Sister elaine macinnes biography examples

Tell us about your work teaching meditation in prisons. I wish I could take credit for that, but it was a prisoner who came to me. It was in the worst of [dictator Ferdinand] Marcos' years, when I was in the Philippines. This was a very, very bright lad, and he asked me to go in and teach in prison. I thought, "Gee, that's a wonderful idea.

So I went to the Canadian ambassador, and he spoke for me, so I got in that way. They're wonderful people for meditation, you know. They're not quite as head-bound as we Westerners are. How have you seen people change after they began practicing meditation with you? It's very strengthening. It's also a garbage collector. There's something about inner garbage that just melts after you've been meditating.

I mean, really meditating for a while. It's been helpful to many, many people. It gives them a depth to the meaning of life. And it's something, after you sit, there's something you can sense between yourself that has grown a bit and is a bit stronger. It's this inner gain that you can actually feel yourself to help you to get on. It's not an easy practice, and it's not that obvious.

Every particle of creation is filled with the beauty of Christ, the love of Christ, the truth of Christ, and the goodness of Christ. But as she had told the abbess at Enkoji, there were things the Buddhists would have to trust her for. And I learned that the government had sent somebody to join my zendo to hear what I was talking about because we sat on the floor.

They sit on the floor! Well, every foreigner was. We had to be careful at that time. He was arrested in and held at the Bago Bantay detention center where he and nine other political prisoners were regularly subjected to intensive interrogation and torture. While Morales was imprisoned, a visitor brought him a pamphlet put out by the Manila Zen Center.

He read it with interest, then send a note to Sister Elaine asking her to visit him. But he had a lot to get over; his torture had gone on and on. After his release when Morales was asked how he had survived his time in detention he credited Sister Elaine and Zen practice. And he gave me full credit for going in. He said what a risk it was for me to go in given the prevailing conditions at the time.

Quite an accent! And very sincere. Lovely person. Not well. Ann was looking for someone to continue the work of the Trust when her disease would prevent her from doing so. Ann asked me if I would go to England, and I was on my way to a meeting in Europe—you know how they have these international Zen meetings—so I went via England to visit her.

And she told me about her cancer and about her group. Sister Elaine agreed that it could. Teaching meditation was a face-to-face thing. She accepted the opportunity. And the warden was Tim Newell who is a Quaker. And we became very good friends. Most of the prisoners had been in for some years and were in therapy. Almost all the staff were trained in therapy.

Sister elaine macinnes biography examples

After she retired from the Phoenix Trust, Sister Elaine returned to Canada, where she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in in recognition of her humanitarian work. Ironically, when she tried to duplicate the work she had done for the British prison system in Canada, she ran into resistance. I think that your Order of Canada helped.

She was a remarkable woman, and I cherish the memory of the day I spent with her. She demonstrated an early aptitude for music, leading her to study at Mount Allison University, where she earned a degree in music. Initially sent to Japan to teach violin, she became interested in Zen meditation. MacInnes integrated her understanding of Zen meditation with her Catholic faith, focusing on the universal principles of spirituality.