66. The Criminal Mind

According to Marcel, the “mooch factor” is the litmus test for the condition of society. He had said that, in Haiti, one could be solicited several times a day, every day by the poor in the streets; whereas in Colón he encountered beggars only a couple of times in three weeks. I have an update for him: in Casco Antigua (the Old Quarter) I get hit up by beggars every day. Sometimes it’s just a story of an emergency, actual or not, that must be resolved immediately; like Tavo’s, but in his case he wasn’t an absolute stranger. Several times the sob story routine was used on me simply because both of us spoke English and that created a “bond”; once it was some grungy-looking expatriate gringo and the other times were with Jamaicans. Tavo’s middle-aged son stopped by to ask if his father was here and promptly asked me for a few bucks, supposedly based on our “bond”. Another interesting experience occurred at a local cafeteria when an imposing woman, who looked and talked like she was from one of the Caribbean islands, tried to trick us into paying for her meal by telling the cashier that we were paying for hers also.

I pay for the little favors that are extended to me. When I was trying to buy the bottle of LP gas, the Chinese cashier told me to pay $27. A young boy was in line behind me and he told me that it only costs $24, so I corrected the cashier and walked out with $3 extra. I thanked the kid for the tip and gave him 25 cents, even though he did not ask for it. It’s good PR, even necessary PR when you are perceived as the rich neighbor. Speaking of favors, we had not seen Tavo in a week since we fronted him $20 against his future labor for us. On top of that, we had not received the foam we purchased through him two weeks before, or even gotten a receipt for it. That equals $40 in his pocket at one time; something that is probably very rare for him.

We will withhold judgment until we see him again; or if we see him again. I would hate to think that this constitutes his big con of the year. If it is, then I would chalk it up as a lesson and move on. At the same time, this would indicate to me the actual level of desperation in this society. Tavo would be giving up perhaps hundreds of hours of work over the next few months and much more over the next few years. He knows the extent of renovation this building needs. This behavior reveals extreme short-sightedness on his part; and a level of desperation that I had not anticipated because he talked a good game of keeping his house in order.

Sure, this is a crime (or would be if he indeed blows us off). But, what more does it represent? When I was involved in the Vermont Prison project for the TM organization, I got to see up close how the criminal mind works and how it can be changed. What causes these people to commit crimes? And what causes them to stop committing crimes? This, of course, is an age-old question asked by virtually everyone and which has not received a satisfactory answer. I imagine that in some quarters it is considered unanswerable. From my understanding and experience I believe that this question has indeed been answered, but far too few listened.

After observing some long-term “before-and-after” behavior patterns (of up to three years) in meditation subjects and in matched “controls”, I speculated on what caused the mysterious absence of bad behaviors in some of the meditation practitioners. What I noticed was that “evil” was not a factor in the inmates’ bad behavior. Now, there probably are instances where pure malevolence is at work and crime is committed as a result of that kind of influence; but the ordinary course of bad behavior seemed to me to lack that personal characteristic. We, as therapeutic interveners, deliberately avoided opportunities to influence the inmates’ opinions about their behavior, or their beliefs in general. No counseling-type relationships were developed. No rewards were offered. Yet behaviors changed, they improved.

The average inmate, I believe, did not want to make trouble for no reason. Even when the object of a particular action was to prove how “bad” they were, I don’t think that the motive was to be evil. From a karmic perspective, bad behavior causes suffering. Ordinary people do not seek to suffer because that experience is not life-supporting; it is life-limiting, even life-extinguishing. The natural goal of all of our actions is to support life: to enhance our lives, to get ahead, to progress. But when progress is not the immediate result of our action, what is at work here? Because we 1. Have free will, and 2. Are not omniscient, we therefore have the ability to error. Some errors are small and go unnoticed by those around us; some errors are so great they cause us to be removed from society for the protection of our neighbors. This “8th degree of freedom” learning level, called prison, is the most restricted. Why? In order to promote focus, to lessen distractions, to cultivate good habits and provide balance in life. That is, if it is operating in its ideal capacity as an educational habilitation institution.

The whole range of human action encompasses a sliding scale of amount of errors. We are all errant to some degree. And it is a matter of degree: “they” are not fundamentally different from “us”; the inmates who got caught committing crimes are ourselves, but taken to an extreme degree. So, what is different between us and them? Let’s look at the similarities first: they desire to have more, to enjoy more, to live more (and longer), to satisfy their basic needs and to accumulate things. Sounds like us. They are impatient and want their desires fulfilled ASAP. They are not satisfied with less than they think they deserve. Sound familiar? The “whats” seem to be universal here.

The difference between us and them is not in what we want but in how we get it. “How” implies action and that originates in thought. That’s it! They must think different than us. But no, the desires listed above, similar to our own, are thoughts; so we don’t really think that differently. One body of opinion holds that they are insane, to varying degrees, and we are the sane ones. The results speak for themselves: they are locked up and we are free. Another body of opinion holds that they are damned by God, for a variety of reasons, and are lost; so throw away the keys to their cells. These opinions represent superiority/inferiority defense mechanisms used by insecure power mongers; they contribute to the illusion of a fundamental, irreconcilable difference between ordinary humans.

If criminals’ actions are different from ours only by degree, and their thinking is not much different, then what is different? We must of necessity go beyond action and thought to find some difference between us and them, (please, find some difference!). Since a person’s “pure consciousness” is the source of conscious and unconscious thoughts, then perhaps the quality of that state of being, of liveliness, constitutes the difference between us and them. But how can we identify such a state of consciousness? It is something so abstract that it is not even directly detectable, let alone measurable. We must observe subsidiary functions of consciousness in order to get a glimpse of its shadow. One mental function that is universal in humans is attention. (To be continued)

65. Settling into the Apartment

Of course we deserved to be spared from an awful burglary; if we didn’t deserve clemency, then we wouldn’t have gotten it. We must have accumulated more good karma than I thought. Ordinarily, this situation would have been a slam-dunk for local thieves, even without keys. But we must fix this “old key” mistake and replace those flimsy balcony doors ASAP; how often does one get a second chance? You can tempt fate too much and get slapped down. I remember someone asking Maharishi if it’s OK to fly a hang-glider. His response was that, “It wasn’t prudent to place ones life in the hands of so few laws of nature”. There’s that “free will” thing again. We walked over to Tavo’s place to check out his story, but he wasn’t there; one of his older sons told us he was out working. So we took off up Calle Central to get an ice chest, ice and some food to put in it.

On the way we met Domingo sitting on the steps at his usual spot near our building. He told us of what was reported to him early this morning: the night-watchman told him that someone was hanging around outside of our building trying to look inside. How a story grows! Tavo was sitting on the curb, waiting for us when we returned to the apartment. We thanked him for calling Nadja about the incident. He had no explanation for the difference in his story and that of Domingo. Sudarshani thinks that Tavo wanted us to return and continue working on the apartment so he could make some more money.

We did get back to work the very next morning. I resumed replacing the ceiling and Tavo did some more wiring and shopping for odds and ends that we needed for repairs. It felt good to get my hands dirty and build something. The cheap Chinese electric drill broke down the first hour that I used it. That’s the last time that I buy bargains recommended by Tavo. I managed to fool around with the switch all day in order to get something done, but it was slow and frustrating. Using a drill with only one speed—fast, is not the way to install drywall screws. I ruined two Phillips bits doing it.

The next day Nadja picked us up in her brand new KIA 4×4 diesel mini-SUV. It’s a beauty all right; the old one looked just fine to me. She was going to sell us the 10 year old KIA but she wanted way too much for it and we were re-thinking the whole vehicle option by then anyway. We drove around town looking for new doors for the balcony. I had already settled on the door and modification that I wanted to use but we had to check out the options. Since the door size is non-standard, everyone wanted $340-$460 each, to make custom doors. Forget that! My idea was to get solid wood exterior doors for $35 each and cut them down to size. Then buy a couple pieces of sheet metal cut to fit and then screw and glue one to the inside of each door. That way, the outside looks natural and at the same time, it could not be kicked in.

There were other errands to do on the phone, such as: call the water utility to get our water supply fixed; call the electric utility to turn on our power. We wanted to find someone to change the chip in our old cell-phones so they could operate with a local service. I hate to throw away $100 phones, especially since they are the dual transmission style: they are both digital and analog and so are more useful for when you leave the city and travel or live in the mountains. I don’t even know if “duals” are made any more.

Down here you waste a lot of time trying to get anything done and the lack of progress was frustrating. I was glad to get back to work on the ceiling the next day, at least I can see the results and know I am one day closer to finishing the job. Nadja lent us a drill and electric saw so I don’t have to buy new. The toilet and shower drains are very slow and need to be “snaked”, or at least chemically cleaned out (if the blockages are dissolvable). Of course, Tavo said that he could do it but I feel that I have to do some of these things myself or they won’t get done properly. He doesn’t even have a snake so I have no idea how he would attempt to clean the pipes. I am less inclined to follow his ideas because I think that he is creating work for himself that he cannot do correctly. For instance, he had said that he could fix the street valve; instead, he messed up the pipe sleeve and it leaks worse now than before. The utility should be concerned because the loss is on their side of the meter.

Tavo didn’t show up for work today because he is busy at court trying to keep his 18 year old daughter out of jail. She had beaten up a neighbor lady and was thrown in jail. Her two minor sisters were taken in as well because the mother (of the young ones) was not at home. Tavo was able to retrieve the two minors but could not take the 18 year-old home, so he tapped us for $20 in an advance in order to pay her bail. We thought that she should sit in jail to learn her lesson, but Tavo couldn’t let his “precious child” suffer. He did stop by later on to ask for more money for a lawyer but we declined on principal. He had never mentioned two other teenaged daughters before; maybe he has three families. I still have work for him to do and he has 18 hours to work off, so I had better see him soon.

Nadja said that she has a snake that she will lend to us. What doesn’t she have? We were inquiring around about the whereabouts of a laundromat because our few clothes are used up. Again, Nadja took them and will return them washed and dried tomorrow. She sure has been good to us but we don’t want to become dependent on her, so we will lay low after one last trip to get doors and foam panels. If the toilet drain cleans out OK, then we may not need to buy a new toilet, as recommended by Tavo. On top of all this, I have to get working on my resident visa; the visitor visa may have run out and that would complicate things.

We did not want to inconvenience Tavo again, so yesterday we walked over to the internet café and youth hostel to ask if we could buy some shower time. Juan, the manager of the hostel let us use their shower for free. Their water pressure was not much better than ours, and our shower stall was a lot cleaner; so that is why we decided to use our own the next day. In fact, we may try to clean up a shower downstairs, where the water pressure is better, and use that one if its drain is not plugged up. We had mentioned that we were looking for a small two-burner LP gas stove and sure enough, Nadja had one that we could borrow because they only use it for camping and that is a rare occasion. I went to a local Chinese market around the corner (I have four to choose from on that block alone) and purchased a five gallon bottle filled with LP gas for $24 ($4 for the gas—only from now on). Now we can cook, and with the ice chest we can preserve perishables; I’m ready for a better diet.

As slow as the water is, both Sudarshani and I took our first showers today. I first had to use some wire to bust out a little opening in the drain; just enough to handle what little water the shower head put out.