Since he was sent to prison in 2012, Michael Hanson has relied on Buddhism to give him strength and prepare for life on the outside.

Hanson participates in weekly meetings with volunteers from Aryaloka, a Buddhist center in Newmarket that runs an outreach program for inmates. He meditates with a group on Saturdays and reads the religious texts he can access behind bars. ... Subscribe or log in to read more

Since he was sent to prison in 2012, Michael Hanson has relied on Buddhism to give him strength and prepare for life on the outside.

Hanson participates in weekly meetings with volunteers from Aryaloka, a Buddhist center in Newmarket that runs an outreach program for inmates. He meditates with a group on Saturdays and reads the religious texts he can access behind bars.

Hanson stays in touch with the tenets of his faith. But as a practitioner of Shaolin Chan, a strain of Buddhism that flourished centuries ago at the Shaolin monastery in China, Hanson hasnt found anything within the walls of the New Hampshire State Prison for Men that speaks directly to his beliefs.

The study of Buddhism, or any spiritual practice, is important in rehabilitating a person, he said, and so the time that Im spending in prison, Im trying to use it wisely to become a different person a better person and its difficult for me to do that without having that part of my spirituality.

Hanson was jailed at the Rockingham County House of Corrections in 2011 after he pleaded guilty to trying to access child pornography. A probation violation the next year sent Hanson back to jail this time to the state prison in Concord.

During Hansons first stint behind bars, a book that outlined the philosophy of Shaolin Buddhism was a source of comfort. And although Hanson was allowed to read the book in the Rockingham County jail, he was barred this year from getting a copy in state prison. Officials determined information about martial arts contained within the book, The Shaolin Grandmasters Text, posed a security risk.

Sometimes painted with a broad brush, Buddhism and its many disciplines can be as varied as the denominations of Christianity. Shaolin Chan centers around the idea of nonattachment, but unlike some other Buddhist practices, Shaolin focuses heavily on martial arts. For Shaolin disciples, kung fu functions as a form of meditation through action.

Hanson maintains that the Grandmasters Text is fundamentally a religious work with only cursory information about martial arts. Without it, Hanson says he has no way to study Shaolin philosophy. He is suing the prison to gain access to the book, alleging the prisons Literary Review Committee violated his constitutional rights.

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