Forgiving the Unforgivable
I was filled with pain and hate over a brutal crime. My path to freedom began with meditation, and ended at a Texas prison
BY TOM HUDGENS, episode 1 (of 5) — Thirty years ago a man named John Black* raped and murdered my sister. In May, I visited him in prison and told him that I forgave him.
The realization that I could actually do such a thing came unbidden. It wasn’t something I struggled to attain. I just looked one day and there it was: my own voice saying, “You can forgive him.” That voice spoke to me often. Eventually, I acted upon it.
Three years ago, after a miserable year in a career that I loved in theory but not in practice, I was struck with the idea of attending a meditation retreat. I typed “silent meditation retreat” into a search engine, and discovered Spirit Rock Meditation Center, located on 400 acres in Marin County, California.
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29. Oct, 2008 
















