The Buddhist on Death Row Quotes

“sometimes a warrior’s task is to sit with defeat.”
― David Sheff, The Buddhist on Death Row: The inspirational true story of how one man found light in the darkest place

“changes.” And then we start again. It’s like Groundhog Day. It may seem like you’ve made no progress and are starting over, but you aren’t. Every repetition is different; the lessons are different because you are.”
― David Sheff, The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place

“told me about men in the AC howling and smashing their heads against the walls, men cowering in the corner of their cell every day and night and living in paranoia and rage. You’ve told me about all the guys who are addicted and all the suicides. You could have gone those ways but didn’t. You survived, which is miraculous on its own, but it’s not only that you survived, Jarvis. You still have your mind, your wisdom, and your beautiful spirit. You still have your laughter. And here’s the main thing: it’s understandable that you want to walk in open space but remember that you have the ability to go there now.”
― David Sheff, The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place

“Pema said, “Children who grow up believing they’re bad often commit actions that confirm what they’d been taught about themselves.”
― David Sheff, The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place

“worse shape than you and helping the poor person. It’s about a relationship between equals. You understand their suffering. You’re completely in their shoes. It comes from softening our hearts, opening up to our own and others’ pain. To me, that’s enlightenment.”
― David Sheff, The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place

“In a letter thanking Pamela for the chart, Jarvis wrote, “People on the yard saw what I was doing, and they looked up, too. They passed the chart around and asked questions. I looked around and saw men from one side of the yard to the other all looking up to the sky. One of the rarest spectacles I’ve ever seen. Then I look over at the guards in the gun towers—they were looking up, too. Everyone just looking into the sky.”
― David Sheff, The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place

“People think as a Buddhist you want to transcend the everyday, transcend the past, transcend the pain. But the goal isn’t dangling above the messiness of life, it’s sitting in it; you don’t want to transcend the past but be there fully. When you fully connect with your past… that’s when it begins to lose its ability to harm you—to control you. What you do is go to the events; you don’t judge them as good or bad, and you sit with them even if they scare you.” She added, “Especially if they scare you.”
― David Sheff, The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place

“I don’t think too many prisoners would live under the boots of their misery if they knew that the amount of work is the same to make ourselves miserable or make ourselves strong. And when we do, we can free ourselves without leaving our cells.”
― David Sheff, The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place

“Free your mind and your ass will follow.”
― David Sheff, The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place

“But as Pema promised, at some point he recognized that he was in a story, sitting in meditation, and he did what she taught him to do with the pause: he breathed. Freed”
― David Sheff, The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place

“When he was first put on death row, there were a few dozen; now there were more than seven hundred. Knowing that few if any would ever have a phone call like the one he’d just had, his heart broke for them, and he recalled again how lucky he was.”
― David Sheff, The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place

“It may seem like you’ve made no progress and are starting over, but you aren’t. Every repetition is different; the lessons are different because you are.”
― David Sheff, The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place

“She saw that Jarvis still looked uncertain. “Let’s say you get to the top of the mountain. You still have your alcoholic brother and schizophrenic mother down at the bottom of the mountain. What about them? There are still people begging on the street for food. What about them? Do you just leave them behind? Is that enlightenment? No,” she continued, “the path is going down and down and down into their suffering and the suffering of all the people. You embrace them. You join them. Compassion isn’t about looking down on someone who’s in worse shape than you and helping the poor person. It’s about a relationship between equals. You understand their suffering. You’re completely in their shoes. It comes from softening our hearts, opening up to our own and others’ pain. To me, that’s enlightenment.”
― David Sheff, The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place

“I thought this Buddhist shit was supposed to”
― David Sheff, The Buddhist on Death Row: How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place