Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Our Prisoners
The Struggles
John Connor, Ft. Stockton Texas:
Dear Friends and Fellow Travelers on the Path to Wisdom and Enlightenment,
I have recently come
into contact with a fellow prisoner who is a practicing Buddhist. We are
both incarcerated in Texas. This friend of mine gave me access to a resource
list which included your address. He also let me read a bookwhich he had
in his 
possession
called “Becoming Your Own Therapist”, by Lama Yeshe. He is
a very wise and kind soul (the Lama Yeshe). I would very much like to read
more of his teachings, and also those of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, however I
am unable to contribute any donations at this time as I have no income
and receive very little support from anyone outside these prison confines.
Please send what you can, and if you have some kind of correspondence course
I would wish to busy myself with it.
As you might imagine, I have loads of time to contemplate spiritual matters here in the penitentiary. I see (after years of searching) that this way provides a clear path to anyone who wishes to learn how to love and respect himself/herself and all other sentient creatures on Earth and throughout the entire universe, and to love and appreciate and live in harmony and contentment with all living things. This is what is and has always been at the core of my heart’s longings, to be a peaceful and caring person and to be among others of like mind and focus, as well as to extend compassion and understanding to those who have yet to find their way.
I very much enjoy meditating and reading uplifting material, and I’m glad I’ve met someone else in here who wants to be a genuinely better person from here on, and into the next life (s). But I would care also to be in correspondence with a broth or sister who has been following on the Mahayana/Gelug path in particular since I was so touched by Lama Yeshe’s Book.
I have been only studying Buddhism for a few weeks, and I feel I need expert guidance in the form of a live human being who has knowledge of this and a history of devotion to this way so that I can be sure of correctly understanding and practicing the right things. So I send me regards to you all there and hope that I can be included somehow. I guess I’m feeling like I’m coming home finally after having at long last found my way. I’ve often had dreams of being lost and confused and not being able to get my bearings, as a ship tossed on a raging sea. Is this finally my safe haven? I think I should drop anchor here for a while and see.
I’ve never been much of a letter writer, but maybe it was because I’ve not had anything of real substance to discuss and contemplate.
I don’t yet know when I’ll be released to the ‘free world’. Is it really all that free? I’ve only been locked up since June of 2002, but I come up for parole in March of 2007, but I could be locked up till 2012 of the same month. For me personally, it really doesn’t matter much, as I am learning that one can be content literally anywhere as long as one has peace in his heart and compassion for himself and others. I’m a white male, age 46, born Oct. 9, 1959 in Jones county Texas. My parents both loved me and my 4 younger siblings, but my Father was an alcoholic and seldom at home for long. I’m not and never will be a ‘career criminal’, so I’ll probably be expected to do most, if not all of my entire sentence (isn’t it ironic how that seems to work?) But my actions which led to led to this has done great harm to many people and one child (my daughter) in particular. She is now (will be) 15 years old in April. I love and miss her very much, but I’ll probably never get to see her again, or tell her how sorry I am that I’ve disrupted her life so badly and caused her such long-lasting grief. I hope that wherever she is she will someday find it in her heart to forgive me that I was no nearly the father that I should have been to her. I know what karma is now, and I’m busy working to improve on mine.
Well anyway…if someone there can ‘hook me up’ and help me out it would be of enormous benefit in ways that can’t be measured.
Yours sincerely and eternally,
John W. Connor
SUCCESS STORIES »
The Struggles
- Lorin Dowdy, Soledad, CA: "In my heart I didn’t want to hurt others, get hurt myself, or cause any more grief and suffering to people, friends, and family.Yet I was doing this on a regular basis! Why is all of this happening? "
- Timothy White, North Carolina USA: "I am a prisoner on death row in North Carolina and have been visiting regularly with Herb Cunningham for almost a year. ..."
- Robert McClelland, Pecos Texas: "to focus, above the loud noise of 47 other men in my ‘pod’ I use my walkman to block out the many distractions."
- Raymond, Australia: “Since I have been with LPP they have given me support and have always been there when I have a question.
- Doyle Putman, Carson City, NV: "I can’t tell you how happy your letter has made us...."
- Bruce Platt, Cannon City, Colorado: "I spent most all my life doing drugs and doing time. I want out of this self made prison I put myself in!"
- Joseph Chiles: "So I want to be kind hearted and always happy too. That’s why I want to study and learn."
- TeAnn Bingham: "However, my single cell status is almost like being in my own apartment in the city. I’ve started calling it my condo and just that change of thinking lifts me from the prison walls I’ve erected in my mind."
- John Connor, Ft. Stockton Texas: "I have been only studying Buddhism for a few weeks, and I feel I need expert guidance in the form of a live human being who has knowledge of this and a history of devotion to this way so that I can be sure of correctly understanding and practicing the right things.
- Joshua Jones: "I am an inmate at the state of California correctional system. I don’t know why they call it corrections when they do nothing to correct the inmates."