I always thought prison would be a great place to practice meditation. Even at home, where there are lots of distractions, I can easily spend hours meditating. In prison, with much more time to waste and a lot fewer distractions, I'd probably be able to focus for much longer and get really good at it, as the more you practice, the better you get, and the better you get the easier it is for you to meditate and the longer you can meditate.
Another reason meditation could be great for prison is that it could be a fantastic antidote to boredom. After a few weeks of regular meditation, I found I actually started to look forward to "boring" chores like brushing my teeth and waiting in line, which provided great opportunities for meditating (which consisted of just focusing on my breath).. and those boring times just seemed to fly by as I meditated and no longer seemed boring.
Yet another reason that meditation could help in prison is because it could be used to help one "detach", in the Buddhist or Stoic sense -- not to cling to things one desires, to be content with one's circumstances and surroundings, to help with pain, anger and other emotional issues, and just to achieve peace of mind.
Meditation need not rely on any physical items that can be taken away from you. If you use the technique of focusing on your breath -- your breath being something that will always be with you as long as you live -- it can always serve as an object of meditation.
Meditation seems tailor-made for prison (not to mention ordinary life, where it can also help).
Have you ever been to prison? I think you may have a romantic view. For example:
> “Plaintiff is being tortured on a daily basis in Attica Correctional Facility Special Housing Unit,” he wrote. “Plaintiff is subjected to having to listen to loud banging all day and night” and to “screaming and yelling” and to “feces being thrown in plaintiff’s cell” by “mentally disturbed prisoners” who were housed near him.
Or (from an article about how prisons are putting two people in a solitary confinement cell):
> The two started arguing immediately. Each had to prove that he would not be messed with, because if something happened — if one attacked the other — there was no escape. The only way to alert a guard was to bang on the door and hope the sound could be heard above the din.
There's lots of variation between the kind of incarceration you might be in. Minimum security, maximum security, supermax, solitary confinement or not, federal, state, county, death row, etc. Mixed in with the general prison population or not, among murderers or among white-collar criminals?
Some types of incarceration will give you more opportunities for meditation than others.
If someone has the leisure to write a book in prison, or to work on some software project, work on a game (like the author of the article this HN thread is about), read, exercise, make license plates or belt buckles or perform other minimal-skilled work (like many prisoners do), get vocational training, or even simply do chores like cleanup or kitchen duty, they have great opportunities to meditate.
Also, you can actually meditate while doing other things. I do it all the time -- especially when something annoying or boring is going on (like when I'm talking to my boss). Helps keep the blood pressure down.
Still sounds perfect for prison to me.
I'm also reminded of the Forest Monk tradition[1], where monks deliberately lived and meditated in the forest, among wild beasts, with very little to eat, and in very primitive (if any) shelters, etc.
"Fear accompanied many wilderness newcomers, due in part to the insecurity of daily life and survival but especially fear of wild animals, sickness and injury, and -- given the accretions of cultural lore -- ghosts.
"Many forest monks record their encounters with wild animals, namely tigers, elephants, and snakes. Tigers often lurked around hermits in their open air klots at night, and the monks learned to face fear directly...
"In such settings the training of the mind was invaluable...
"A second fear that masters bade their disciples overcome was fear of corpses and spirits. The Visuddhimagga teaches the corpse meditation as a way of inculcating a spirit of impermanence but also as a practical way of conquering sexual temptation, and fear of illness and disease. But spending the night in a cemetery, whether in the open air or in a klot, could be the source of great fear.
"The cemeteries of southeast Asia were not the tombstones and spacious lawns of the Western world. Corpses were brought and deposited in shrouds on the ground, make-shift cremations incomplete or left unfinished with nightfall. One monk records being in a cemetery at dusk when villagers brought a shrouded body and left the smoldering corpse on the ground where the monk could see it from his klot. As in any such case, the odor was overwhelming and the monk's imagination stirred. The monk was taught to recognize and observe fear, to control it with mindfulness, and ultimately to transcend it. But that seldom happened without considerable experience.
"The third fear was fear of bodily suffering. The widespread contraction of malaria by forest-dwellers called for perseverance, especially when palliative drugs were unavalable in isolated locales. Despite suffering malarial fever, some monks did not deviate from their discipline, walking in pain or sitting stolidly in the open air during rain storms. The conviction that pain is rooted in the mind was a strong motivation to discipline.
"In terms of physical hardship, the forest-dwelling monks contrasted their wilderness context to the cozy, rarified atmosphere of the monastery. To the forest-dwelling monks and hermits, book learning could not overcome bodily suffering. A strong intellect might mask emotional weakness, undermining mindfulness. Ajan Man, who passed a rains retreat while suffering severe stomach pains, would sometimes enter towns and villages in order to test himself against temptations of food and sensual desire. Mastering sense stimuli would guard against viewing the forest as an escape."
Of course, some prison experiences can be even worse than this, with people actively trying to harm you, but I still think there are a lot of parallels and meditation can help in both types of situations.
I think almost everybody will encourage the imprisoned to meditate ...about their imprisonment reason.
Joke aside, it's not uncommon to hear former convicts mentioning about "back then" having "time to think". The time (served) does that to a man, be that he either likes it or not. Meditation (exercise) and other forms of dealing with boredom are something that give someone immediate and/or cheap result. Being trapped and forced to think about our own life and about the real things in it, like the prehistoric cavemen next to their camp fire through the winter nights, have a chance to produce something more valuable.
I've thought this too, same with going blind. I'm sure it would suck, I'm sure there would be a lot of distractions, but maybe sleep through that crap during the day and meditate at night. I'm very curious how well I could do in solitary confinement, or in those very noise proof rooms that people freak out in. It would probably really suck still though.
Haven't read the article yet (I usually read HN comments first before reading the original) but your comment caught my attention. If you are really curious to see how well you could do in solitary confinement, maybe one of the ways to 'try out' the concept of not being 'connected' is to go to a week or two meditation course like Vipassana[1].
(Disclaimer: I haven't been to one, I am not affiliated in any way) From what I have read about this - The idea is to give up as many sources of external stimulation as possible. For e.g. they don't allow cell phones, any gadgets, internet connection, reading, writing,etc. The setting also takes away from you - having to think about cooking and other daily chores and all you are left to do is either meditate OR take a walk in the campus OR sleep.
Thanks, I do Daoist meditation and have been on a few retreats. They're not nearly as strict about no communication, but it is a lot of meditation / qigong each day. I'd be really interested in a strict retreat environment, but I'm not very interested in Vipassana meditation.
Meditation is one of my big motivators for early retirement. Saving money so I can train harder (and comfortably) down the line. Let's face it, a house is more comfortable than a cave :)
You're opening a whole new world for me. I'm one of those that thought one could only meditate given the perfect quiet setting, and so used to do it only sparingly, now even less after I got married and have a kid. So I'm gonna give it a try and be more contemplative during boring chores. Do you happen to like some online resource dealing with this?
Another reason meditation could be great for prison is that it could be a fantastic antidote to boredom. After a few weeks of regular meditation, I found I actually started to look forward to "boring" chores like brushing my teeth and waiting in line, which provided great opportunities for meditating (which consisted of just focusing on my breath).. and those boring times just seemed to fly by as I meditated and no longer seemed boring.
Yet another reason that meditation could help in prison is because it could be used to help one "detach", in the Buddhist or Stoic sense -- not to cling to things one desires, to be content with one's circumstances and surroundings, to help with pain, anger and other emotional issues, and just to achieve peace of mind.
Meditation need not rely on any physical items that can be taken away from you. If you use the technique of focusing on your breath -- your breath being something that will always be with you as long as you live -- it can always serve as an object of meditation.
Meditation seems tailor-made for prison (not to mention ordinary life, where it can also help).