|
Dear
Friends:
I am delighted to welcome you to this page and introduce a program
which is dear to my heart. This is a personal page on our family
website, expressing our point of view. This is not an "official"
Prison Project page. I have consulted with the National Steering
Committee and others associated with the Project to insure accuracy
of the facts about the Project. I have their blessing in setting
up this page. We invite you to learn more about The Prison Project
here. We hope to present articles and interviews with Prison
Project staff in the future, and perhaps even interviews with
the inmates. For right now, enjoy the following. You're going
to meet some remarkable human beings.
Best
wishes always,
Sandy
Nathan
FREEDOM
Something
within each of us knows that freedom is our birthright. But
what is freedom? Webster's defines freedom as: "Being
free." Which means: "Not under the control or power
of another. Having civil, political and personal liberty. Able
to move in any direction. Not burdened by debts or obligations.
Generous. Frank. Without cost."
Freedom
is our birthright, yet if you ask most people if they are free,
they will say, "No, because...." And list a string
of reasons: "I don't have enough money. Or time. I don't
have enough education. Other people won't let me do what I want.
I have to take care of my parents, children, spouse. The System
is against me." We feel bound, limited, and unable to have
or be what we really want. We look enviously at others who appear
to be free. Rich people. Famous people. People with political
power. The President of the United States.
Yet
if you were to talk to the glittering ones frankly, you might
hear a different story. The movie star might say, "I have
to do what my studio says. What my contract says. I can't go
anywhere because I'm mobbed. I can't even gain five pounds.
It's in my contract." The rich capitalist would say he's
hamstrung by government, taxes and his stockholders. And the
interest rate. Even the President would tell you how his actions
are constrained by Congress and the Courts. The budget is mostly
spoken for. He really can't do much at all.
Where
does freedom lie? The last place you'd look for it is in jail.
The men and women behind bars are surely the least free. They
can't go where they want. The have no political liberty. They're
totally under the control of others, twenty four hours a day.
Yet, listen to this:
"This
body of mine is incarcerated within prison walls due to a crime
I committed nearly six years ago, but the true 'I' has been
free for some time now. Every morning that I wake up I am in
some way freer than the day before. It is something powerful
to walk around a maximum security prison, loving everybody,
and to simply be." From an inmate enrolled in the Prison
Project.
I
bet not even the President of the United States feels that free!
What is The Prison Project? The Prison Project was begun twenty
years ago by Swami Muktananda, a meditation master from India.
Muktananda said, "If you want to respect yourself, if you
want to improve yourself, if you want to experience the joy
of your own inner Self, you can do it anywhere, even in prison."
He went on to say that prisons are very good places to pursue
sadhana-- the spiritual path. They offer time to be alone and
plenty of time to study the scriptures. To pray and meditate.
The Prison Project was born from these observations.
Twenty
years later, more than four thousand incarcerated people in
the United States, Canada, England, France, Switzerland, Spain,
and Australia participate in the Project. What is it? Physically,
it's a correspondence course, In Search of the Self,
which is provided free to inmates. The course arrives in lessons,
to be read daily over a month. The lessons present yogic philosophy
in a simple to understand yet very powerful format. Over two
hundred trained meditation teachers visit the prisons, teaching
meditation techniques and answering questions. They are available
as spiritual advisers to the inmates. A simple program.
The
Prison Project has as powerful an impact on the lives of the
teachers as it does on the participants. The ultimate reality
is very accessible in prison. Very immediate. The foolishness
that we outside can fall into disappears quickly inside. Life
often hangs in the balance. Here is partial quote from a Prison
Project teacher in Texas:
"A
Prison Project participant was on death row and was to be executed.
When I was asked to be his spiritual advisor, I was surprised,
shocked, and moved to tears.... During his last hour, he said
to me, 'I am grateful for my time here, doing sadhana on death
row. I needed to move on after many years of anger and rage.
From the first, I read my Correspondence Course lessons four,
five times a day.' The guard knocked on the door. He put his
palm on the iron gate between us. I put my palm over his. Both
of us were smiling. Celebration. A great warmth and happiness
filled the room. I asked him for his blessings. He gave his
blessings to all of us. He said, 'I love you.' I could hardly
answer, my heart was so full with his generosity and love. I
said, 'I love you. Repeat your mantra, Om Namah Shivaya. Go
with God.'
"He
stood up and said, 'Sadgurunath Maharaj ki Jay!'"
How
many of us will meet our deaths with such grace?
(The
inmate's last statement is Sanskrit, the ancient language of
India. The words mean, "Hail to the true Guru!" Who
is the essence of freedom in each of us; who we really are.)
I've
known of the Prison Project for many years. I actually taught
a meditation class at a minimum security prison in the San Francisco
Bay Area with it during the 1970's. I lost track of the Prison
Project until Christmas of 1998 when I was on Retreat. A letter
from an inmate participating in the Prison Project was read
to those attending the Retreat.
The
man was a murderer. He had spent the previous eighteen years
on death row in a Texas prison. The last fifteen years of his
life, the inmate was as a participant in the Prison Project.
He was executed in late December, 1998. Not a man most of us
would weep for, hearing the bare bones of his story. Certainly,
the man's life life was not one any of us would want. The conditions
in which he lived and died were the most extreme. The most horrible.
Worse than anyone of us can imagine. Yet I cannot recall that
letter he wrote without wanting to throw myself on my knees
in gratitude for the fact that he had lived. His words were
that powerful, loving and true.
During his time in prison participating in the Project, the
inmate became a tower of strength, a tower of inspiration. So
powerful a beacon for love and life was he that his guard would
go to him for counseling when prison life became too hard. The
inmate died a man who inspired everyone he touched. He turned
his life around as a result of his own devotion to God and his
work through the Prison Project. At one point, fully a third
of the men on death row in his prison were enrolled in the Prison
Project because of his inspiration. You can imagine the conditions
on death row. These men had to be careful in performing their
spiritual practices-- chanting the name of God, meditating,
praying. They had to be careful in everything. Even under these
conditions, not once did this individual complain to his Project
teachers or anyone else. He was free of blame, hatred, and the
desire for revenge-- feelings that poison so many in jail. He
walked to his death every inch a man, at peace and trusting
God.
I
can't remember much of the letter the inmate wrote. It was so
powerful my mind couldn't grasp it. Nevertheless, tears spring
to my eyes when I recall the letter being read at the Retreat.
Time stopped as his words filled the hall. It was like God giving
a private message to each of us. A benediction through a great
man about to be freed of earthly chains. People cried. Boxes
of Kleenex were passed around. I wish with all my heart that
I could have met this man in person. I wish all of us could
know what he discovered inside himself. His words were that
moving.
I've
set up this page in memory of that inmate. The Prison Project
is provided to inmates free of charge. This is made possible
by donations from people like myself, who know about the Prison
Project and want to support its work. (You can subscribe to
the correspondence course, In Search of the Self yourself,
by the way. You don't have to be in prison to get it.)
Use
the link below to get more information about the Prison Project.
Thank you for your interest in this worthwhile endeavor.
Sandy
Nathan
- THE
PRISON PROJECT
This link takes you to the Official Prison
Project Page in Oakland, California. Please take a moment
to explore this link. The Prison Project Page offers letters,
testimonials and quotes that took my breath away.
BOOKSTORE:
OUR BOOKSTORE BENEFITS A WORTHY CHARITY
RETURN TO SPURS
DIRECTORY
RETURN TO RANCHO VILASA HOME
E-MAIL
US
Copyright
1999 - 2006. Sandra Nathan. All rights reserved.
|
