Buddhism and the Poetry of Jack Kerouac
For we all go back where we came from,
God’s Lit Brain, his Transcendent Eye of Wisdom
And there’s your bloody circle called Samsara by the ignorant
Buddhists, who will still be funny Masters up there, bless em.
Jack Kerouac
-from Heaven
Jack Kerouac spent his creative years writing in a prosperous post world war II America. He was in many ways a very patriotic person who had no problem making known his love for his country , particularly within his literature. It was, quite literally, America that he was in love with. Taking cues from writers such as Whitman, he embraced the American landscape as a field for spiritual cultivation. Kerouac was indeed a writer with spiritual preoccupations. He saw himself as partaking in a lifelong journey through the America that was waiting to reveal itself and, consequently, himself. Also, of course, considering himself a serious writer, he would chronicle this spiritual expedition throughout a series of novels that together would be called “The Duluoz Legend.'; This was the name Kerouac had intended the novels to take on when he would assemble them in chronological order before he died. Unfortunately he died earlier than he expected and was unable to formally assemble them. However, the legend remains.
Kerouac undoubtedly made his mark on the literary world with his prose. And his prose proves itself to be a very good example of his writing as spiritual commentary. Kerouac, while wandering the country in freight cars and the backs of pick-up trucks, saw himself as a modern day sage or bodhisatva, discovering the essence of “the void'; and using his literature as a record of these discoveries. His body of work is a wonderful example of integrating Buddhism into the daily life and thought of a man living in a western culture. Kerouac could not help but find religion in every aspect of his waking day. Every thing or person he encountered or interacted with was a part of the “essence of isness.';
Within the Kerouacian canon there is, besides his prose, another shining example of Kerouac’s literary translation of the spirituality of living. Throughout his career Kerouac wrote several volumes of poetry, all of which deal with using the poetic medium to express ...
... middle of paper ...
...ters as in Japanese called for this strict adherence to be dropped. In being that Haiku is Japanese in origin, it is reflected in Kerouac’s attempts that he was trying to see poetry from a Zen perspective. A few such attempts are as follows.
Dusk: the bird on the fence a contemporary of mine
Enlightenment is: do what you want eat what there is
The moon, the falling star-
Look elsewhere
Jack Kerouac was a writer with spiritual preoccupations. He allowed religion to be what it is, an integral part of everything one does, including writing. Just as a Buddhist, Jack saw life as a miracle. This was a miracle, though, that could be understood. However, from the perspective of a westerner it is believed that only God can understand miracles. Kerouac, seeing things from the perspective of the “innumerable diamond essences'; would have no problem with this argument. He would then, through his poetry and prose, explain us all to be God. He would open his Buddhist eyes to the world and record his meditations. Life was a miracle as well as art to Kerouac. Buddhism showed this to Kerouac, and Kerouac showed this to the western world.
In The Dharma Bums, Kerouac strengthens his argument for the Zen ideal of poverty and freedom by this criticism of the conformity practiced by the middle-class:
Tallman, Warren. "Kerouac's Sound." Casebook on the Beat. Thomas Parkinson, ed. New York: Thomas Y. Cromwell Company, 1961. 220-221.
Focusing often on the Zen Buddhist beliefs of Ray, Kerouac’s character in The Dharma Bums, and Japhy, Ray’s best friend and spiritual mentor, the book often loses itself in pondering the meanings of life. Kerouac not only broaches the Zen Buddhist beliefs on the various issues, but also touches on how Christians, Taoists, and Muslims see the same issues. All this is affected in the dry, down to earth style of writing Kerouac became famous for.
In Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road, the narrator, Sal Paradise offers up to us what seems to be a very optimistic view on life. He is forever singing the praises of how wonderful his adventures will be and his high expectations for the future. To Sal, the novel is defined by youthful exuberance and unabashed optimism for the new experiences that he sets out to find. A deeper look into the novel, as well as a look at some of the critics who have written on it, reveals a much darker side, a more pessimistic and sad aspect that Sal simply fails to realize until the very close of the action. Whether Sal is hopped up on the optimism of jazz music, secure in his belief that he is off to find ‘IT,’ or just excited about the promises of a night out in a new city, he is consistently selling the reader on the positive nature of the situations. To be more honest though, On the Road is a novel in which Sal, and the people with whom he surrounds himself, find themselves steeped into a near constant cycle of enthusiastic optimism for the future, which is then followed by a disparaging pessimism for the situation’s reality. While Sal might note that he desires the freedom and happiness of the open road, Ann Douglas says that "this is the saddest book that I’ve ever read" (Douglas, 9). While Sal attempts to show a exuberant and triumphant story of youthful optimism, critics and the actual events of the novel alike seem to point towards the fact that this same optimism turns the novel into a pessimistic story showing the actualities of life.
In the nineteenth century there are several schools of thought that are emerging, struggling to be recognized. Of these schools there are transcendentalists. A transcendentalist that can be pointed out as a great author is named Ralph Waldo Emerson. In the time period of the 1840’s Emerson is accredited with the Transcendental movement. Emerson is acknowledged as “one of the most influential figures of the nineteenth century” (274). Emerson is an American essayist and poet. He published numerous pieces of work which portions of them were at a moment in time when he was going through a great deal of pain. Most critics refer to Ralph Waldo Emerson as one of the most significant American writers of the nineteenth century, but are having difficulty deciphering which one of his creations earn the most interest. As time goes by, he continues to write incredible literary collections that are well recognized by his contemporaries. All of these conceptions have exposed an intellect of great uniqueness. They were critiqued by several authors that provided insight to the meaning behind the words. Emerson’s most talked about and most critiqued works include Nature, The American Scholar and The Divinity School of Address.
Kerouac guides the reader to the understanding that "IT" can be different for everyone. Sal began his search for "IT" because he was restless in ...
When you read his works, you think to yourself “He must have been in a really dark place in his life in to have written this”, well he was. Instead of turning all of these horrific moments into negatives, he turned them into positives with poems and short stories. With his use of advanced vocabulary and detail you have to be somewhat mature and dig deep to uncover the true meanings and understand it completely. It challenges you to push yourself into more in depth things. As you read the poems s...
While reading early Japanese literature, it is apparent that poetry embedded within the prose is a significant part of the overall experience of the storylines. There are times at which, in the case of Ise Monogatari, it is apparent that the story, written in prose, is not the main focus of the entry. The poetry is a delicate form of self-expression that was the only form of expression in the time before fiction and journal entries. “The seeds of Japanese poetry lie in the human heart and grow into leaves of ten thousand words. Many things happen to the people of this world, and all they think and feel is given expression in description of things they see and hear. […] It is poetry which, without effort, moves heaven and earth, stirs the feelings of the invisible gods and spirits, smooths the relations of men and women, and calms the hearts of fierce warriors” (Rodd 35) The “leaves of ten thousand words” is in reference to the literal meaning of “Man'yōshū”, a very famous, large compilation of Japanese poems that has influenced many things following it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." (Brainy Quote). Emerson was one of the greatest poets of all time. Ralph Waldo Emerson is considered an important poet because of his themes of Transcendentalism. "Self-Reliance", "The Problem" and "Hymn" were some of Emerson's great works on Transcendentalism.
288-293. ed. a. Alexander Bloom and Wini Breines. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Kerouac, Jack.
Hipkiss, Robert A. Jack Kerouac: Prophet of the New Romanticism. Lawrence: Regents P of Kansas, 1976.
Analysis of Buddhism Plain and Simple by Steve Hagen The book Buddhism Plain and Simple, by Steve Hagen, caught my attention and became more interesting to me than I thought. I have always heard of the religion Buddhism, but I never knew what it was all about. I never thought that Buddhism was as huge as it is. I knew that it existed in other countries, but I never knew what exact countries. Many of the views in this book surprised me and the book taught me a lot about morals and better ways to live your life.
Siddhartha Gautama is famously known as Gautama Buddha and was the founder of the idea of Buddhism. The Buddha was known to possess supernatural powers and abilities. He was born in the holy land of Nepal and his journey began in India when he decided to travel and teach himself about life. In the midst of his journey, he discovered Buddhism after he experienced a profound realization of the nature of life, death and existence. Buddhism became a religion based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama and since then Buddhism has been popular throughout many civilizations. Buddhism is now one of the most ancient religions in the world, where people follow Buddha, which stand for “awakened one,” and Buddhism which has gained popularity because of the teachings of the Buddha.
In Jack Kerouac’s ‘On The Road’, the protagonists embark upon a long, arduous quest for human identity. Their aim is to uncover who they truly are, where they fit in the ‘scheme of things’ and what the meaning of life is. They articulate this desire by speaking, during the novel, of the search for ‘IT’, ‘IT’ being human identity. This ‘IT’ is an intangible thing; something that holds a different meaning for every individual. It encompasses all the things humans yearn for – life answers, the meaning of the universe, happiness, enlightenment, self-fulfilment, ‘beatification’ (as articulated by Kerouac). ‘On the Road’ is the story of a desperate search for ‘IT’, in which the protagonists finally come to realise that ‘IT’ is unattainable and time cannot be defied.
The beauty of American literature extended beyond borders by the immersion of the Transcendentalism movement in the eighteenth century. Beginning its formation of the American intellect through a circle of friends in a modest way, the American transcendental movement drew upon the philosophies and religions of the world to bring into play their ideas of the importance of the self in spiritual life. With the leadership for the rethinking of the American Spirituality, Ralph Waldo Emerson was at the front of the movement. As one of the most influential literary figures of the nineteenth century, Emerson shaped the American philosophy which embraces optimism, individuality, and mysticism (“Emerson”).