Doing it right

Our zen group offers a meditation class on Thursday evenings at the local jail. (I usually start by saying, it's odd for it to be called a class, since there's nothing to teach, nothing to learn.)

One evening there was more tension in the room than usual--during the discussion between "sits," several of the guys had expressed anxiety. So towards the end, I broke the silence by saying, "However you're sitting, whatever you're thinking or feeling, you're doing it right."

As we were leaving a few minutes later, one inmate came over to me, tears in his eyes. "I just wanted you to know that in 25 years, that's the first time anyone's told me I'm doing it right."