The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Boy explores the transformation of Jarvis Jay Masters who has become one of America’s most inspiring Buddhist practitioners while locked in a cell on death row. Jarvis Jay Masters’s early life was a horror story whose outline we know too well. Born in Long Beach, California, his house was filled with crack, alcohol, physical abuse, and men … crack, alcohol, physical abuse, and men who paid his mother for sex. He and his siblings were split up and sent to foster care when he was five, and he progressed quickly to juvenile detention, car theft, armed robbery, and ultimately San Quentin. While in prison, he was set up for the murder of a guard–a conviction which landed him on death row, where he’s been since 1990.
At the time of his murder trial, he was held in solitary confinement, torn by rage and anxiety, felled by headaches, seizures, and panic attacks. A criminal investigator repeatedly offered to teach him breathing exercises which he repeatedly refused. Until desperation moved him to ask her how to do “that meditation shit.” With uncanny clarity, David Sheff describes Masters’s gradual but profound transformation from a man dedicated to hurting others to one who has prevented violence on the prison yard, counseled high school kids by mail, and helped prisoners–and even guards–find meaning in their lives.
Along the way, Masters becomes drawn to the principles that Buddhism espouses–compassion, sacrifice, and living in the moment–and he gains the admiration of Buddhists worldwide, including many of the faith’s most renowned practitioners. And while he is still in San Quentin and still on death row, he is a renowned Buddhist thinker who shows us how to ease our everyday suffering, relish the light that surrounds us, and endure the tragedies that befall us all.
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This book celebrates a liberation not gained by guns and gangs, prison breaks and murder, but by sitting with one’s breath and believing in the perfection of the universe and all who strive and suffer within it. The Buddhist on Death Row is a deeply useful reminder that we can all be free regardless of where we are placed.
This is a beautiful, profoundly spiritual book, and a page-turner. Jarvis Jay Masters’ transformation from an unloved child of violence and poverty to Buddhist teacher on Death Row, is thrilling. Reading it changed me, threw the lights on, opened and gentled my heart. I’m going to give it to everyone I know.
I absolutely loved this book and recommend everyone should read it!!! I couldn’t put it down and read it in one day!!
The book is about a man on death row in San Quentin prison in California for a crime he says he didn’t commit. During the course of the book, you come to believe the innocence of Jarvis Jay Masters.
Jarvis has spent thirty years of solitude, sadness, anxiety and rage behind bars. It’s his story of how he regained hopefulness and feelings of peace through Buddhism. It made me stop and think how Buddhism may benefit me in my own life!! Who doesn’t want feelings of peace, especially during this pandemic!!
I really enjoyed the author’s writing style. The story flowed nicely and I felt like I really knew Jarvis Jay Masters as a person. I felt what he was feeling, his pain and his hopes and dreams! Although sad at times, this is just a great story that I believe anybody would enjoy!!
Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC in exchange for my review.
#NetGalley #TheBuddhistonDeathRow #Simon&Schuster #DavidSheff
Jarvis Jay Masters was convicted in 1990 and sentenced to death for the murder of a San Quentin prison guard. He was sent to back to the prison to await the carrying out of his sentence. He spent the next 22 years in solitary confinement. The transformation from a man of rage to a man of peace is a journey toward conversion to the principles of Buddhism.
In this exceptionally told biography, the author spares the reader nothing in telling Masters’ story from a terrifying childhood to ultimately being found guilty of murder. The reader gets a good sense of who Masters is and how great the possibility is that he has turned his life around through studying Buddhist principles with the help of the Buddhist nun Pema Chodra and others. Masters is still in San Quentin and still on death row 22+ years after his conviction.
If you love well-written and unsparing biographies, this book should be at the top of your to-be-read list.
My thanks to Simon & Schuster and Amazon for an eARC.
Jarvis Jay Masters a convicted prisoner on death row in San Quentin Prison finds Buddhism. He’s in one of the most horrendous places with the least amount of hope available and yet he spreads hope peace and a bit of happiness. The books was heartbreaking. He claims his innocence, the crime committed was not him but another. We hear of his thirty years of life behind bars living in solitude, and his growth once he starts studying Buddhism. He finds his peace, shares it and sometimes struggles with the concept in his environment.
What fascinating story. I loved the way it was told, honest and true. I felt I got to know the man, and felt his hope, acceptance, dreams, falls, and pains. It’s all there. The ending was unexpected.