China and the West

Kerouac, Jack. The scripture of the golden eternity [ID D34297].
Sekundärliteratur :
Sarah Haynes : The scripture is a remarkable Buddhis sutra that reveals aspects of different traditions. What we see in the title is the Christian influence that remained with Kerouac even when he was in the process of writing a 'traditional' Buddhist text.
Kerouac loaded the short scriptures with haikus, Zen koans, poetry, prose and meditations that reflected his inner search for enlightenment and outward quest for the meaning of the universe.
He focused the material of his sutra around the Buddhist notion of emptiness and the nature of form as being consistent with concepts of emptiness. While he offered a meditation of emptiness and form, it is important to note that he's emphasis was on the golden eternity. The manner in which Kerouac presented his golden eternity used the form of Buddhist sutras ; he employed the Zen practice of koans. This was a departure for him since at this point in his life he was not as interested in Zen Buddhism as he was with other Mahayana schools. He saw Mahayana as the purer form of Buddhism, writing that 'Mahayana is the essence of reality'. Kerouac's original influence was that of the Indian Mahayana Buddhism, and, as is evident, his interest in Zen was limited, but at the same time he had respect for D.T. Suzuki. The blissful and 'golden' tone of Scripture is an important aspect of his sutra because it could be said to be a direct reflection of his experience of awakening.
The knowledge that Kerouac reaped from his enlightenment experience was that which he wrote as the first teaching of the golden eternity. In Scripture he continued to focus on the Buddhist view regarding emptiness, nothingness and arbitrary conceptions.