PRISON AS THE PATH OF PATIENCE
Probably 20 years ago now, MPP had an audience with Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche. Back in our early days, we had one study course, The Myth of Freedom, based on Trungpa Rinpoche’s book and the resonant title. What else should we be teaching inmates? we wondered. I remember he looked up for a moment into the distance, and then said without hesitation: “The sixth chapter of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara.”
All right. What’s in the sixth chapter of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara—“The Way of the Bodhisattva”? It describes in considerable detail how patience is an antidote to anger. In fact, it has quite a bit to say about anger and all the many reasons we use to justify it. Shantideva, the Indian Buddhist master who wrote this epic poem as a commentary on the bodhisattva path, doesn’t seem to think that there’s really any basis or validity for getting angry about anything at any time for any reason.
Try and tell that to the average convict. [Read more…]
Some Thoughts on Prison as Spiritual Path
SOME THOUGHTS ON PRISON AS SPIRITUAL PATH
by Gary Allen
I first entered a prison in 1990. Back then I was an M.F.A. student in Writing and Poetics at Naropa University. That semester the department offered a one credit course designed to get students teaching creative writing outside the academy grounds, and our teacher arranged for us to lead a two day creative writing program at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City, the oldest prison in Colorado.
I remember coming up to the control room for the first time where you passed through the metal detector. The control room window was peppered with holes (as a matter of fact, I think it still is, some 34 years later), clearly from getting blasted with a shot gun. I didn’t know what to expect from such a place, and I probably would never have tried to go into it without having my hand held, so to speak. [Read more…]