The Dhamma Brothers

Noah, Ben and Fred napping

We watched a documentary last night called The Dhamma Brothers. It was so powerfully moving, at so many levels, that I found myself lying awake thinking about the courage of these men: the prisoners, the men who went into the prison to teach, and the Director of Treatment for the Alabama Dept. of Corrections who had the vision and insight to try something new.

For many years, I believed that I didn’t have the patience to meditate, but what I really didn’t have, was the burning desire or discipline to focus my mind. I’d justify this by thinking, “I know plenty of people who meditate and they don’t seem that happy or centered or …whatever.” But a couple of years ago, I found a book (The Master Key System, by Charles Haanel*, published in 1912) and the way that he introduced meditation made me think that maybe I could do it. He talked about simply sitting for 5 minutes, closing your eyes, (and not moving) as a start. Just quieting my body in this way was what finally brought me to fully embrace meditation. And instead of thinking of it as a disapline, or a necessary (but unpleasant) chore, I’ve come to love the feeling of calm that it brings.

Brief Synopsis An overcrowded, violent maximum-security prison, the end of the line in Alabama’s prison system, is dramatically changed by the influence of an ancient meditation program. Behind high security towers and a double row of barbed wire and electrical fence live over 1,500 prisoners, many of whom will never again know life in the outside world. But for some of these men, a spark is ignited when it becomes the first maximum-security prison in North America to hold an extended Vipassana retreat, an emotionally and physically demanding program of silent meditation lasting ten days and requiring 100 hours of meditation. The Dhamma Brothers tells a dramatic tale of human potential and transformation as it closely follows and documents the stories of the prison inmates at Donaldson Correctional Facility as they enter into this arduous and intensive program. This film has the power to dismantle stereotypes about men behind prison bars. > view the trailer “For the first time, I could observe my pain and grief. I felt a tear fall. Then something broke, and I couldn’t stop sobbing. I found myself in a terrain where I had always wanted to be, but never had a map. I found myself in the inner landscape, and now I had some direction.” – Omar Rahman, Dhamma Brother “Vipassana is what all the other treatment programs are hoping for. It actually works, and has a demonstrable effect on the inmates and a positive effect on the staff.” – Dr. Ron Cavanaugh, Director of Treatment for the Alabama Department of Corrections   Mission Statement To create a national conversation and a call to action about the need for effective prison treatment programs through a national public television broadcast, widespread theatrical, grassroots and educational screenings, and distribution to prisons of The Dhamma Brothers documentary film. Both film and companion book, Letters From the Dhamma Brothers, open hearts and minds to the possibility that prisons can become places for effective rehabilitation, ensuring safer prisons and safer streets.

*[PDF] The Master Key System - The Secret images.thesecret.tv/Master-Key-System.pdf

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What is the gift in this?!

little gift

My car is in the shop….again. It started acting funny on Christmas Day and has been in and out of the mechanic’s ever since. A  few months ago, the head gasket was replaced which left me without a car for 3 weeks, waiting for parts. I got it home and within a week it was back in…the head gasket was gone again! I feel strange without my own car to come and go when I want to…..have had my own car since I was in my 20′s. Now, I need to coordinate all of my appointments with Jack and have no ability to spontaneously go anywhere.

Coincidentally (and I don’t believe in coincidences), I started  meditating the day after Christmas too. I’ve meditated, off and on, through the years but  I always found reasons not to do it consistently …like, “What can you really get accomplished just sitting?, you know lots of people who mediate and they are far from enlightened, I run every morning and that is my meditation time, I don’t have time right now, I need to do a Google search on the evolution of the fishing pole….” …on and on.

But the real reason was, I found it extremely difficult to stop myself; my body and my mind, long enough to sit still for 15 or 20 minutes and “do nothing”. There was this “jumpy” part of me that resisted sitting perfectly still….felt that if I had “extra” time, I should be doing something “productive”.

A few years ago, I spent some time with an elderly man who was dying of cancer. He had been extremely busy his entire life….huge garden, very involved with his church and yet he always had a somewhat “frantic” quality about him. He was not comfortable slowing down, did not know how to relax. The cancer was forcing this to happen and he was resisting it, saying things like, “This is awful, I can’t stand it”. He wanted to interact with life as he always had; tough, in control. Yet, the more he lost brain function, the easier he was to be with. He laughed more, said, “I have no idea” when asked a question, instead of thinking he had to know. He was a much more enjoyable man to be around…even to himself.

Bernie Siegle (in his book, Love, Medicine and Miracles) talked about illness as “God’s wake up call”….it can be an opportunity to re-evaluate our lives, slow down, laugh more, be more real…But can’t every challenge (thing that we don’t want to happen that happens anyway) hold the same opportunity for becoming more of the person that we would ultimately like to be? I love the question,”What is the gift in this?”…I believe it opens unseen doors inside.

When I get these little pangs of “I NEED my car! I can’t stand this!” I don’t get my car back sooner,  I am just making my life into a rough ride. Life has a wisdom beyond my understanding….there are many little and big gift boxes waiting to be opened, but they don’t hand them out at the drive through window.

 

p.s. It is Spring Cleaning time…every year I like to go through my stuff and give away things that I no longer wear/use/need. Since you took the time to read ALL THE WAY to the bottom of this, I am giving away the pair of earrings in the photo. They are small, one of a kind, sterling earrings that I just never wore. If you would like them, just comment on my blog with the word in capitals, YES someplace and I will do a random pick for the winner on Friday, the 25.

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Choosing our way

My office

I hold an open meditation (for anyone who wants to come) on Wed. and Sunday mornings. My office is in a very old building…the ceiling leaks at times, the heat is unpredictable, the entire building shakes when the train goes by twice a day, the firehouse (which is a two buildings down) blows the noon whistle, which is so loud that if someone is talking with me, they have to pause because I cannot hear them…I love my office anyway….it is like a comfortable and comforting old sweater.

I always come in at least 1/2 hr before the meditation to turn up the heat, but yesterday, as I opened my office door, I was met with a very warm room. This happens sometimes…for no apparent reason and just as unpredictably it cools off. The meditation started at 9:30 and it still felt boiling hot …

When I have a fearful, anxious thought, I get a surge of heat running through me. There must be a biological reason for this…maybe it is part of the fight or flight thing…we get all heated up so we can escape?…anyway, I sat (silently, hands on lap, eyes closed in what appeared to be a very peaceful posture) and thought, “Everyone here must be really hot too. What should I do…this is terrible. Should I open a window? Go downstairs to the Coop and see if they can turn down the heat?”…I felt hotter. Then I thought, “Maybe it’s just me having a hot flash.” I felt even hotter and more agitated.

Suddenly it occurred to me that while I couldn’t change the heat in that moment, I could change my mind. I said to myself, “Just imagine it being 65 degrees. See if you can cool yourself off.” I tried… my mind raced back, “No! It is too hot in here. People are suffering! Do something!”…then back to, “it is 65 degree and I am cool”…within a few minutes, I started to cool down. By the end of the meditation, I was warm but comfortable and no one had fainted.  I felt calm and peaceful.

Our minds tend to blow things so far out of proportion…tell us that everything is a crisis that must be dealt with NOW!  I can corral those crazy thoughts that race around like wild little monkeys trying to get my attention. It is not always easy. …it is a discipline. But what a gift to start to grasp. It may be  impossible, in the moment, to change outside circumstances but my inner life, my attitude and my thoughts are always my responsibility…..and always mine to change. One of the great books is Viktor Frankl’s, “Man’s Search for Meaning.” I used to carry it with me. He lived through the unthinkable but wrote these words;

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

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