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[ by Charles Cameron — cross-posted from Shambhala SunSpace ]
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While the world’s thoughts are turned to Nelson Mandela, I thought it might be useful to consider a statement in which Mandela diagnoses the human condition and prescribes for it. I found it in a paragraph from a letter he wrote from prison. I comment on it below, not so much to add anything to it as to allow the paragraph itself time to breathe.

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Incidentally, you may find that the cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself, to search realistically and regularly the process of your own mind and feelings.

Mandela is not alone in writing from prison. Martin Luther King, after all, wrote his celebrated Letter from Birmingham City Jail, Thoreau‘s Civil Disobedience was inspired by his own brief prison visit, and moving farther afield, Cervantes‘ Don Quixote was begun in prison, Malory‘s Morte D’Arthur too, and even that old reprobate Oscar Wilde arguably wrote his most profound work from the depths of Reading Jail. His very title, De Profundis, is a phrase from the Psalms meaning “from the depths” — it seems that experiencing the depths, stripped bare of comforts, is often a key to achieving the heights…

Realistically and regularly…

I suspect this whole paragraph, written perhaps unsurprisingly by a man in prison, has as much wisdom to impart to our times as anything written in the last hundred years.

In judging our progress as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one’s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education. These are, of course, important in measuring one’s success in material matters and it is perfectly understandable if many people exert themselves mainly to achieve all these.

A beautifully balanced statement: worldly success is no problem, and may even serve our purpose, just so long as it serves and does not rule us. Or as the Mighty I Ching might say, “no blame”. But…

But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one’s development as a human being.

Bingo. Mandela goes for the heart.

Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others – qualities which are within easy reach of every soul – are the foundations of one’s spiritual life.

Here’s Mandela’s own tool-kit or skill-set, laid out on the workbench for all to see: … humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others… But these aren’t tools we can buy from a catalog, they are tools we shape and sharpen within ourselves. How do we do that?

Development in matters of this nature is inconceivable without serious introspection, without knowing yourself, your weaknesses and mistakes.

Mandela hits the mark again: we look within, and we don’t turn back along the path when we meet our own shadows.

At least if for nothing else, the cell gives you the opportunity to look daily into your entire conduct, to overcome the bad and develop whatever is good in you.

The problem with “not being in prison”, then, is not that the outside world is a bad place, nor are the “worldly things” that moralizing religion often preaches against so very terrible — it’s that we ourselves are so easily distracted.

And then it hits:

Regular meditation, say about 15 minutes a day before you turn in, can be very fruitful in this regard.

Meditate…

You may find it difficult at first to pinpoint the negative features in your life, but the 10th attempt may yield rich rewards.

And hello, by the seventh attempt you’ll be getting into the habit of meditation, by the tenth the rewards will already be rich — Mandela has given us our marching orders — roll on!

Never forget that a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying.

Oh, and he’s kind, too — kind enough to allow us our weaknesses, and encourage us to keep moving on.

I’m tempted to say this sentence decisively refutes and routs the oft-quoted teaching of Yoda: “Do… or do not. There is no try” — but maybe they’re two sides of a koan, coin — carrot and stick, the slow ascent and the nudge that gives sudden enlightenment?

Realistically and regularly…

I bow gassho to Nelson Mandela.

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Here’s Mandela’s paragraph, flying solo — read it like repeated hammer blows, like rain quietly falling:

Incidentally, you may find that the cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself, to search realistically and regularly the process of your own mind and feelings. In judging our progress as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one’s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education. These are, of course, important in measuring one’s success in material matters and it is perfectly understandable if many people exert themselves mainly to achieve all these. But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one’s development as a human being. Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others – qualities which are within easy reach of every soul – are the foundations of one’s spiritual life. Development in matters of this nature is inconceivable without serious introspection, without knowing yourself, your weaknesses and mistakes. At least if for nothing else, the cell gives you the opportunity to look daily into your entire conduct, to overcome the bad and develop whatever is good in you. Regular meditation, say about 15 minutes a day before you turn in, can be very fruitful in this regard. You may find it difficult at first to pinpoint the negative features in your life, but the 10th attempt may yield rich rewards. Never forget that a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying.

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