LEE KLINGER LESSER
Jarvis Jay Masters
Jarvis Jay Masters lives in a cell on death row in San Quentin State Prison. He has been my good friend for ten years. He has been falsely convicted of sharpening a knife used in the killing of a Correction Officer and was given the death sentence. While living in a cell in which he could stretch out his hands and touch the walls on both sides, he wrote a book called, Finding Freedom.
Jarvis knows more about freedom than most people I know. He developed a Buddhist practice in San Quentin. You can learn more about him at the website, www.freejarvis.org, or by reading his book and many articles he’s written.
Pema Chödrön, his good friend and teacher often writes about him in her books. She says:
"Jarvis is an easy man to respect and an easy man to love. What I learn from him all the time is what it really means to keep one's vows of not harming and of helping other people in whatever ways one can. I always think, 'If Jarvis can do it in those most challenging and difficult situations, I can do it too.' It is a continual aspiration from my heart that Jarvis Masters not be killed and that I have the pleasure of knowing him as a free man; a free man who I know will benefit all the people he encounters."
Jarvis’ humor, perspective and compassion awaken me to my own.
Maria Antoineta Osornio Ramirez Michael Sawyer