I have been contemplating the next step to take in my Buddhist Services on Death Row. My groups have grown from 1 to over 50 men, all of who are deeply interested in pursuing any spiritual knowledge they can find in order to explore and expand their inner lives. Many of them attend the other faith services there as well, so though I provide the Buddhist teachings, I always ask them to identify where and how the topics we are talking about show up in the other traditions.

Yesterday was my day to see Yard 11-which, for years, was just one man, I’ll call him Ron. Ron and I had many conversations over the years about getting older on Death Row, about his early “spiritual” days listening to the many teachers from the East who visited the US in the 60’s, about his crocheting hats for the homeless, but most of all about being lonely there on The Row.