I don't usually post the work of other writers on the blog, but today I'm posting a guest column from my friend Eric Weinberg. Eric is a dharma friend and teacher in the Columbus Karma Thegsum Choling Prison Outreach Project, and he has written a lovely essay about Kenneth Biros, an Ohio Death Row inmate and dharma student of his.




Bradley Butters and I have been visiting inmates at the Ohio State Penitentiary for three years. During that time we have tried our best to teach them Buddhadharma that is authentic and meets the needs arising from their situations. One of the inmates we visit is a man on death row named Kenny Biros. Kenny is serving out a sentence imposed on him for a horrible murder that he committed many years ago.

He is the next person scheduled to be killed by the State of Ohio for his crime. The date of execution is December 8, 2009.

Our experience of Kenny is short but profound. He has taken what we have taught him in earnest and has grown spiritually.

In general, people we have worked with in prison suffer from a subtle sense of self centeredness and a sense that they themselves are victims in one way or another. Many people think about the ideas we present but relatively few take them to heart, practice meditation and make the prayers and contemplations a part of their life in prison. Kenny is one of the rare ones that actively works with the teachings we bring him him.

The impact of the Dharma path is obvious. Over this past year I have heard him take responsibility for his crimes, become more and more mindful and correspondingly less and less self centered. He has become less and less concerned with what he has and what he feels he lacks. Most important, he has asked to learn the best way to pray for those he hurt directly or indirectly, those he let down and those who hate him. The aspiration to be reborn in Dewachen so that he can achieve Buddhahood and benefit beings without exception fills his heart.

He does what he can to benefit others through prayer and being as good a citizen as possible in prison right now.

An example of this is that Kenny has been making beautiful origami peace cranes. He taught himself how to make them from a book in the prison library. In the beginning, he had to tear each sheet of paper because he was not allowed any cutting tools. Now he is allowed a rotary paper cutter. Over the years he has made origami masterpieces; given them away to nursing homes and sold them to support himself so that he is less of a burden to his family etc.

As part of his practice to prepare for death Kenny has begun accumulating Amitabha mantras. We came up with the idea that he could accumulate mantras, one mantra per fold of paper to keep track of his accumulations.

Each crane is comprised of 392 sheets of paper and each sheet is folded 10 times. So each crane has 3,920 OM AMI DEWA HRI folded into it. I asked him to make one for me to put on my shrine at home. The last time we met he told me a box was waiting at the front gate containing 6 cranes he made while accumulating mantras. One for me, one for Bradley, One for Tenzin (in retreat), one for Lama Kathy, one for Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche and he asked if it was OK to give one to His Holiness Karmapa.

Please pray for him and that somehow Bradley & I can benefit him and the others connected to this.
Eric Weinberg