Saint Badass: Personal Transcendence in Tucker Max Hell

My life was the result of my crazy childhood. With thesewords began an extraordinary correspondence, between Roy Tester, adouble-murderer serving a life sentence in the notorious Arkansasprison, Tucker Maximum Security Prison, and Doug Carnine, a meditationteacher and lay Buddhist minister on the other side of the country. Inthe letters that followed -- more than 700 over seven years -- these two men, along with three other prisoners at Tucker Max, developed aprofound spiritual partnership that changed all of their lives.Saint Badass: Personal Transcendence in Tucker Max Helltells the inspiring story of these unlikely friends in their own words, andfollows their journey as they rediscover their humanity in one of themost inhuman places on Earth.

Buddhist Synopsis:
Saint Badass: Personal Transcendence in Tucker Max Hell is a memoir about bringing heaven down to hell.Drawing on an exchange of letters, Doug Carnine tells the story of hispartnership with three murderers and an alleged rapist, about Buddhismand its practices of mindfulness and kindness, and how by adopting these practices, the prisoners transformed their lives.
Allfour prisoners were housed in Tucker, Arkansas, at the notoriousmaximum-security prison featured in the Robert Redford movie Brubaker.In their letters, to Carnine, and sometimes to one another, theprisoners describe their unrelentingly abusive childhoods, their livesof violence and crime, their eventual submission to prison life, andtheir growing commitments to meditation and kindness. A suspenseful andmoving drama unfolds as these prisoners join in partnership andexperience glimpses of internal freedom. Each prisoner faces new crisesin prison, including disabling illness, a brain tumor, a prison gangattack, family betrayal, medical abuse and harsh punishments for mildoffenses. Yet through mindfulness and the blessings of kindness, eachprisoner in his own way overcomes his crisis. The destructive forces ofprison and the horror of the men's upbringings provide a dramaticcontrast to their incongruously continuous acts of kindness and growingconcern for the well-being of others.The journey chronicledin this book calls into question stereotypes about marginalized membersof society and inspires hope for change. This story is abouttransformation -- that of the prisoners, and of the author, as he shares personal difficulties and learns from the courage and commitment of his prison friends.

View the book trailer here:youtu.be/TDUK_xepme4