Example

"He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress."   Anwar Sadat

To start the inmate in the road to personal transformation, they need to be given a head start in their life ahead inside the penal institution. Interestingly, I discover from among inmates who have been here for quite some time and most who are ready to leave, the capacity to contribute towards giving their fellow inmates this much needed head start, through the different Orientation Sessions. An example of what they can share is given below, from an inmate who is now giving the final remarks of the three-day orientation. Following is translation of his sharing:

3 Most Important Things Prisoners Need To Learn

I stand before you as a fellow inmate with more than eight years of prison time, and task to share with you some insights that can be useful to you as  new inmates and for the rest of your stay.

These past few days you have been briefed about formal things you need to know and understand about living inside as prisoner and things you need to know and do to facilitate your eventual release from incarceration and when you may be eligible for this.

What I will be sharing to you are important things you need to know, understand and act upon not only at this time or at various time but at all times all throughout your stay inside so that your stay will be worthwhile, meaningful and fruitful.   But before we go into each of these things, let me start by asking you a few questions: How do you feel now that you are here?  Feel free to share to everybody how you feel when you first arrive and now that you have been here for some time.   (He allowed some time for responses).

And now, how would you want to feel all throughout your stay? Do you want to be happy while here? Is it possible to be happy while serving your sentence? My answer to that is yes! And what I want to share now may be summed up into three things: acceptance of your present reality, knowing the true reason for your present reality and making right choices about your present reality.  When I speak about your present reality, it is primarily the reality of your imprisonment and all that it means.

So let us start with the First.  You must accept your present reality. And what is that reality? You are a prisoner serving your specific sentence.  (He asked how many have sentences for reclusion perpetua? Life  sentence?  40 years? 20 years?  15 years? 10 years? 5 years? ) The sooner you accept that in your heart and stop wishing that it is otherwise, the greater the inner settlement to a sense of ease. When you accept the reality of your present imprisonment the more you can focus your attention of how you can make the most of your time.  The reality is that you are a prisoner. What does it mean?  This whole orientation has given you the formal knowledge of what it means and how you should live here.  Of course these are not the only thing you need to learn. They are just the basic. What you need is to have openness to learning. That will give you more understanding.
      Another aspect of your present reality that you need to know and accept is the reality that you are a person with open possibilities and of this place as laden with possibilities for good to happen in your life.  There is a tremendous potential for good that can happen in your life and in this place, even if it is a prison.  And this attitude can make a whole difference for good in your life. Anything good can happen and many good things can happen in your life here.  And the remainder of what I will share will show you how this can happen. But before we go on let me just share to you the story of Og Mandino who discovered a new possibility for his life at a time when he was at his lowest.

     Second, you must know the reason why you are here. There are two answers:

1. What you think is the answer.
2. The true answer:  Has two sides like the side of a coin.

     The person side: You chose to be here! You are here because of the choices you made in your life, not because of other people. You may not want to be here, but you will not be here if you had not made choices in your life that eventually led you to be here. Unless you see that, you will not see that the good possibility for your life is your responsibility.

     The eagle side: God wants you to be here. God loves you so much to prevent the worse thing that could happen to your life, and to enforce his will for your life, to corner you like in a chess game, so that you eventually will resign to his will. And his will is good. What does it mean, since God is the one who brought you here, he must have a purpose for you here. 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' Jeremiah 29:11. And you will only experience the maximum good you could ever have here if God will have his way in you.  

Third, you must make the right choice about options you have on how you will spend your time here. You have the choice to either live according to the way you have learned to think and live up to this time (or how other prisoners  think and live here, which is pretty much like the way you think and live, only different in degree)  or you can choose to live with a desire to be a new person, and have a new hope for the future, and that means choosing to change the way you think.

Former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who made the decision to turn around centuries of war with Israel to give space for the possibility of peace, wrote:  

    

“He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.”

                                                                                  The best way to change the way you think and be a new person with a future full of real hope is to seek God and be in a right relationship with him throughout your life here and to let him change your mind and heart. That means spending your life here in real spiritual search (over and above all the daily things you need to do to live). And when I say, spiritual search, it is not just a matter of becoming member of religious group, though that is a first step you can make, but rather make this a long spiritual retreat.  Every day you have to take time to pause and think, reflect and search your heart before making decisions and choices about things that will come into your life here. It means, not making decisions the way you used to do (simply by force of habit) but waiting for and considering other options, that may come from listening to God in your heart, reflecting on  the things that are happening now, reading the words of the scripture or from just simply taking time to think it over first and considering what you can do differently from what you used to do. As you day by day make right choices, you continue to change your way of thinking for good. And this new way of thinking will prepare the new life and opportunities ahead of you.