What does Wildmind do in prisons?
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After the meditation
Our prison meditation ends with a bell, and then after we have all adjusted to bringing our awareness fully back into the room, we do a check in. Each of us talks, sometimes for just a few sentences, and sometimes for a lot longer, on how we have been in the intervening week. Mostly we just listen with interest and empathy.
We listen with gladness to tales of minor — and sometimes not so minor — victory, where the inmates have used mindfulness and lovingkindness to deal with their problems. Over time we witness men moving from using violence as a way to solve their problems to using mindfulness and compassion.
Sometimes we’ll get into a discussion, as we help a young inmate deal with the fact that his family have stopped visiting him as often and haven’t put money into his phone account so that he can call them, or suggest ways that a prisoner can deal with his anger over having had a borrowed item returned broken.
Some weeks we’ll simply follow through on some issue that has arisen in the check-in, and discuss that fully. Other weeks an inmate or visitor will give a talk and we’ll discuss that. Sometimes we’ll watch a movie together; Groundhog Day gave much ground for discussion about the choices we make and the consequences we face.
Sometimes we’ll take a Buddhist text like the Dhammapada and reflect on what the verses mean for our lives.
These men make immense efforts to practice. Some of them meditate at 4 or 5 AM, because that’s the quietest time of day. Although surrounded by people who are exploitative and irresponsible, they work hard at applying the ethical precepts of Buddhism to their lives. One day, after a heavy rain, one of our group members, “Harry,” was walking across the yard. Another inmate asked him why he was taking such uneven steps, which must have looked very peculiar. Harry explained that he was trying not to step on the worms that were covering the paving. “Why are you doing that?” Harry was asked. Harry stops and looks at the other inmate and says, “Well, can you make a worm?”
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