Year

2005

Text

Type

Publication

Contributors (1)

Mentioned People (1)

Subjects

Chronology Entries (2)

#	Year	Text	Linked Data
1	1956	Kerouac, Jack. Some of the dharma [ID D34296]. Sekundärliteratur : Sarah Haynes : Kerouac was influenced both by Buddhist texts and by practicing North American Buddhists whom he encountered in his travels. With the publication of Scripture his fascination with Buddhism became known to the world. Dharma has allowed readers and scholars alike to delve into the realsm of his American Buddhism, a world constructed in a formless void of prose, poetry, drawings and one-liners. The first of Kerouac's Buddhist texts, Some of the dharma, exemplified what came to be recognized as his unique style of writing. The spontaneous prose that became Kerouac's hallmark was simply one of the unconventional techniques he employed in the writing of Dharma. The presentation of this text was unconventional for its time, as well as an innovation for the author. The presentation was aesthetically different, the form, organization of materials and ideas from most of the works of the post-war era. A central preoccupation is the Buddhist notion of impermanence and how everything is formless. Technically and literally, this text has form and a definite structure ; however, in light of the teachings expounded by Kerouac's Buddha nature and written while engaged in daily dhyana, it indeed does not have a clear form, only existing as an arbitrary relative condition. His enthusiastic interest in Buddhism led to the writing, but in the content of the material one can also see that many other factors were influential in its completion. While the main focus of Dharma was the teachings of the Buddha, it was through this content that Kerouac revealed much about his own life. He begins Book one with basics, definitions of fundamental concepts such as nirvana, karma, dharma and kama, and a bibliography for beginning Buddhists. His main focus came to rest mostly on the notion of suffering and its causes. On the one hand he outlined a strenuous regime of 'modified ascetic life', while on the other he could not resist the temptations of friends, drugs, alcohol and women, all of which brought him tremendous suffering. Kerouac resolved to lead a monastic life ; however, this resolution, written relatively early in the text, was broken short eight days later.	Person: Kerouac, Jack
2	1960	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.	Person: Kerouac, Jack

Cited by (1)

#	Year	Bibliographical Data	Type / Abbreviation	Linked Data
1	2000-	Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich	Organisation / AOI	Cited by: Huppertz, Josefine ; Köster, Hermann. Kleine China-Beiträge. (St. Augustin : Selbstverlag, 1979). [Hermann Köster zum 75. Geburtstag]. [Enthält : Ostasieneise von Wilhelm Schmidt 1935 von Josefine Huppertz ; Konfuzianismus von Xunzi von Hermann Köster]. (Huppe1, Published)