Interesting letter from a prisoner about the great search, and the difficulties of a spiritual path in prison:
“Hello!
I am writing to inquire about y’all’s program on mindfulness. A little bit about me. I have been in and out of “corrections” institutions since I was 16 years old. In the last 10 years I’ve spent 80% of it incarcerated. I’m a drug addict and an alcoholic. I’ve been homeless since I was 14, and when I leave here that’s pretty much what I’m going back to. I know you guys can’t help me with any of that and I promise I’ve got a point to it…maybe…Anyway, I’m an atheist and I’ve tried to form a belief in “God” or whatever, and I’ve been in and out of programs, jails, and a whole assortment, 12 step you name it. And none of that really works for me because they always make you feel “if you don’t have God you’re doomed to failure.”
I’m not looking for a god, I’m looking for…myself I guess. I’ve got a lot of anger, hurt, and hatred inside and really don’t want to do it anymore. About four years ago I got hold of a copy of Bo Lozoff’s “We’re All Doing Time.” Since then I’ve kind of had a meditation and hatha yoga practice. Just simply following the breath. For the past year until recently I’d given up on it because I was in a situation where it was really bad for my health to continue. Meaning I had to fight over it because apparently my meditation and yoga practice were offensive. Go figure…prison has all kinds. So I temporarily gave it up, nothing is static. I’m in a better situation (especially after I started staying out of trouble) and have recently started my yoga practice back up. I haven’t started a sitting practice back up yet though. Anyway, I’m not sure exactly what I am looking for, I found y’all’s address out of a resource guide and I thought I would write. I thank you for your time and help with whatever you can help with”