The context: Writing class on Wensday May 5, 2010 opened with a reading and discussion of This passage from The Bhagavad Gita Chapter two verse 30:
"Arjuna; now listen to the principles of yoga. By practicing these you can break the bonds of karma. On this path effort never goes to waste, and there is no failure. Even a little effort toward spiritual awareness will protect you from the greatest fear."
During this discussion I added this quote to the mix:
"When the suffering is great, the Buddha appears."
We wrote about this and one man wrote this:
"When the Suffering is Great The Buddha Appears
When I was in the outside world I was doing a lot of bad things like kicking in doors. Once I threw someone off my second story balcony for disrespecting my ex-wife and my house. There were so many little things that had been building up over the past few years, and now I am sitting in jail for something that was not my fault, and I had to admit to breaking the law and have another felony conviction.(taking a plea)
Now that I have lost everything that made up my world I finally realized that a lot worse things could have happened to me, like killing someone, or having someone recognize me, and kill me in front of my loved ones.
Now that I am at the end of my time here at MDC, I realize that this long hurtful year has saved my life, and given me a new start, which I intend to take full advantage of.
I hope that all my bad karma has been repaid because I don't want a life behind bars, and now I have the tools to keep that old life behind me."
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Thanks for sharing this and please send my personal thanks to whomever wrote it so that it could be shared by others.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, it very clearly shows what being a "spiritual activist" is all about. His pain is not exclusive to prisons. Hopefully we all realize the damage that our own personal anger has causes to ourselves, our loved ones and our community. Like him, through daily practice, we can also develop "the tools to keep that old life behind..." We're about not just realizing what is causing us harm and making us the way we are, but also about realizing we need to change, acquiring some tools to do so and finally, fully committing to using them. Actually I think there is one more important aspect of what he and you have done that is also a fundamental part of Comienzos the program in which the writing above took place. He and you are sharing his awareness with others so they may now benefit as well. We can only help ourselves by helping others as we are all inextricably bound together through time and place. It makes me glad to see others realizing we're all on the same path.
I'm sure that for him there is much difficulty ahead, but at least he now has a new beginning. Comienzos is a good name for our group, and thanks to you and him for sharing.