Autodidactic v. State Sponsored Education

Last year, CDCR (CA Dept. of Corrections) added eTablets to the list of appliances inmates are allowed to purchase. One tablet, U-Tab7, comes with 32 GB of memory that can be used for ebooks. As a member of both the National Lawyers Guild and the SGI Buddhist Org., my mission has been to acquire knowledge in both these fields, to help myself and others. With this incentive, I put in a request to purchase my own tablet in order to access the same amount of religious/legal ebooks as the next inmate.

Despite this, at the second (of three) level of the institutional review, I was denied this "accommodation," for: "The Appellant [me] is NOT enrolled in the VEP [Voluntary Education Program] and cannot be issued NOR can he purchase an eTablet/reader." (Log# SQ-8-16-00239; Memo, 3/7/16). This is the exact underinclusiveness the Supreme Court, last year, UNANIMOUSLY, ruled as UNCONSTITUTIONAL under RLUIPA (Holt v. Hobbs, 574 U.S. (2015)). Plus, Congress mandated that a state CANNOT place its policy over a PROTECTED RELIGIOUS RIGHT without a compelling reason. None was given here. Religious study IS protected as a "religious exercise" (Holt v. supra; 42 USCS Section 2000cc-3(g)).

For years, I have taught myself using a curriculum from what we call "Soka (Value-Creating) University." This humane learning requires one to dig and dig into the great minds of the past, as well as those of the present. In 2014, I wrote a piece for my district emphasizing the phenomenal transformational effect that this university has placed in my life. The following is a revision:

Soka (Value-Creating) University

All past revolutions of note had one thing in common: an organ and/or a college of some type.

Our revolution, entitled a human revolution, is a process of SELF-TRANSFORMATION where one uses Buddhist practices and knowledge as a way to break through our "lesser selves," and reveal our "greater selves."

Being in prison and not being able to attend regular study meetings on the streets, our organs and other publications have been indispensable for my own human revolution. Actually, the epiphany, that I can acquire a Soka eduction anywhere, came to me while reading the following excerpt from the May 29, 2010 issue of our World Tribune (W.T.) organ:

I know that you are forced to practice your faith under very trying circumstances. In many cases, you're separated from all other members. But a true champion is able to stand up alone. Please do that, developing yourselves, and winning the respect and trust of all, offering proof of your personal victory WHERE YOU ARE.
(Pres. Ikeda's message to the High Seas Group, p.F)

Mining for "moments of clarity" like this is what makes publications invaluable tools for inner-transformation. The purpose of any revolution's organs/publications is to disseminate key knowledge, encouragement, and vital information to its supporters and sympathizers, regardless of their location.

This segues into the college aspect. Our university is not the traditional state-sanctioned type that San Quentin has privileged, but the more humane kind set up by the people, for the enlightenment of the people. Not unlike the ones created by Occupy Wall St. or, more specifically, the Freedom Schools founded by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) of the '60s, whose objective was:

Not to cram a prescribed amount of factual material into young minds, but to give them that first look into new worlds which would, someday if not immediately, lead them to books and people not found in their everyday lives.... (Zinn, p. 248).

These "new worlds" allow us to envision one beyond one controlled by state dogma. Every time one of our publications mentions an eminent thinker, it inspires me to learn even more about them. As a result, a deeper understanding surfaces regarding WHY this particular person was chosen for this lesson, and so on.

For instance, on June 20, 2014, World Tribune (p.5), sensei quoted one of my favorite such personas, Sir Francis Bacon. This guy was so enlightened and ahead of his time that the Royal Society named him their role model and inspiration. Some credit him as being the ghostwriter for Shakespeare's works (the "Baconian Theory"), and others claim that his last opus, "The New Atlantis", is the real blueprint used by the American founders when forming this country. After going on to read it myself, I can definitely see a striking resemblance.

The New Atlantis was so clouded in esotericism to comprehend it, having the ability to cross reference it with other books was essential. By doing so, I learned the possible intent behind sensei exposing us to this literary lion.

Bacon's Atlantis is governed by studious ambassadors that closely resemble Buddhas and bodhisattvas. They do not trade in natural resources, only in knowledge. For this reason, Bacon named them Merchants of Light. Their "order, or society, is sometimes called... the college of the six days' work... [whose] objective was to find the 'the true nature of all things'" (Bacon, p. 308). In Buddhism, we have a similar aspiration: to perceive the true nature of all phenomena" (Skt. Tathata; Jpn shinnyo).

This goal requires one to use the world's knowledge as our personal "religious library." A fact which makes 32 GB of ebooks inestimable to this aim. Lastly, just because a state doesn't sanction this university doesn't preclude it from being one.

"The Soka Gakkai is a university without a campus. You are all students of the university of Buddhism. That is the SGI, dedicating yourselves to creating peace and happiness (SGI Pres. Ikeda, quoting second Pres. Toda; W.T., May 11, 2012, p.3)."

On that note, I will continue fighting this until CDCR decides to share this ray of Prometheus's light with us all!
*The U-Tab7 has a selection of more than a million books to choose from (S.Q. News, January 2016, p.17, [www.sanqueinnews.com]).

References:
Bacon, Francis. (1624) The New Atlantis (Kessinger Legacy Reprits)
Zinn, Howard. (2002) SNCC: The New Abolitionists (South End Press)