Over the last twenty years Bo and Sita have worked in our prisons, conducting workshops, teaching meditation techniques, helping prisoners with their spiritual journey. They are workers for the process of reconciliation -- mostly between individual prisoners and their inner selves, but also between prisoners and society. To me, the central message of their work is that freedom and inner peace lie within. Time in prison can be used for focused spiritual growth. Meditation can help the process of change.
More than anything else Bo's books address the spiritual journey of life. The similarities between that journey in prison or on the street, he says, are more important and numerous than the differences. In both cases, what counts is compassion -- goodwill towards all, a loving attitude towards all. Compassion for everyone -- those who are victims as well as those who don't know and don't care as well as those who are violent. The following quotes are from We're All Doing Time, a book whose foreword was written by the Dalai Lama:
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"Every thought, word and deed is a seed which we plant in the world. All our lives, we harvest the fruits of those seeds. If we plant desire, greed, fear, anger and doubt, then that's what will fill our lives. Plant love, courage, understanding, good humor, and that's what we get back. This isn't negotiable; its a law of energy, just like gravity .... A kindness that we think went unnoticed, or something rotten that we hoped would disappear -- nothing ever falls through the cracks....
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"When we live in harmony with the Dharma, or the Great Natural Law, everything we do is an act of service. Wherever we are, whatever we do with our time, we're lightening the load of the whole planet just by finding and following our own perfect roles in the movie; our own paths to a simple, happy life....
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"As we wake up to the magic of serving others, the distinction between selfish and selfless becomes non-existent....And it really works, even for old hippies like Sita and me with no degrees, no formal job training, no respectable credentials of any kind....Our lives here are a process of development, plain and simple. We're all at different places on the wheel, and that's why we each need to find and follow our destinies. Service with guilt or righteousness is not the path, but service from the Heart -- even for a short period of time -- has a remarkable ability to help us get straight with ourselves, open our hearts, heal old wounds, defeat lifelong fears, and see the noblest side of human dignity."
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The last section of the book contains a series of letters between Bo and inmates. The inmates talk about their pasts and about the brutality of life in prison. Bo's responses to these letters are invariably compassionate and understanding, regardless of what the inmate has done. This quote is reflective of the deep spiritual insight contained in the correspondence: "Many `nice' people on the streets might think they could never stab anyone or set anybody on fire, but you know better than that, don't you? You know about that terrible side of us all, the part of us that can do unspeakably cruel, perverted things. So did Gandhi, Bill. And so did Christ and every other saint. That's why we can feel such incredible love from them -- because they know it all, and they still love us....the very highest in Gandhi or Christ is also in Billy Bananas, sitting on a cot in Raiford."
Our media reports daily on the violence of which humans are capable. I asked Bo how he thought we should deal with violent people. "I believe in prisons. We do need to protect ourselves from dangerous and violent people. However, country-wide, fewer than 30% of the adults serving long-term sentences are there for violent crimes. The remaining seventy percent are mostly young and poor, incarcerated for property crimes and drug-related offenses. Each year, three hundred thousand sexual assaults occur in our prisons. Those young men will never be the same again. Never again completely together after being sold for packs of cigarettes. We are doing this to kids who steal our cars. Damaging them beyond belief. They get out incapacitated as human beings. Then we say, `Look, rehabilitation doesn't work.' We would find that rehabilitation would be a good idea if only we tried it.
"Prisons have value only as a very last resort. We should take people out of the community when we have no other alternative. Then, we must do what have to do with the heart of goodwill. We break the cycle of violence by first dealing with our own anger....Our prisons tell us who we are -- they reflect the soul of America. They tell us we are an angry people. As Dostoyevsky said: `The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.' Our prisons are a lingering form of socially-sanctioned, socially-approved and socially-encouraged hatred. We don't even keep statistics on the difference in recidivism rates between one prison and another. If only 15% of the prisoners under the supervision of one warden re-offend, shouldn't that be considered more successful than one with an 80% rate? Shouldn't that be studied, and supported and duplicated? The fact that we don't even keep these records indicates a lot about our motivations. The only records we keep now are those concerning escapes and riots. The wardens doing the best work keep a very low profile -- their efforts are not publicized because if they were, they would probably lose their jobs. We may be a nation of laws but we are not a nation of wisdom."
I asked Bo about the disappointment and disillusionment that must accompany working closely with someone, and then having that person get out and do something violent. "No matter what you do, some people will disappoint you. You cannot base your faith on the conduct of other people. My faith is based on something that doesn't fail. I don't know the mystery of why some people go back to drugs and crime. I know that I do the best I can, and that I really do connect with inmates on a spiritual level. The fact that some go out and re-offend does not make our connection false. When they re-offend I think that the person just lost their self again. That's sad, but the interaction I have with prisoners is so real, so genuine, that nothing that happens subsequent calls it into question. Even suffering is part of a spiritual system that has an ultimate beauty and goodness. Sita and I hold fast to that, despite the heartbreaks -- the child molesters, the drug-addicted young people. We will not give up on our faith in the ultimate goodness of life. To me, there is meaning even in the bad things. There is meaning in the struggle, and in the effort to transcend....
Into the Storm
"The last twenty years have taught me that you cannot judge the impact you are having. Somebody could come up after a workshop and hug and kiss me and touch my feet and say `I have never been this moved in my life.' Someone else can yell at me and slam the door. That first person may, a year later, be killing people. The second person may break through three weeks later and wind up devoting his life to the good of others. Predicting and judging are not my business. I do the work and then just release the results. Living the spiritual life throughout history has been about giving your all, and realizing that your work may never have the effect you want it to have. I've stopped trying to make sense of the big picture. The little picture is so real, so obvious. Something is working in my life and that makes it easier for me. Something makes me give up asking the question: `Is it worth it?'
"Most of the major religions of the world were shaped by murderers. We wouldn't have the New Testament without Saul of Tarsus who became Paul the Apostle. Saul of Tarsus killed Christians for the Romans. While on the road to Damascus, he had a vision in which Jesus asked him why he was persecuting His people. That was Paul's conversion experience. He became a disciple, and wrote the letters: the Corinthians, the Romans. Similarly, the Great Holy Book of Hinduism, the Ramayana, was revealed by Valmiki who was a highwayman, a murderer and a thief. The psalms of Milarepa, the great Tibetan Buddhist text were written by a man who murdered thirty-seven people before his spiritual transformation. Without these three killers, we would not have Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism as we know them today. The real question is: Do we have faith in the force that saved Saint Paul? We need to protect society from some people, but we also have to know that these same people still possess the spark of the divine. If we don't have the faith that somehow, by the Grace of God, these people can unfold into beauty, even become saints, then we have lost faith not in the criminal, but in spirituality.
"We, in this society, seem to be missing a point about the spiritual journey, about what being human means. It has everything to do with community, with personal interaction, including crime. Joseph Campbell was asked by Bill Moyers what would happen to a culture that lost touch with its mystical and spiritual heritage, with the heroic journey that underlies life. Joseph Campbell laughed and said, "Bill, pick up the New York Times, or turn on the TV -- its happened." When a country loses its moral compass, it loses its sense of meaning. When we think that life is about being for number one, for selfish goals and ends, we become the wealthiest and least happy culture in history. We loose our sense of community.
"The people I admire the most -- Gandhi, King, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa -- were or are people of faith. I connect to them to through my heart. In their presence you feel greatness. We no longer address our major issues with class and dignity. We don't look for solutions that exemplify to our children, to the Israelis and the Arabs, to people across the world how to deal with one another in a civilized manner. It is not just having to do with prisoners and crime, but all facets of politics.
"This applies to our activism too. It never helps to have a hostile, angry motivation. The central question is: Does the activist work with compassion or anger? I oppose the Klan. I am committed to working against them. They are hurting themselves as well as humanity, but they are my brothers. I hope and pray for them. That is the only spirit that has a chance of winning.
"When you look at human history, you realize that conquest perpetuates hate. Nobody wins if somebody loses badly. We must champion positive social change without losing the center of compassion in our heart. Mother Teresa is hard and tough, but she has a pervading softness about her. She gets governments to do what she wants, but it is permeated with Christ's love. Sometimes you have to be firm and wily, but it is never angry or selfish. All religious traditions identify those as the great illusions."
I asked Bo about raising money, and about how he finances his work. I notice that his books are offered free to any inmate who cannot afford them. Also, I note this in the Human Kindness Foundation "money yoga" brochure: "All money is God's. We humans just get to pass it back & forth for a while. So it seems fitting to financially support whatever you feel to be God's work on Earth -- but as a joy and privilege, not an obligation. That's why we feel it's your responsibility to remember us if you feel our work is worthy of support. We won't pester you....However small or large the amount of your donation, it expresses a trust in us which continues to encourage & inspire our work. The dollar-a-year donor and thousand-a-year donor are equally responsible for whatever Human Kindness Foundation accomplishes in the world."
I asked Bo how well that philosophy worked when he was starting out: "From the beginning, we decided we would do as much as we could based on the money that we were receiving. I only made one demand on God: `I am not going to be a fundraiser. You take care of the money and I will do the work.' My faith was that whatever money came, whether it was $10 or a million, that is how much work we would do, and that is how much was natural. I don't apply for grants....I am not in the business of convincing people how much good we do."
On May 1st, 1994 an anonymous donor gave the Human Kindness Foundation 13 acres of land and a house. With this, the Lozoff's created a "simple-living and ego-reduction center" where people can participate in a lifestyle, in a program of spiritual practice and human service. Residents of Kindness House will run the daily operations of the Prison-Ashram Project, which offers friendship and support in the form of correspondence, workshops, books, tapes and newsletters to many thousands of prisoners and prison workers.
Although Kindness House is not a halfway house, some residents are on parole directly from prison. Others come from non-prison backgrounds. "Anyone is welcome to inquire about coming to Kindness House for a visit or longer stay."
Bo and Sita Lozoff, The Human Kindness Foundation, Rt. 1, Box 201 - N. Durham, NC. 27705. (919) 304 2220
"In the midst of global crises such as pollution, wars and famine, kindness may be too easily dismissed as a "soft" issue, or a luxury to be addressed after the urgent problems are solved. But kindness is the greatest need in all those areas -- kindness toward the environment, toward other nations, toward the needs of people who are suffering. Until we reflect basic kindness in everything we do, our political gestures will be fleeting and fragile.
"Simple kindness may be the most vital key to the riddle of how human beings can live with each other in peace, and care properly for this planet we all share. That idea is at the heart of everything the Human Kindness Foundation does."
Bo Lozoff
