Karma, Prison, and Redemption

I was teaching recently in our local jail on the topic of impermanence. I usually bring this up in the first or second week of our 12-week curriculum because it sets the tone for the remainder of the course.

Impermanence is, in my opinion, one of the most important of all mindfulness teachings because what else really matters more than the fact that everything ends?

“All that is subject to arising is also subject to ceasing,” says one of the Buddhist texts. And what we do with the time we have is probably the single most important test of how mindful we actually are.

It sometimes hits the students hard when they first consider what it means to waste a day. Many of them feel like all they’re doing with their time is wasting days in jail or prison. But I assure them that nothing is further from the truth. All of us have the same 24 hours in a day, and all of us have a decision to make on how we’re going to spend them. Sure, some people have more options than others, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be intentional. Through the practice of acceptance, we use our time meaningfully and mindfully while maintaining a strong connection with the present moment.

I asked the class how they want to spend the remainder of their days. An older gentleman with a long gray beard raised his hand and began reflecting on what landed him in jail.

He talked about all the drugs he had taken in his life, and especially all the drugs he sold. He said he often wonders how many children grew up in homes with addicts for parents because of drugs that he sold their mom or dad. He wonders how many people are also incarcerated just like him because of the drugs he hooked them on. He wondered how many people are dead from OD from a drug he placed in their hands.

“I’ve created so much brokenness,” he said.

So, he realized long ago that he can’t go back and change what he’s done, but he can choose to live differently. He has resolved to spend his remaining days in this world “putting things together” because he spent so long tearing them apart. Now, he takes any chance he gets to do the right, productive thing. He is intentionally as helpful as he can be to everybody around him. He believes in the principle of karma, that our inner and outer lives create a ripple effect in the world around us, and he wants his ripple effect to extend far and wide with everything that’s good.

Unfortunately, there’s a decent chance this man might die before he ever steps out of prison again as a free man. But inwardly he’s already free. He has taken control of the most important thing of all — the freedom to choose who to be.

And the world will end up being a better place because he is in it.