| About three dozen men file in to a drafty room, | | | | Meditation is not meant to help us deny the pains |
| quickly taking seats in wooden pews. A chaplain, | | | | and stresses of life. It is, instead, all about |
| dressed in a flowing brown robe and a gold sash, | | | | earnestly immersing ourselves into them. The real |
| draws their attention from the front. He begins | | | | place where our pain burden sits is within our |
| teaching them how to breathe, focus and empty | | | | body. By sitting still and just being with it, we allow |
| their minds. He begins to meditate and the room | | | | it to roam free within ourselves. The anger or |
| falls silent. They lower their eyes with the chaplain. | | | | aggression that prison inmates, or any of the rest |
| Like his their heads are shaven, though not | | | | of us for that matter, feels no longer needs to |
| because they are Buddhists or men of any | | | | oscillate between forced suppression and |
| particular faith, but because they are inmates of | | | | explosive eruptions, but instead it can float untied |
| the notorious Men's Central Jail in downtown LA. | | | | within us as we give it the time and space it |
| At first meditation can seem like a paradoxical | | | | needs to work itself through. |
| thing for violent offenders to engage in, but when | | | | Meditation is my ultimate self help course. When I |
| understood it is, in fact, an ideal match. And not | | | | do it, all sorts of emotions and feelings arise that |
| just for prisoners too; this ancient self help course | | | | have been down there for anything from days to |
| can, in fact, benefit anyone experiencing agitation | | | | years. If I did not meditate and feel them within, |
| and suffering. | | | | no doubt, through some - largely unconscious - |
| The Men's Central Jail meditation course, run by | | | | route or other, I would have pushed them out |
| volunteers, is one of several examples of prison | | | | into the world, and so inevitably added to my |
| based meditation classes. Like the others it is well | | | | own pain and that of others. |
| attended by inmates and several examples of | | | | Meditation is about being the inner observer - |
| how it has helped prisoners with their anger and | | | | watching what is inside and not judging it. Through |
| behavior have already begun flowing out. "It's a | | | | it we will slowly gain an acceptance of who we |
| way to go beyond these bars" and the constant | | | | are and that, by definition, will make life better |
| agitation of prison life, says Joshua Silva, 25, who | | | | each day. If it can work for the inmates of an |
| has been incarcerated since last year for robbery. | | | | infamous LA jail, it can work for you too. |