The Buddhist on Death Row
How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place
By David Sheff
Barbara Heritage kindly put together the following reading schedule for us:
Jan 26
Read introductory material and all of "Part One: The Noble Truth of Suffering" (through p. xi-42)
Feb 9
Read "Part Two: The Second Noble Truth: The Cause of Suffering" (pp. 43-115)
Feb 23
Read the first half of "Part Three: The Third Noble Truth: The End of Suffering" (pp. 117-164)
March 9
Read the second half of "Part Three: The Third Noble Truth: The End of Suffering" (pp. 165-206)
March 23
Read "Part Four: The Fourth Noble Truth: The Path" and Epilogue and Postscript (pp. 207-245)You can sign up for the Book Group Mailing List to receive news and updates on our meetings.
Meeting ID: 893 4630 6037
Passcode: 453320
Please note that our new starting time for the book group, as well as for future Wednesday evening dharma talks, will be 6:30 pm so that folks will have more time to get home and have supper beforehand.
Consider supporting one of our local bookstores when ordering your copy. Cynthia Hurst called New Dominion Bookshop on the Downtown Mall (434) 295-2552 for us and found they are able to get it in about 5-7 days.
About The Book
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Boy explores the transformation of Jarvis Jay Masters who has become one of America’s most inspiring Buddhist practitioners while locked in a cell on death row.
Jarvis Jay Masters’s early life was a horror story whose outline we know too well. Born in Long Beach, California, his house was filled with crack, alcohol, physical abuse, and men who paid his mother for sex. He and his siblings were split up and sent to foster care when he was five, and he progressed quickly to juvenile detention, car theft, armed robbery, and ultimately San Quentin. While in prison, he was set up for the murder of a guard—a conviction which landed him on death row, where he’s been since 1990.
At the time of his murder trial, he was held in solitary confinement, torn by rage and anxiety, felled by headaches, seizures, and panic attacks. A criminal investigator repeatedly offered to teach him breathing exercises which he repeatedly refused. Until desperation moved him to ask her how to do “that meditation shit.” With uncanny clarity, David Sheff describes Masters’s gradual but profound transformation from a man dedicated to hurting others to one who has prevented violence on the prison yard, counseled high school kids by mail, and helped prisoners—and even guards—find meaning in their lives.
Along the way, Masters becomes drawn to the principles that Buddhism espouses—compassion, sacrifice, and living in the moment—and he gains the admiration of Buddhists worldwide, including many of the faith’s most renowned practitioners.
We will be reading one book every season so that if you have to miss one, there will be a new one right behind it. Thus we will start the Spring book at the beginning of April.