Summary
Jack Kerouac: Tramps of Dharma
»In the mysterious and ancient bliss of the Buddha fields, I realized that I could do whatever I wanted... that I could go wherever I wanted, find perfect solitude and gaze into the perfect emptiness of my own mind, free myself from everyone and any ideas, enjoy the emptiness... Because, everything is possible. I am God, I am Buddha, I am the imperfect Ray Smith, I am all these at the same time, I am empty space, I represent all things. I have all the time in the world and in everyone's life, and I do what needs to be done, I do what has already been done, I do a timeless doing that is perfectly immeasurable..."
So thinks Ray Smith, as Jack Kerouac called himself in the novel Dharma Tramp, "let's say" the most important beat writer. Adhering to his basic rule that everything must happen spontaneously and inspired, because "it's really hard if you have to live life", the author here describes the events that really happened: from one literary evening, to climbing the Matterhorn, going home for Christmas, seeing off his friend, also a beatnik, Gary Snyder, on a trip to Japan and a two-month stay on Desolation Peak, where he worked as a fire watcher. The title of this inspiring novel includes the Zen-Buddhist term dharma, which means "the universal truth revealed by the Buddha", by which Kerouac emphasizes the universality of his religious experience. And dharma vagabonds, on the other hand, are good-natured wanderers with knapsacks on their backs, who do not want to comply with the demands of the general social interest, to be slaves to the work system, production and consumption; they climb the mountains to meditate there, wander through nature to feel the call of the wild, to discover rapture under the stars... Kerouac himself considered himself a hardened dharma vagabond: "I knew I was the worst vagabond in the world. The diamond light sparkled in my eyes... as well as the vision of eternal freedom for everyone and all living creatures."
Darma's Tramps and On the Road are Jack Kerouac's most famous books, and apart from them, we are happy to point out, the Colorful Shop also published Tristessa and Underground.
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