As far as being locked in is concerned, for you it can be exactly the same as for the yogis in their hermitages. Instead of “prison” you should label it “hermitage.”

Prison is how you label it

For ordinary people, being in prison means being in a building in which you’re not allowed to do certain things and which you can’t leave. But this prison—where you are—is actually similar to the place where Tibetan hermits live in retreat. In Tibet, some of the mountains are full of holes, which are actually caves, hermitages. They are very small and have been sealed, except for a tiny hole in the wall for passing food through. So, you see, physically it is the same for you.

The yogis, the meditators, the great holy beings of the past, the present (and the future) spend many years, sometimes their entire life, in these isolated places. For years they do not meet people, do not speak to anyone.

The hermits don’t call their caves prison, but you say, “I’m in prison.” Therefore, it’s a question of how we label things. Physically, their situation is exactly the same as yours, but they are practicing Dharma and meditating in order to be free of suffering and its causes: the real prison, samsara—so they don’t call it “prison.”

Because they are on the meditational path, they don’t even think about leaving their cave. For them, being free from all the external distractions—going out, meeting people, all the countless activities of normal life—is an incredible opportunity, which helps them to eliminate the internal distractions so that they can gain realizations on the path.

Even though their body never leaves the cave, even though they never see the outside world, they enjoy incredible peace and bliss because they are practicing Dharma.

From the point of view of ordinary people, especially in the West, this is worse than being in prison! But this is being in retreat, disciplining the mind, for the mind to be free. As Milarepa said:

I was afraid of death, so I escaped to the mountains. Now that I have realized the ultimate nature of the primordial mind, even when death comes, I have no fear.

Tibetans who were imprisoned used their time to meditate

You must know that many lamas and laypeople were imprisoned by the Communist Chinese in Tibet after the events of 1959—and continue to be imprisoned to this day. Many achieved realizations in prison. They were able to put into practice in prison all the Dharma they had learned before. They used the time to meditate and develop their minds on the path. So many of them made their life so rich in prison, rich with realizations; their life became very meaningful. For them, being in prison was exactly the same as living in a hermitage and being in retreat.

There is one Tibetan lama who was put in prison for more than twenty years. During that time, he took the opportunity to meditate in strict retreat. He practiced Lama Tsongkhapa Guru Yoga (I discuss this in chapter 13). (Lama Tsongkhapa is the embodiment of all the buddhas’ compassion (Chenrezig; see chapter 17), all the buddhas’ wisdom (Manjushri) and all the buddhas’ power (Vajrapani)). He recited the four-­ or five-­line migtsema verse, which is a praise to Lama Tsongkhapa as the embodiment of these buddhas. He saw Lama Tsongkhapa and his own guru as one. This lama’s wisdom blossomed like a fully developed lotus. He became extremely learned in the teachings of Buddha, particularly in the Lama Tsongkhapa tradition.

When he got out of prison, he became very famous. When he was giving teachings in Sera Monastery in Tibet, other learned geshes who took teachings from him were astonished, so impressed by his profound, extensive teachings. One particular quality he had was that he was able to give the oral transmission of eight volumes of Buddha’s scriptures in one day, reciting each word clearly. Each volume has many hundreds of pages and each page has many lines.

Many of the Tibetans in prison were starving

For lunch the prisoners would be given just a small dumpling made of flour, the size of a chocolate, and thin soup, which was served in the same bucket that they used for the toilet.

The guards ate a lot of beans and the prisoners would search where the guards went to the toilet for undigested whole beans, and they would eat them. They would also search for bones, which they would chew or boil. It gave them strength, revived them, and helped them to survive a little longer.

Even though they had almost no food, some of the meditators looked radiant, their bodies glowing magnificently: their meditation was food for the mind. One time, when a lama passed away and his body was thrown in the river, it didn’t sink; it stayed in the meditation position, the back upright, floating. Things like this happened.

One Tibetan prisoner said that he got nourishment from just the smell of the food from the Chinese guards’ kitchen. It’s incredible. He showed that even just the smell of food can be so beneficial, can give strength.

After he got out of prison he practiced the offering of smells to the hungry ghosts, which involves burning flour mixed with butter, crushed jewels and some medicinal substances in a fire and then meditating. In your visualization you fill the whole sky with the smell, manifested as the five sense objects, the objects of desire. You make offerings first to the Guru, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, then to all the hungry ghosts, to all the people in the intermediate stage who have died and are not yet reborn, to all the landlord spirits and to all the local devas. The practice, which involves many prayers, helps the beings.

After making charity to them, you teach them Dharma: to have a good heart, to not harm others and to practice bodhicitta. You imagine they are liberated from samsara, from karma and delusions, then you send them away to their places.

By doing this practice you hugely purify your negative karma and create extensive merit. It creates the cause in future lives to not have the karma to be tortured or to experience heavy, terrifying karmic appearances. It brings you success and enables you to be born in a pure land.

This prisoner did this practice of offering smells every day for many years. His experience in prison of benefiting from even the smell of the food when he was starving enabled him to understand the hungry ghosts, who cannot find food for hundreds of thousands of years.

Make prison your hermitage

So now you can see that “prison” is just a concept: what you label the place and how you use it. As far as being locked in is concerned, for you it can be exactly the same as for the yogis in their hermitages. Instead of “prison” you should label it “hermitage” or “retreat house.”

And you even have food! In the cave, there is nothing! But for them it is like paradise, incredible, the best place to achieve all happiness: happiness in future lives, liberation from samsara and the highest happiness, enlightenment. It gives them everything they need to actualize the path.

remember

• See prison as good.
• Everything appears to us according to how we label it.
• You can label prison as a hermitage.
• Imprisoned Tibetans used their time to meditate and get realizations.
• You can do the same.