HOWL: JuBu Allen Ginsberg's 100th birthday

(RAT Subterranean News) Allen Ginsberg: Buddhism and Telling the Truth

Beat poet Allen Ginsberg's 100th birthday is being marked by celebrations around the world – an appreciation of his importance to poetry and how his influence on the medium continues.

• Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal: JewBu: Why are so many Jews Buddhist?
• Literary events around the world celebrate the poet Allen Ginsberg's 100th birthday (NPR)
• American Buddhist and Beat Poet Jack Kerouac
• Jack Kerouac's nonfiction book on Buddhism
• AUDIO: Buddhist-Catholic poet Jack Kerouac
• VIDEO: Dharma Bum Temple, San Diego, California

"Howl" by Allen Ginsberg summarized

JuBu Ginsberg's Sunflower Sutra (poem)

(extropyofdays) Allen Ginsberg's modernist poem "Sunflower Sutra"

Nazis invented meth as pharmaceutical Pervitin

"Howl," also known as "Howl for Carl Solomon," is a poem composed by drug-addled Allen Ginsberg (who had shot himself up with methamphetamine or what Hitler's doctor shot up the Fuhrer with under the German pharmaceutical name Pervitin, possibly linked to words like perky and perverted) in 1954–1955.

Poet activist Ginsberg with protestors, Miami

Gay Ginsberg began work on "Howl" in autumn of 1954. He performed it at the Six Gallery reading in San Francisco in Oct. 1955. Fellow poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books was at the performance and published the work in the 1956 collection Howl and Other Poems.

Howl and Other Poems

Upon its release, Ferlinghetti and City Lights Bookstore Manager (Japanese Buddhist) Shigeyoshi Murao were charged with disseminating obscene literature. Both perverts were arrested.

On Oct. 3, 1957, Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that the poem was not obscene [1], and the heroic publishers were hailed as innovative geniuses and brave publishing mavericks for spotting Ginsberg's talent.

Highly controversial at first and for years excluded from the academic canon, "Howl" has gradually come to be regarded as a great work of 20th-century American literature [2].

Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg

(Swingin' Pig) Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg visit Jack Kerouac's grave (1975)

The poem is also closely associated with the group of writers known as the "Beats" or Beat Generation [2,3]. More

• "Sunflower Sutra" (The Poetry Foundation)

The "Sunflower Sutra"

1967 Mantra-Rock Dance Avalon
poster by poet Allen Ginsberg

This poem is an account of a sojourn (trip) with Jack Kerouac in a railroad yard, the discovery of a sunflower covered in dirt and soot from the railroad yard, and the subsequent revelation that this is a metaphor for all humanity: "We are not our skin of grime."

This relates to his vision, an auditory hallucination of poet William Blake reading "Ah, Sunflower": "Blake, my visions." (See also line in Howl: "Blake-light tragedies" and references in other poems).

• Author Emily Sigalow, American JewBu (Princeton U Press)

Manager Shig Murao

The theme of the poem is consistent with Ginsberg's revelation in his original vision of Blake: the revelation that all of humanity is interconnected. (See also the line in "Footnote to Howl": "The world is holy!").

The structure of this poem relates to "Howl" both in its use of the long line and its repetition of the "eyeball kick" (paratactical juxtapositions) at the end. Ginsberg says in relating his thought process after the experiments of "Howl":

"What about a poem with rhythmic buildup power equal to Howl without use of repetitive base to sustain it? The Sunflower Sutra...did that, it surprised me, one long who" [6]. More

Poetry by Charles Harmon "Beat It"

When you're burning on the inside...

American Buddhist Jack Kerouac is recognized for his style, which is stream of consciousness called "spontaneous prose."

Thematically, his work covers topics such as Buddhism, promiscuity, his Catholic spirituality, drugs, jazz, travel, life in NYC, and poverty.

He became an underground celebrity and, with other Beat Poets, a progenitor (precursor) of the hippie movement...

He greatly influenced many 1960s cultural icons, including the Beatles, the Doors, Bob Dylan, and the founder of the Grateful Dead Jerry Garcia. More

BEAT IT

By Charles Harmon (edited by Seven)

Allen Ginsberg with Jack Kerouac

Cruising Hollywood, 1959,

family wagon, parents at the

wheel, little sisters gawking at

Grauman's and the imprints of idols,

feet, hands, endearments

etched in concrete, Walk of Fame,

pointing at the stars set in the sidewalk

between tourist toes and heels

"Look, a Beatnik!" mom directs us

toward a man who sits on the curb,

his sandaled feet dangling in the gutter,

dressed in a dark turtleneck and smart

black beret, whacking a bongo,

singing, billowing smoke

as a young woman sits next to him

with an arm around his waist, cigaretting

smoldering on his lipstick stained cheek,

as tourists drop coins in a cup

"What's a Beatnik?" I ask, but a man

without options, who looks cool doing

nothing

"They like poetry," Mom explains, "and

music, don't care too much about money,

seeking enlightenment or come what may"

Wow, I think, a man after my own heart,

as I'd already memorized dozens of poems

in school and liked to sing, a choirboy

with a radio and TV, eager to learn

the way to enlightenment, something I

read in the World Book of all the Buddha

knew, understanding stated in haiku

like a novel on James Bond in the 6th

grade, when 007 visits a faraway land

to extract useful information from the

Japanese Secret Service, offering

some spy service in return, but JSS

Head Tiger Tanaka teaches 007 how

to compose haiku instead

You only live twice

once when born and once when you 

finally face death

A spy evades capture, and a ten-year-old

is blown away, one avoids execution

the other asks his mom, Is Death here yet?

There is reality and there is fate

and are they not the same? Knowing

that we all know Death, who is yet to

come, I resolved to live, to do something

to make life amount to more than

not yet dying

So I did, I understood what the Buddha

must have meant, only etching out haiku

much later on a cube of rice paper, square

and the size of a cigarette with twisted ends,

discovering Kerouac Jack, who presented it

to an audience American, altering the rules,

setting it free

On the Road, The Dharma Bums, and

artful lines in 5-7-5 or not

all to kindle a sense of the adventure, an

excursion with and without signs

do not enter here

do not look behind

enter over there

Did it rhyme? Did I trek with Scouts

arm myself with the Sierra Club

get away with friends until my 16th

summer on the planet, hitching my sole

and the other on a hike to NorCal to visit

Berkeley and Stanford and grandparents in the Bay,

listening to the Jefferson Airplane and Grace

steering clear of the scene psychedelic, blazing

on a natural high and the books at City Lights

and a man named Ferlinghetti

who gave me a Little Red Book by Mao

a souvenir of what might have been had I

been a Beat, had I penned as artfully as

the JuBu Ginsberg and other rows at City Lights

Rodolfo Ybarra: On the Beat Generation and Bob Kaufman

Snyder, Everson, Rexroth, Jeffers, Welch, McClure

many of whom I met at their readings, discovering

former Zen monastic Leonard Cohen who sat atop

Mount Baldy overlooking L.A., searching for Truth

in nature, peace, love, spirituality, seeking

the mystical in the ordinary, while I climbed mountains

in the vast out of doors, seeking it in science at the UC

with Fritjof Capra's Tao of Physics, exploring the

parallels of East and West on a quest for Truth

ism after ism saying the same thing: we are all

connected as we learn to see

all of it a mystical experience, haiku poetry

• POEM: Me and Jack Kerouac: "Repo Man"

American Buddhist Beat Poet Jack Kerouac

Those dirty hippies on the road took over America with the movie Easy Rider (1969):

What is he holding in his hands? Drink, smoke

What's the big deal about Kerouac (1922-1969) — can he even write? Let's look at an excerpt from On the Road the book that made him famous:

"...and I shambled after as usual as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"

American Buddhist Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) is recognized for his style, which is stream of consciousness called "spontaneous prose."

Sit like the Buddha sat.

Thematically, his work covers topics such as Buddhism, promiscuity, his Catholic spirituality, drugs, jazz, travel, life in New York City, and poverty.

He became an underground celebrity and, with other Beat Poets, a progenitor (precursor) of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward some of its politically radical elements [8]. He has left a lasting legacy; he greatly influenced many 1960s cultural icons, including the Beatles, the Doors, Bob Dylan, and the founder of the Grateful Dead Jerry Garcia.

At age 6, he went to Catholic Confession and was told to say a rosary as punishment, during which he heard God tell him that he had a good soul, that he would suffer in life and die in pain and horror, but that in the end he would receive salvation [22]. His dying brother had a vision of the Virgin Mary (as the nuns fawned over him, convinced that he was a saint). This, combined with a later study of Buddhism and an ongoing commitment to Christianity, solidified the worldview that informed his work [22].

In 1954, Kerouac discovered Dwight Goddard's A Buddhist Bible at the San Jose Library, which marked the beginning of his study of Buddhism.

Between 1955 and 1956, he lived on and off with his sister, whom he called "Nin," and her husband, Paul Blake, at their home outside of Rocky Mount, N.C. ("Testament, Va." in his works) where he meditated on Buddhism and studied it [49].

He wrote Some of the Dharma, an imaginative treatise on Buddhism, while living there [50, 51]. However, Kerouac had earlier taken an interest in Eastern thought.

In 1946, he read Heinrich Zimmer's Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization.

In 1955, Kerouac wrote a biography of Siddhartha Gautama entitled Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha, which remained unpublished during his lifetime, but eventually serialized in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, 1993–95. It was published by Viking in September 2008 [52].

On the Road (50th anniversary)

The success of his book On the Road brought Kerouac instant fame. His celebrity status brought publishers desiring unwanted manuscripts that were previously rejected before its publication [19].

After nine months, he no longer felt safe in public. He was badly beaten by three men outside the San Remo Cafe at 189 Bleecker Street in NYC one night. Neal Cassady, possibly as a result of his new notoriety as the central character of the book, was framed (set up) then arrested for selling marijuana [58, 59].

In response, Kerouac chronicled parts of his own experience with Buddhism, as well as some of his adventures with Gary Snyder and other San Francisco-area poets, in The Dharma Bums, set in California and Washington and published in 1958.

I'm like a rebel without a cause, Daddy-O.

It was written in Orlando between Nov. 26 [60] and Dec. 7, 1957 [61]. To begin writing The Dharma Bums, Kerouac typed onto a ten-foot length of teleprinter paper, to avoid interrupting his flow for paper changes, as he had done six years previously for On the Road [60].

Kerouac was demoralized by criticism of The Dharma Bums from such respected figures in the American field of Buddhism as Zen teachers Ruth Fuller Sasaki and the great Alan Watts.

Jewish Zen monk Leonard Cohen, folk singer and seeker, with his Japanese teacher K.J. Sasaki.

.

He wrote to Snyder, referring to a meeting with Zen teacher and Nobel Peace Prize nominee (1963) D. T. Suzuki, that "even Suzuki was looking at me through slitted eyes as though I was a monstrous imposter."

He passed up the opportunity to reunite with Snyder in California and explained to Philip Whalen, "I'd be ashamed to confront you and Gary now I've become so decadent and drunk and don't give a shit. I'm not a Buddhist any more" [62].

In further reaction to their criticism, he quoted part of Abe Green's café recitation, Thrasonical Yawning in the Abattoir of the Soul: "A gaping, rabid congregation, eager to bathe, are washed over by the Font of Euphoria, and bask like protozoans in the celebrated light."

Kerouac used earnings from On the Road to purchase the first of three homes in Northport, New York — a wood-framed Victorian on Gilbert Street that he shared with his mother, Gabrielle. They moved there in March 1958 and stayed in Northport for six years, moving twice during that time.

Kerouac is generally considered to be the father of the Beat movement, although he actively disliked such labels. Kerouac's method was heavily influenced by the prolific explosion of jazz, especially the Bebop genre established by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and others.

On the Road excerpt (center of Jack Kerouac Alley)

Later, Kerouac included ideas he developed from his Buddhist studies that began with Gary Snyder. He often referred to his style as "spontaneous prose" [78].

Although Kerouac's prose was spontaneous and purportedly without edits, he primarily wrote autobiographical novels (or roman à clef) based upon actual events from his life and the people with whom he interacted.

This approach is reflected also by his plot structure: Kerouac's narratives were not heavily focused on traditional plot structures. Instead, his works often revolved around a series of episodic encounters, road trips, and personal reflections.

The emphasis was on the characters' experiences and the exploration of themes such as freedom, rebellion, and the search for meaning.

Many of his books exemplified this spontaneous approach, including On the Road, Visions of Cody, Visions of Gerard, Big Sur, and The Subterraneans.

The central features of this writing method were the ideas of breath (borrowed from jazz and from Buddhist breathing meditation), improvising words over the inherent structures of mind and language, and limited revision.

Connected with this idea of breath was the elimination of the period (.), substituting instead a long connecting dash (—). As such, the phrases occurring between dashes might resemble improvisational jazz licks.

Kerouac's early writing, particularly his first novel, The Town and the City, was more conventional and bore a strong influence of Thomas Wolfe.

The technique Kerouac developed that later gained him notoriety was heavily influenced by jazz, especially Bebop, and later, by Buddhism, as well as the Joan Anderson letter written by Neal Cassady [91].

Mahayana Buddhist sutra

The Diamond Sutra was the most important Buddhist text for Kerouac and "probably one of the three or four most influential things he ever read" [92].

In 1955, he began an intensive study of this sutra, in a repeating weekly cycle, devoting one day to each of the six spiritual perfections (pāramitās), and the seventh to the concluding passage on meditative stillness or superconsciousness (samādhi).

This was his sole reading on Desolation Peak, and he hoped by this means to condition his mind to emptiness (aware of the universal characteristic that all things are impersonal), and possibly to have a vision [93] like an Indian seer (rishi).

Hooray for influential Irishman James Joyce!

Irish James Joyce (author of Finnegans Wake, 1939) was also a literary influence on Kerouac, who alluded to Joyce more than any other author [94]. Kerouac had high esteem for Joyce, and he often used Joyce's stream-of-consciousness technique [94, 95].

Regarding On the Road, he wrote in a letter to fellow Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, "I can tell you now as I look back on the flood of language. It is like Ulysses and should be treated with the same gravity" [96].

Additionally, Kerouac admired Joyce's experimental use of language, as seen in his novel Visions of Cody, which uses an unconventional narrative as well as a multiplicity of authorial voices [97]. More: Jack Kerouac

• Dhr. Seven, Charles Harmon, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit Kerouac

Hippies on acid: Tim Leary, Allen Ginsberg

Our History, Aug. 23, 2022; Ananda (DBM), Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Rare interview with Timothy Leary and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg about LSD

(Our History) "The World Tomorrow" was a Granada TV documentary series produced for the ITV network.

Woodstock was a wild trip, Man.

In 1967 it was broadcast in a late slot on Friday nights, but in early February a special edition was produced on the subject of the entheogen LSD ("acid") and screened in an earlier peak timeslot midweek.

The special included interviews with the American psychologist and LSD advocate Dr. Timothy Leary (Harvard) and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. This film was first broadcast: Feb. 8, 1967.

Watch more documentaries at Our Life (bit.ly/3A8xRMJ), Our History (bit.ly/3rUpdhL), Our World (bit.ly/3ftuckM), Our Stories (bit.ly/3ynfFyk), and Our Taste (bit.ly/3OZoDcV). Start a journey of discovery with Our History, as it brings eye-opening documentaries and educational programs about our world history. It guides viewers through awe-inspiring events from our past and help give a deeper understanding of current affairs and global events that have shaped the world we live in today. Content distributed by ITV Studios. Subscribe to Our History: bit.ly/3v5mKBG.

Zen and the Art of Occupying

Richard Schiffman (Huff Post), Occupy Zen, Globalrevolution.TV, Wisdom Quarterly

Occupy Wall Street vs. The Media (theinquisitr.com)

Zen is all about being. Being here. Being here now. We'd rather be-here-now. Having missed the Sixties, and having longed for that time our whole livea, it is a tremendous opportunity to sit in bigger more peaceful demonstrations against war, corporate greed, and cultural hypocrisy. That's all ww need do to be true to ourselves as practitioners of Zen. Sit. Schiffman gets it:

As a card carrying member of the Woodstock generation, it was like falling into a time warp: hundreds milling around armed with home made placards, the throb of African drums, young, half naked bodies sprawled on tarps, a teach-in under a tent, strains of Woody Guthrie.

For a veteran of the 1960s, it was deja vu all over again -- with one key difference -- computer banks and hand held cameras live-streaming the event, and emails of support flashing on large screens from similar encampments as far afield as Seattle, Berlin, and Buenos Aires.

• Maybe it will be televised (Globalrevolution.TV)
• Tibet is still a hidden kingdom in the Internet Age

At the entrance to the square, a circle of [demonstrators] was meditating cross-legged around a makeshift altar replete with didgeridoos and crystal skulls -- not to levitate the Pentagon, but to move some equally implacable edifices, the fortress-like financial institutions which ring Zuccotti Park.

Instead of a black bearded and ascetic Allen Ginsburg, the baseball-capped Russell Simmons was exhorting demonstrators to take back their government and their own increasingly imperiled futures. More

(All tees are ironic of course)

"American Veda" -- East comes West

Wisdom Quarterly (REPORT) Jan. 7, 2011

Should every American go to India? There's no need; India already came to America.

Last night author Philip Goldberg visited Pasadena -- the "Benares of America," as the founder of the Self Realization Fellowship, Paramahansa Yogananda, used to call it. Wisdom Quarterly was there to interview him and hear him speak.

In his new book American Veda, Goldberg outlines the rise of India's massive influence on America, which goes far beyond yoga. It goes far deeper than anyone knows -- starting with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau, Vivekananda, JD Salinger, the Beatles, and many Unitarian-Christian founders and gurus. (It actually started with Hindu Jesus).

Asked about the influence of Buddhism, Goldberg was emphatic that those who were studying with Indian gurus were simultaneously studying Zen and other forms of Buddhism being introduced to America at the same time. He added that if he had included what was going on with Buddhism, it would have resulted in a 1,000-page book.

"Spiritual not Religious" is the fastest growing category in US according to the author (WQ)

American Veda at Loyola Marymount Univ. Los Angeles
(LMU Extension) For over 200 years, India’s spiritual heritage has been transforming the way we in the West understand religion and practice spirituality. This workshop will illuminate that remarkable history. The presentation will reveal the many streams through which the great East-to-West transmission has impacted our lives.

We’ll meet the leading gurus and yoga masters who came here. Moreover, we'll follow the Western thinkers, artists, and scientists who became transmitters themselves, often in subtle and surprising ways.

Come away with a deeper understanding of how we’ve arrived at this moment in our spiritual history, and realize how we have all touched by India more than anyone imagined. Experience some of the yogic practices introduced by Indian teachers with special guest instruction by senior Iyengar Yoga teacher Lisa Walford and kirtan artist Terra Gold, who will lead the class in chanting.

• Jan. 15, 2011, Sat. 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
• University Hall 1859, 1 LMU Drive, L.A. 90045
• Peggy Dobreer: (310) 338-1971
• Registration: extension.lmu.edu
• The Center for Religion & Spirituality

FULL TITLE: American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation, How Indian Spirituality Changed the West

Philip Goldberg articles (Huffington Post)

• Are Eastern religions more science-friendly?
• 3 gurus who changed the face of spirituality in the West
• How Hinduism gave us a different kind of Christianity

Ancient Maya: First American Buddhists

BOOK: How the Swans Came to the Lake:
A Narrative History of Buddhism in America

(Shambhala Publications, 492 pp., 1986)

WISDOM-BOOKS.COM SYNOPSIS: Far more than a history of Buddhism's arrival and growth in America -- a development which led to the sudden rise of the ancient Mayan culture -- this highly readable account is packed full of interesting stories and anecdotes, and includes a wealth of material on the spread of Buddhism to the West from the time of Alexander the Great onwards.

This book gives the definitive treatment to the impact Buddhism has had on American thought, and it is a goldmine of information on early Buddhism in Europe. It covers the early Western Buddhist pioneers, plus those who profoundly influenced and paved the way for its appearance in the West.

Included are: the Greeks in India, King Ashoka; the Gnostics; Sir William Jones and the Royal Asiatic Society; Emerson and Thoreau; Whitman and Walden; Edwin Arnold; Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society; the Chinese and Japanese immigrant communities in the States; the Pali Text Society; the World Parliament of Religions; D T Suzuki; Sokei-an; Nyogen Suzuki; Alan Watts; Allen Ginsberg, Kerouac and the Beat Poets; Shunryo Suzuki; Philip Kapleau; Chogyam Trungpa; Tarthang Tulku; Geshe Wangyal; Thomas Merton; Jack Kornfield; Joseph Goldstein and Thich Nhat Hanh; and many others.

"Heroic in scope and of undeniable importance" -- L.A. Times.

iRead excerpts on Amazon