Jack Kerouac and Buddhism at Elliott Bay Book Company
Join CPL friends and Beat Generation scholars Jim Jones and Charles Shuttleworth at Elliott Bay Book Company for a discussion on The Buddhist Years: Collected Writings, a volume of “previously unpublished writings from the archives reflecting Jack Kerouac’s Buddhist thinking.”
From the Elliott Bay Book Company website:
From a young age Kerouac was a spiritual thinker and questioner, and he always considered himself a spiritual writer. Buddhism gave more meaning to Jack’s work as a writer: he was working not for personal accomplishment and glory but for human betterment. And Buddhism justified his lifestyle: with its vision of the material world as empty and illusory, he was free to do what he wanted.
This collection shows Jack at his earnest, soulful best. The writing is consistently and wonderfully Kerouacian: it is honest, reflective, heartfelt, and revealing, with great characterizations amid his self-exploration as he wrestles with his consciousness, desperate for belief.
The reading will take place on July 10, 2025 at 7 P.M. PDT at 1521 10th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122! RSVP HERE.
(Header image from Elliott Bay Book Company Eventbrite Listing)
“And Buddhism justified his lifestyle: with its vision of the material world as empty and illusory, he was free to do what he wanted.”
But I must ask, how well did Kerouac really understand emptiness?
“Emptiness” is a poor translation of Sunyata, which does not mean empty as a total negative of everything, it means rather “empty of inherent existence”, in other words nothing exists alone but is held in total interdependence with everything else. What is an illusion is the idea that anything exists alone. On the atomic scale all atoms interpenetrate and move from form to form, so there is a ever flowing connection between what on the human scale we perceive as individual beings or objects. Buddhism teaches compassion for all sentient beings because they are aware and feel their own lives. It also teaches to care for the world around us, because it is us and we are it. So to mistreat oneself or others is a poor understanding of the teachings.
I met Kerouac at Jackson Pollock’s funeral in 1956 and I met Ginsberg and Corso off and on for some years from New York, San Francisco, New Mexico etc. Our paths intersected. I also read all their publications as they came out. Of course I loved them all and their mad adventures, but looking back I don’t think they embodied Buddhist teachings very well. Too many unhappy and reckless drugs and not enough joy. The Hippies were better at joy than the Beats.
Denise Lassaw
Bellingham, Wa
Thanks for this testimony Denise. I guess the short version is that you will not be going to Elliott Bay Book Company that evening?