding the Mt. Madonna retreat, where participants and volunteers gathered in an experience of connection and healing.

Hemera has provided $425,000 in direct funding and also supported another grant through a pooled fund for $200,000. During our relationship, Boundless Freedom has served hundreds of incarcerated individuals, cultivating not only inner resilience but also a renewed sense of belonging. Our current funding is helping them expand their reach geographically and enhance their ability to serve juveniles, building on partnerships with state and local government.

For Hemera, supporting the Boundless Freedom Project reinforced our belief that meditation is not only an inner refuge but also a catalyst for dignity, connection, and repair. By funding organizations like Boundless Freedom, philanthropy can help restore wholeness where systems have fractured lives, and in doing so, extend the reach of contemplative practice into the most challenging contexts.