Buddhist Teachings from Prison
I recently received another remarkable letter from a man I call “Jonathan” who has been corresponding with me from prison for about a year and a half now. He is 49 years old, and has thus far served ten years in prison. He has thirteen more years to serve before release. His circumstances are extreme compared to what most of us have to deal with, but I think there is much we can learn from how he has chosen to use Buddhist teachings to deal with adversity. A few days ago, he led a discussion of his Buddhist sangha in prison that began with a reading of one of my previous blogs. Here are some excerpts from what he wrote in his letter about the session. "I shared your last blog with my Buddhist group yesterday; it was well received. I thought you might be interested in the discussion we had. Here are my notes from the talk. It's said that the teachings of the Buddhist Eightfold path are a tool like a raft to get across a river. Once on the...
