Bo lozoff prisoners dilemma
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. You say you hate life, but do you hate it enough to make some bold changes? So you have specific things to work on. They all came into his office, and he introduced them: “This is so-and-so, the person who stole your stereo and broke into your home last month. It is in no way preachy, or arrogant, or "we're-up-here-and-we're-gonna-help-you-down-there." It is an honest recounting of the methods that one can use to get free while one is in the most unfree place in American society.
While Bo’s writings, workshops and correspondence have long been legend among the prison population, his recent book, We’re All Doing Time: A Guide for Getting Free, is spreading his lighthearted brand of dharma teachings beyond the walls. People in prison feel there’s no way they can express their lovingkindness until they get out, and we’re suggesting that prison is an excellent place to practice kindness.
HR: At one point in your spiritual training, Ram Dass was your teacher, with all the glamour that implies.
I’ve been able to get stuck in all the glamorous spiritual trappings that afflict us out here, and then time and time again, walk into prison and get it all stripped away. On the street there’s an endless array of objects of desire being hawked at you from every direction, night and day. It’s really just not that at all. The whole thing is really a national disgrace, one of the worst parts of our culture.
HR: It’s easy to see why deep bitterness often sets in among people who have been judged by this system.
Take a brutally honest look at how you spend each day, and begin to experiment with various forms of self-discipline, a schedule of spiritual practices, giving up smoking and excessive sweets, junk food, etc. You spoke before of a divine madness in life. My prison work is simply an extension of that quest, sharing it with prisoners as honestly as I can.
What you can get out of it by trying to do it all spiritually is incredible. If you begin to do your part, you'll find all sorts of little surprises and helping hands from unexpected sources. In 1985, we published the book We’re All Doing Time and have distributed over a half million copies to people experiencing incarceration.
The captain was trying to get up enough money to sail around the world and concocted a scheme with my brother-in-law to smuggle in 1,400 pounds of pot from Jamaica. But once he has, that fourth dimension really is quite wondrously mad, quite beyond reason. To me the aim is first to be able to see that we’ve all gotten stuck in the world of appearances, and in that way we are all doing time.
He doesn’t expect to ever be out of prison, and that’s okay with him. It is desperately, desperately in need of an entire overhaul. Picture being locked up in a space smaller than this room with eighteen adult males, all from really brutal backgrounds, all of them with radios, and you’re talking about doing deep inner work.