Buddhist on Death Row

Dear Governor Newsom public. Throughout his life, Jarvis Masters has endured more injustice and tragedy than any ordinary person. But

then again, Jarvis is anything but ordinary. He has an almost Forrest Gumpian nature about him, a man who has been holed up in a nine by four cell since the first steer President Reagan's first term, who has nevertheless managed to live a remarkable life, attracting a circle of supporters that include world renowned spiritual and religious teachers, celebrities, world class thinkers, philosophers, and writers, from Desmond two two to Oprah Winfrey to Brian Stevenson. My name is David Chef.

I am a journalist. I've been a journalist for about thirty forty years. Oh my god, and you know I had the great fortune meeting Jarvis and then moving forward with him to write a book about his life and the most extraordinary experience. One world class writer whom Jarvis

has drawn into his life is author David Chef. David's best selling memoir A Beautiful Boy was made into a major motion picture starring Steve Correll and Timothy shallow May, and his latest work is a biography about Jarvis called The Buddhist on Death Row How One Man Found Light in the Darkest Place A in in true gumpy in form, Jarvis's life story managed to attract the interest of none

other than the Holiness himself, the Dalai Lama. About the Buddhist on Death Row, he writes, quote, this book shows vividly how even in the face of the greatest adversity, compassion and warmhearted concern for others brings peace and inner strength. David has interviewed some of the most fascinating people in modern history, including John Lennon, Steve Jobs, Ansel Adams, Betty

for Dan and more. I had a good friend whose name is Pamela Crosby and for years she talked about this guy named Jarvis Masters, who she considered her best friend or one of her best friends on death row inside Quentin. He was innocent, he'd become a Buddhist practitioner and teacher. And she described it in ways that you know, would have been extraordinary way to describe anybody, but somebody in prison on death row for most of his life.

You know, it was just remarkable about the way that he connected with so many people that had in spite of the fact that he lived in one of the most depressing, dark, scary places imaginable, he still was filled with this light and joy, and he was positive. And she would leave him and feel instead of, you know,

sort of depressed and and you know, broken hearted. I mean she felt that too, but she also talked about feeling uplifted because he was so much a great presence, And she kept asking me to go visit him, and I was busy. I didn't have time to do it.

And at one point I was doing an article for the New York Times magazine about the warden at Saint Clinton, whose name was Jeane Whitford, and I asked DEDI if she's heard about this guy and she had, and she sort of confirmed some of the stories that I've heard from Pamela. And it was after that the night I went to see Jarvis, and I got it, you know, I got it. I was with him, he was in the adjustment center, so I was only able to meet with him with a piece of sence thick PLEXI class

between us. And even through that class, I understood why Pabla and other people quite spoken to by there and described him as as a very special person in their lives. Did you ever been into a prison before. I had never been on death row. I had no idea what to expect when I went in this room, the visiting hall, So yeah, I was. I was nervous. I was unsure. And by the way, you know, I also knew that everyone on death row, in fact, everyone in prison, is innocent.

I mean, nine nine percent probably will say that they're innocent, and of course, you know, we know that most of them aren't. So I was skeptical. I was not naive when I went in there. In spite of what Pablo said, I thought, you know, could he be this just really good manipulator? Who was you know, taking advantage of this very kind hearted woman, and so I went in there with this uncertainty, this trepidation, this nervousness about going into a place where I knew, you know, some of them

was vile. In criminals, California is the last, probably fifty year history. We're there. It did not take long for Jarvis to reassure me and to make me feel very comfortable there. Following is a memory from the Buddhist on Death Row in which David first meets Jarvis in San Quentin audiobook read by Michael Boatman. I sit in a molded plastic chair on one side of a small table, opposite a man named Jarvis j. Masters. I tell him I'm considering writing a book about him, and ask what

he thinks of the idea. I emphasize that if I go forward, I'll report what I find, both the good and the bad. I can't be painted worse than I've been painted, Master says, and I guess that's true for someone convicted of murder. I mean, he adds, look where we are. Where we are is in a closet sized cage among a dozen similar cages in a visitation hall served for the condemned at San Quentin State Prison. I follow Master's gaze as it sweeps the other cages in

which convicted killers sit with family members or attorneys. Ramone Bojorkez Salcido, convicted of murdering seven people, including his wife and daughters, sits with his lawyer in a cage opposite ours. Nearby, Richard Allan Davis, who raped and killed a twelve year old girl much as Dorito's, in the cage on the end, near a bookshelf lined with board games and bibles. Scott Peterson, convicted of murdering his eight months pregnant wife and their

unborn child, sits with his sister. Peterson looks relaxed and fit, but some prisoners appear tense, agitated, or sullen. And then there are guys diminutive, bespectacled, innocuous who look like tellers or in one case John Oliver, there looks deceived. Masters says over the years he's been surprised when he's learned about the crimes committed by the meekest and politest of

his death Row neighbors. Some of them have perfect manners, placed their napkins on their laps, but half of Iowa's missing. What was it about? Jarvis he had already written to autobiographical books, That Bird Has My Wings and Finding Freedom. What did you want to write about Jarvis and accomplish with your book that that wasn't already accomplished with his own biography. That's a really good question. I had read Jarvis's books, I didn't mention math even before I went

to see him. Yeah, it really was impressed by them and moved by them. I really got insights both to his life, his history, and also to his mind his

spiritual practice. I guess I was still ascinated, really intrigued, and maybe even in a personal way, drawn to Jarvis's story because it was about how people can change, how a person changed, and it was something that I struggle with and and continue to struggle with in my life, people around me suffering, and I felt that, you know, there was a story that was must to be told. I mean, Jervis's perspective on things was amazing and fascinating. But when we see a person from the outside, we

see the story in a different way. And I saw this a challenge because it was very unlike anything I'd ever written before, and the challenge was to write about change, to write about a person's spiritual transformation requires going inside their head, and so much of that process is internal, especially when you're sitting in the jail cell there we know you know it retreats up the mountains to tobout to to you know, to visit the guru um and so you to to go into that world to try

it was a challenge to try to figure out, you know, how to how to tell that story. And it was very meaningful to me in the personal way. As I said, when I was here from Pamel and by then I met some of his other friends, and I met his teacher Pama children. And the idea that the person on death row who had the brutal life that he had was someone who could instruct all of us, who teach us uh, it seemed in some ways inconceivable. So I

wanted to find out. I wanted to understand who he was and what that experience was and what that message was, and to see if it was true. Relationship began very tentatively. I knew him from his biography and through his friends UM, but I didn't really know him and didn't know personally, and he certainly didn't know me. In our relationship, like

any relationship evolved. The evolved evolved slowly, very slowly. We got to know each other, and it wasn't I mean, a small part of it was my deciding to commit to writing about him, because that's hard, you know, talk about. But the bigger part challenge actually came from his side, which is to see if, over the course of our getting to know each other, that Jarvis would come to trust me to tell his story. I mean, it is

a lot to ask someone. And so it evolved very very very slowly, and I started to have the kinds of experience as other people talked about with him. You know, he never intended to be some you know, sort of guru spiritual teacher. In fact, he you know, he laughed and almost in some ways even disdainful of the idea that he was. But I began to have experiences with him where I really did feel like I was both learning from him and was inspired by him and then

attracted other parts of my life. Can you give an

example of that. Those experiences, there were just so many, and they happened over time, and I think that I think for going deep with him was maybe meaningful to him too, because I do know that there were many times when all of a sudden we would kind of be lifted out of that grim visiting room inside Saint Quentin and we were somewhere else, and I think that we both shared it and I would look at each other and suddenly be back in that room and realized, God,

where did we just go? Um? You know the one that I guess that I ended up telling him in the book that really sort of into into me says it. But I visited Jarvis on Christmas Day in the visiting room, and when you visit in May in the family visiting room. At the difference, I mean one that I generally met. Hey man, I met him in the legal visiting room, which is quiet cages. I mean it's not quiet. It's

nothing in St. Quyton is quiet. But the family visiting room has families, has kids, has laughter, has yelling and crying. There's many many that's bigger. So I was in this room with him and we were talking, and I was looking around and I was seeing what to me was so sad. It was all these children and wives, their girlfriends and parents and brothers and sisters who on Christmas had come to visit the person that they loved in prison. Uh. They're chained when they walk in there, they're locked in

this cage. And it was heartbreaking to me, and I just started to say something to Jervis. I started to say, oh my god, this is so sad, these poor people having to come see the person that they loved in president on death row on Christmas. And just then Jarvis, you know, he had this like light as he was looking around the room and what he saw. He said, look at the love in this room. Uh, look at the love. You know, these fathers with their children, their girlfriends,

their wives, their parents. And suddenly I realized I saw through Jervis's eyes, and I got it, and it was moving to me. I know you're not a Buddhist, but I assume there was a pretty high learning curve to tell his story, the story of a of a true Buddhist was that intimidating. Yeah. I had, you know, a very very very shallow idea of knowledge about what it

what Buddhism is. And I was told by you know, Jervis's friend and teacher, Pami Schodren that she thought, ultimately it was a really good thing that someone who wasn't to Buddhist came in to tell the story because I came into this in the same way Jarvis came into it not only not a Buddhist but cynical religion and spiritualism and spirituality. And so I was guided into Buddhism, understanding Buddhism just like he was. And he didn't did his teachers did it. Because I had a lot of

conversations with his teachers, and I came to understand. I mean, I never went to the formal religion of Buddhism, and not at the Jarvis I don't think. I mean, I think I too was moved by the stories and the cons and and the experience just the just the Buddhist perspective on life that has to do with recognizing suffering, connecting with other people, realizing a responsibility to try to alleviate suffering when we do see it. I mean, I got all that. By the end, I really understood it.

And I still can't tell you the names of you know, the various the Buddhism, the incarnations and all that, and and but I got the essence. And Jarvis told me that Buddhist is there for anybody. Jarvis's first introduction to the tenants of Buddhism arrived, not coincidentally, the day after the State of California had officially sentenced him to death. Here is his memory of that life altering day and

excerpt from the Buddhist on death Row. The next morning, breakfast was delivered as usual, and the day progressed as if nothing had changed. Also as usual, the mail was delivered. In the evening, Jarvis examined a large envelope from someone named Lisa Leghorn, who, in a note explained that she was an assistant and interpreter to chag dud Toolkul Rinpoche,

the Buddhist llama Jarvis had written two months before. Leghorn wrote that Rinpoche was glad that Jarvis had reached out to him, and she referred to a small book in the package entitled Life in Relation to Death, which contained a transcript of a talk by the Lama. Read it, she said, see if it speaks to you. Jarvis picked the book up and was instantly transfixed. On the first page, the llama described death as a subject people often ignore or think about frivolously, as if it were no big deal.

Then the author wrote, this is a nice theory until one is dying, then experience and theory differ, he continued. Then one is powerless and everything familiar is lost. One is overwhelmed by a great turbulence of fear, disorientation, and confusion. For this reason, it is essential to prepare well in advance for the moment when the mind and body separate. Jarvis closed the book and breathed deeply. A familiar, choking emotion welled up in him. Anguish, but he read on.

The teacher said that all people should prepare for death, and one approach was to picture the ways they might die. He listed an airplane crash, an automobile accident, a terminal illness, and being stabbed by a mugger. He didn't mention the gas chamber. Another approach was called meditative contemplations. Jarvis read through them quickly until he got to one that made him shudder. People should ask themselves two questions every night before bed. If I die tonight in my sleep, what

have I done with my life? Have I been of benefit? Or have I caused harm? Jarvis needed no time to ponder his answer. He knew that he'd benefited no one, and he'd caused immeasurable harm. He read all night. Dawn was breaking as he turned the final page, but he was wide awake. He didn't believe in omens, but he reeled at the thought that during his first day on death Row, the mail had brought him a guide to dying. Biographer David Chef continues, even though I still not a

Buddhist side get it. It's kind of so useful to me. The less of the Buddhism are useful to me. Meditation this profound. I didn't get that either until I heard about Jarvis's journey into meditation and learned how it really changed his life. So all that I took away from experience. What has impacted you the most in learning the lessons? Is it the meditation specif? Well, you know, meditation is profound.

But the reason that it was profound to me is when it's the same, it's sort of the message overall that Jarvis learned them that I learned from Jarvis's experience, which is that my idea of meditation when you sit with your eyes closed and your legs crossed and your spine straight, and you sort of bliss out, you know, to time out. It's a way to get away from the rest of your stresses in your life. But what Jarvis learned the hard way and I ended up learning

the hard way, is that's not what happens. I mean, yeah, there are those moments, but also you know, you're if you're opening your mind, you're opening your mind to whatever is inside you. Some of what is inside you is pain and heard and trauma. And you know, this lesson that I saw that was a result of meditation, it's really the ultimate was the ultimate challenge, I think for Jarvis and for me, which is, you know, be beyond meditation.

You know, it's sort of summed with this, you know, I guess in some ways that's the biggest cliche, but it says, you know, the only way out is through, which means, you know, the only way to get through the traumas that we experience, the only way to move forward in our lives, to be better, to be a better person, to have relationships that are more meaningful. You can't run from it. You got to go back into it, and it is hard and it is painful, but that

is what I was left with more than anything. So he when I was talking with him when he was on his most recent hunger strike, I was asking him you know, does he pass the time through meditation? And his answer was, he's not sitting down and meditating. He said, he wants to be fully present. He doesn't want to escape, he doesn't want to escape the experience. And I just thought, holy cow, that is not the ultimate. And that's you know, that's what he said to me at one point two.

I mean, he was meditating for a period of time, hours every day, but at one point he said to me that he meditates all the time or never, whichever however you want to look at it. But it is being present in that moment, and that's something that you

learned from meditation. And I think that's probably the goal of being a Buddhist is or or a meditating whatever it is, is that when it becomes who you are and you start to perceive the world and feel the world and experience the world in a very different way. And I guess I feel like, you know, that's a

good observation that you know, the way you just explained it. Yeah, I have found it, and I know you and I have discussed the fact that and it's I've talked to so many people interviewing them for the podcast that to know Jervis is to love Jarvis and and people use that exact phrase. What do you think it is about

him that that makes him such a compelling central character? Well, I love Jarvis, and love is not something that I come to you never have in my life, and it is you know, about the relationship that grew and developed over time with somebody who was as open and gentle and kind and loving um as anyone. And you know, I came in there as the interviewer, you know, the journalist to record his story. But I mean this great friend who I still consider one of the dearest friends

in my life, and the relationship was reciprocal. You know, I was there when Jarvis had some of the most challenging times that he's had in the last you know, five six years, huge disappointments related to relationships and big, big disappointments related to his appeals, his cases, you know, his case moving forward. That Jarvis has been there for me, uh in so many different circumstances. You know, I lost a dear friend and he was the one that was

on the phone checking in with me. I was sick for a while and he was checking with me as well. And even when I was well enough to go visit again. That was always the first thing, you know, and he did it sometimes he teach me about it. You know, God, you look terrible. He was letting going on with you. But it was very genuine and very open, and it

was this relationship. And that's how I guess, you know, relationships develop, and closeness develops, and friendships developed, and eventually, you know, it was a very very few because of the combination of those things. And maybe there's something else that I don't fully understand. It is this chemistry or there is a spiritual connection that it does become a different kind of relationship and it does feel different. And yes, it said Jervis is connected with others and family. My

son Jasper went to visit him. My wife Karen went to visit him, and she fell in love with him. Do Dandy writes him these beautiful letters. Jasper, Jasper and Jarvis communicate by letters and occasionally Virus will be able to call him and there's a real connection. And my son Nick was going to go see him too, but because Dick was once arrested when he was and he was he was a lot of good. But you know,

he does feel like you know. I know other people have said this to you, but he feels like a part of our family and he always will Yeah, yeah, the same with me. He always asked whenever he signs off the ice, is how's big Mama? What he calls my mother? So cool? Yeah, and he does. He cares. At one time. I mean, this is probably not even in parts to tell, but quickly I was sitting my father in law. Caron's parents are a hundred and ninety four years old, respectively, and one time he called him.

I was talking to my in law and I was going to call him back, but then I said, um, I took his call, and I said, hey, because they've heard stories about Jars three years, I always asked you about him, and I put him on speaker phone, and it was absolutely the greatest playing. Mother in law his hysterical and she she was saying, God, I wish you could come over for dinner tonight, and when you get out of there, I mean to cook you whatever. My mother said the same thing. So we're gonna have to

have a giant freedom Schmorgh board. Next week we'll hear Jarvis's side of the story and why he agreed to give David Cheff, a perfect stranger at the time unfettered access to his private life. Audio excerpts courtesy of Simon and Schuster. Audio from The Buddhist on Death Row by David Cheff, read by Michael Boatman, Copyright by David Cheff, used with permission of Simon and Schuster, Inc. The Buddhist

on Death Row is out in paperback this week. This episode was written and produced by Donni Fazzari and myself Corny Cole. Our theme song sentenced his compliments of the band Stick Figure from their album Set in Stone. Stu Sternbach composed the original music. Nate Dufort did the sound design. For more information on Jarvis and to find out how you can follow his case and support his cause, please

visit free Jarvis dot org. For more podcasts. For my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.