Tara Brach

And if you want to find more, he's such an inspiration, just...

Google for Free Jarvis.

So I'll end with a story about him.

One day in the prison yard, a large inmate picked up a rock and he was going to throw it at a seagull that was sitting in the middle of a puddle.

And Jarvis instinctively raised his arm to stop the stone thrower.

And the young inmate said, what are you doing?

Because you don't interfere with each other in the prison yard.

And everybody got real quiet and alert to see what was going to come down.

Because that's the whole deal, not messing with another person's private space.

You do it at your peril.

So Jarvis describes looking back and then spontaneously responding, that bird got my wings.

And with this, the young man kind of peered at Jarvis quizzically and then he lowered his stone and everyone relaxed.

And for days afterwards, Jarvis recounts that inmates would come up and say, well, what do you mean by that bird got my wings?

It's like the Zen koan, right?

And he didn't answer, he'd only smile.

But we know what he was talking about.

You know, we all have that same vulnerability, you know, experiencing forces larger than ourselves.

We have that vulnerability like the seagull in the puddle.

And we also have this longing for freedom, this capacity to fly and be free.

So I'm ending with this story because it's really natural for each of us to become identified as a victim of circumstance.