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 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.
