Getting Down with the Dharma

Om. Ohm. Aum. In any spelling of the sound ‘Om’, the same deep, transcendent meaning and resonance remains. Some say the Om was the first sound uttered in the creation of the universe – the reverberating essence of the Big Bang or the Divine Creation. Throughout the East, in China, India, Japan, Vietnam, Tibet, Burma, and so on, Buddhist monks of countless monasteries pronounce the Om together in powerful meditation. At home, I pronounce the Om with my roommates in spontaneous moments of beautiful unity. Outside of home, I’m an urban satellite wandering around, following the path of the Dharma Bum. In The Dharma Bums, author Jack Kerouac elicits the importance of :
“See[ing] the whole thing is a world full of rucksack wanderers, Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming… wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of ‘em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures…” (Kerouac, 97).

 

Check out TheDharmaBums.org, a Buddhist American organization bent on fulfilling the duties of Dharma Bums as “Disciples of the Buddha, Practitioners of the Dharma, and Caretakers of the Sangha.” But one wonders – what does is matter that people call themselves Dharma Bums?

In America, Buddhism is on the rise, and has been for the last 100 years. Like Hinduism, the world’s 3^rd largest and longest-enduring school(s) of belief, Buddhism is considered a religion, a philosophy, and a way of living. Indeed, Buddhism is an ancient branch of Hinduism founded around 500 B.C.E. by an Indian prince, Siddhartha Gautama, later known to be the first incarnation of Buddha (Molloy, p.54). As such an open system of belief, Buddhism has proliferated worldwide and innumerable schools of thought have risen in its wake.  In fact, famous ‘Beat Generation’ author, Jack Kerouac, establishes his own identification of American Buddhism in his stylized 1958 autobiographical work: The Dharma Bums. After experiencing the poetic joy of this novel, my own Buddhist belief transformed, and I have come to know myself as a Dharma Bum at heart. Through my experience I’ve seen that being a Dharma Bum provides immense benefit to the self and the surrounding world.

However, with all this dreamy Buddhism terminology aside, one wonders what the heck it even means to be a Dharma Bum! When I first encountered the term, I imagined a smelly drifter mumbling about juju beads and lightning bolts, making the best of each day and always giving his or her thoughts to the sky. Coincidently, this image really is not far from the truth. Save the requirement for odor and add in a few key concepts and you’ve got yourself a Bum of the Dharma. In his novel, Kerouac deliberately establishes Dharma Bums to be Bodhisattvas, an old Buddhist term that Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Phillip Novak, defines as “a person who, out of compassion, renounces his or her entry into nirvana… to undertake [the] infinite work of saving all sentient beings” (Novak, Chapt 2, p.80). Fundamentally, the Bodhisattvas believe in using their knowledge to assist in the education and ‘awakening’ of others. This goal exemplifies the concept of Dharma, which is the fulfilling of one’s dynamic life purpose or duty. Thus, the Dharma Bum is no useless recluse, trippy hippy, or fragrant vagrant; rather, the way of the Dharma Bum is that of equality, learning, and peace. Ultimately, by embracing ideas of “Many Paths, One Truth” and the skepticism of Zen Buddhism, Dharma Bums practice one of the most inclusive and compassionate forms of Buddhism.

The term “Many Paths, One Truth” is commonly established as a unifying principle in the thousands of Buddhist schools of thought. It describes the phenomenon that, though people worldwide hold different views, we are all aiming toward the same essential divine-goodness. This perspective in particular drew me towards Hinduism as a young person, as I spent much time fearing that I might make the wrong choice in religion and be punished for my ignorance. In contemplation, Kerouac asserts: “What’s wrong with Jesus? Didn’t Jesus speak of Heaven? Isn’t Heaven Buddha’s nirvana?” even citing Shakespeare: “Words, words, what’s in a word? Nirvana by any other name…” (Kerouac, 114). By linking Heaven and nirvana, Kerouac lays-out the simple truth that the eternal essence of bliss present in the holiest concepts of Christianity and Buddhism is not coincidence. In this view, Heaven and nirvana are one in the same, simply seen from different perspectives, just like the connection between praying and meditating. This unifying lesson, then, becomes one of the main inspirations for Dharma Bums to connect with people of various faiths, bringing them together without the need to renounce one’s tradition or values.
In a world so plagued by spiteful dualism, I can imagine no nobler a goal.

One of the defining, and often surprising qualities of Buddhism, especially American Buddhism, is its skepticism, namely the use of science to prove/disprove religious assertions. With reincarnation, for instance, Buddhists believe that consciousness, like energy, is not created or destroyed, only transformed and transmigrated, thus leading to the transferring of consciousness through the soul into new bodies. One Buddhist goes as far as to reveal that if a fact is “definitely proven through scientific investigation” we must accept it, even if it “is incompatible with Buddhist theory.” Perhaps this attitude would not hold true in all of Buddhism, that is, if it weren’t a direct quote from the 14^th Dalai Lama (a title superseded only by Buddha himself). For Buddhism, this means that there is no quarrel between even opposite schools of belief, closing the gap of hatred seen across a span of world religions.

In supreme consideration, I find the way of the Dharma Bum to be one of the greatest routes toward simultaneously healing the injustices of religion and science (Crusades and Atom Bombs). By emphasizing wide-lens acceptance filtered by skepticism, Dharma Bums connect with the different people around them without judgment, offering wisdom and care to the fundamentally good people of the world, regardless of their traditions or culture.

Works Cited

• Kerouac, Jack. The Dharma Bums. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. Print.
• Novak, Phillip. The World’s Wisdom: Sacred texts of the World’s Religions. San
  Francisco, Calif.: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994. Print.
• “Vision.” International Bodhisattva Sangha. p., n.d. Web 19 Sept. 2014.
  <http://www.thedharmabums.org/>.
• Image – “OM Store – Yoga Class.” Hatha Yoga Classes. p, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2014.       <http://www.omcostarica.com/hatha_yoga>.

Dharma Bum – Woo to the Wind!

Very much disorganized at this point in time! I’ve got the info floating around and specific citations to come! Thank you (everyone) for your patience! ^^

Intro (personal info + hook)

I’ve taken a serious look at life systems and religions with family, friends, coworkers, and even a considerable number of complete strangers. At the end of the day, people will believe what they will. Whether they’re invested in logically-structured science, faith-empowered religion, far-reaching philosophies, or any interesting combination of these and other perspectives/traditions, people will find their significance one way or another.

In my senior year of high school two years ago, I found myself craving more answers on the topic ‘what is life’ and ‘what does it mean to live?’ I’d spend hours watching videos on YouTube from Teal Scott (The Spiritual Catalyst), Jordan David(Spirit Science), MaNithya Sudevi, Charis Melina Brown, and so on, familiarizing myself with a heap of hip new terminology. These spiritual guides and leaders influenced me so greatly, opening my perspective to things, energies, so many things. Ah!

Thesis Regarding Significance

In truth, significance isn’t just a nice little artifact we jostle around in our heads to make us happy throughout the day. Significance is a Human Need.

Without knowing why we live – without holding some sort of purpose close to us – without having something to keep us moving on from day to day, the flame of life flutters weakly within us, and we wonder what life is even worth.

Thus, I find peace in hearing all of the significance that so many people have found in their individual lives – it’s inspiring to hear what people live for! Some people live on in hopes of living better, progressing in prosperity and comfort for themselves and their families. Others live in the name of God, Allah, Yahweh, Siva, and so many more representations of the Divine.

Personally, I’ve found a lot of my significance in Buddhist teachings.

Since I was young, I’ve always found a special intrigue in Tibetan Monks, Japanese Zen, Indian Ascetics, and the stories of Siddhartha and other such incarnations of Buddha. It had always been so nice to imagine experiencing so many lives in one cumulative journey, that of the soul (Atman). Specifically, I’d always met such compassion in embracing a number of beliefs toward the world in contrast to the naïve fear I’ve met with the idea of an eternal Hell. In grade school I often found myself, when in a mood of contemplation, trying to speak with “whoever it is up there.”

On that note, does anyone know who’s really up there, watching over all, judging each, doing the work of the Heavens?

I found refuge in seeing things through a karmic perspective instead, being reborn time and time again as a part of an ongoing experience. To a kid, living forever seems like a nice promise, but now I see the logic of consciousness (formal definition?) to exist as energy exists, without destruction or creation, but through transformation and movement. In fact, Buddhism is

Intro (background info/definitions)

Taking a deeper look into what a Dharma Bum really is, it’s important to consider by the standards of Peter Kaufman’s The Sociology of College Students’ Identity Formation, no one I’ve ever met is a true ‘bum’ of this spiritually-driven sense. Instead, I’ve found (and, to a large degree, identified with) this as an expressive and fluid concept formulated by Beat Generation author, Jack Kerouac. In his book, ­The Dharma Bums, Kerouac defines Dharma as a daily action involving “turning the wheel of True Meaning,” reflecting the Hindu use of this concept: “the way of living in alignment with Divine Principal followed (consciously or otherwise) by all things.” Simply put, defining qualities of a Dharma bum include embracing ideas of universal inter-connectedness of the universe, see the significance in daily life, adhere to ideas and identities present in Beat Generation Literature, and work toward developing as one’s true, inner self with an open consideration for both eastern and western perspectives, practices, and virtues. (Necessary Criteria)

Kerouac Addressing Dharma Bums (lengthy to establish feel)

“…Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn’t really want anyway such a refrigerators, TV sets, cars, at least new fancy cars, certain hair oils and deodorants and general junk you finally always see a week later in the garbage anyway, all of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume, work, produce, consume, I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of ‘em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures…” (Kerouac, 97).

A unifying theme in the mentality of a Dharma bum can been seen in this conversation: “But I don’t like all that Jesus stuff she’s talking about.” “What’s wrong with Jesus? Didn’t Jesus speak of Heaven? Isn’t Heaven Buddha’s nirvana?” …“Is this nirvana we’re in now or ain’t it?” “It’s both nirvana and samsara we’re in now.” “Words, words, what’s in a word? Nirvana by any other name…” (Kerouac, 114).

Japhy (a key character in developing Kerouac’s thoughts) assumed to be thinking “‘Poor Raymond, why does he always have to hitchhike and worry me to death, why isn’t he like other men?’ and I thought of Japhy as I stood there in the cold yard… ‘Why is he so mad about white tiled sinks and ‘kitchen machinery’ he calls it? People have good hearts whether or not they live like Dharma Bums. Compassion is the heart of Buddhism.’” (Kerouac, 132).

In becoming his own sort of aesthetic outside of his mother’s house over a Christmas visit: “I called my new grove ‘Twin Tree Grove,’ because of the two treetrunks I leaned against, that wound around each other, white spruce shining white in the night and showing me from hundreds of feet away where I was heading, although old Bob whitely showed me the wy down the dark path. On that path one night I lost my juju beads Japhy’d given me, but the next day I found them right in the path, figuring ‘The Dharma can’t be lost, nothing can be lost, on a wel-worn path.’” (Kerouac, 141).

“… I want my Dharma Bums to have springtime in their hearts when the blooms are girling and the birds are dropping little fresh turds surprising cats who wanted to eat them a moment ago.” (Kerouac, 204).

Criteria

Accidental: Spends considerable time outdoors, rugged appearance, owns neither car nor house, main transportation is a pair of legs, unemployed, nonconformist, anarchistic,

Sufficient: Humble lifestyle, Avid Reader, Buddhist, Hindu, Scholar, Artist/Musician/Poet, traveler/hitchhiker,

Necessary (in the sense of things that must be present to be considered for the title in question): Spiritual, knowledge (or interest) in Tibetan/Chinese/Mahayana/Hinayana/Japanese/Burmese/etc Buddhism (otherwise other Eastern schools of thought), encounter (and identification) with ideas/concepts/personas present in The Dharma Bums.

Common Association: Bohemian, Hippy, Hipster (more or less), Bodhisattva, Pilgrim

Addressing the Hippy

While it’s true that much of the thoughts and concepts explored by the Beat Generation from Mount Desolation to Greenwich Village later flowered in the hippy-community surrounding the Beatles, tye-dye shirts, and social activism, it’s important to note the distinct qualities that mark the difference between the Dharma Bums and Hippies. While these remnants of the Summer of Love hold many similar

Addressing the Bum

If following the Dharma, whether in Buddhist or Hindu sense, is considered so virtuous and worthwhile, what is so good about being considered a ‘bum’ of the way? Initially, I’d imagine a bum to be a vagrant, a beggar, or a person lost in life – not holding onto any belief. I’ve always been taught the misfortunes and poor habits of people my parent stamped a “nodoubtaboutit bum.” Kerouac sees the other side of the term, closer to a ‘buff’ or ‘enthusiast’ as “a person who devotes a great deal of time to a specified activity, this activity being the cultivation and fulfilling of one’s Dharma. Here we aren’t seeing the lazy, uninspired, dismissive connotation often negatively associated with hippies.

Note: The general organization of this paper will flow with my personal development starting from a young age up to current events in my life. I intend to end this paper carrying the same message of finding one’s own significance, I’ve just found it quite difficult to imagine how to achieve it in an original way. Thank you for your patience!

Han Shan! All of chapter 33 is beauty!

The Dharma Bum

A term rising from Jack Keroac’s legendary novel by the same name, a Dharma Bum is, among other things, a non or anti conformist, bohemian, an scholar, an open mind, an artist, a Buddhist, but in general can be classified by several of the characters in the book as well as other works done by Beat Generation writers (e.g. Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burrogh.) Often people identify such individuals as lazy, non-sober, careless, distant from reality, and otherwise dismissive of the world, but I’m here to represent these Dharma Bums with a sense of duty. Om be to ye, humans moving forward.

A Meditating Senator

In the Western world, meditation stands as something of a spectacle, an Eastern wonder, one might say. When I’ve talked with people about this mindful practice, they’ve generally shown an interest, commenting on how relaxing and helpful it seems in the lives of those who practice. Since America’s formal entry into Orientalist studies during the mid 20th century, scholars have praised the art of meditation, conveying its great benefits in lectures and public halls, and lately we’ve seen an exponential increase in American implementation of meditation.
Imagine the picture taken last year in for The Columbus Dispatch of Ohio Senator Tim Ryan meditating in his Capitol Hill Office in Washington D.C.. While the accompanying article aims primarily at voters, I imagine, conversely, that several politicians could take serious perspective from this image. Exploring the image, politicians can see that this image presents a solid (and even threatening) argument: ‘Hey, that guy meditates, I bet he’s less stressed out, more clear-minded. Heck, every politician should meditate! I’m voting for him!’
Sitting in a blue room, wearing a blue tie, Tim emits an air of calmness while representing the Democratic Party, his professional attire and cluttered office express ethos-authority of a government official hard at work. Behind him, a parted window lights the room, it’s marble curtains holding heavy, framing Ryan’s workspace Seated in center of the small room, surrounded by three different desks on a blue carpet, Tim Ryan inhales deeply, supported by a dark cushion set beneath him, flanked by a trashcan on one side and a recycling bin on the other. Throughout the image, the effectiveness of Ryan’s active meditation can be seen in his soothed face and open hands, as well as the cover of a book for which he is the author: A Mindful Nation: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance, and Recapture the American Spirit, which is pinned on the wall behind him. The presence of this book as well as the certificate hanging above it provide a strong appeal to ethos.
Alternatively, I’ve always wondered how much truth, regardless of ethos appeal, there is in a picture of someone meditating. On the surface, it really is just a pose, and a picture cannot really convey the depth or potency of one’s meditation. Sure, Mr. Ryan looks full, perhaps of peace and tranquility, perhaps of his own ego flaunting around his ‘secret wisdom.’ Addressing these thoughts, we must refer to the text, where Ryan states that, with meditation, “You realize how much better your days are, how much better your relationships are because you’re actually there for them… [You] realize how much energy you can waste by fretting about [the] future or regretting things in the past that we just carry with us.” (Wehrman. 2013)
In the end, I’d say this image makes a strong point, bringing it home with a nice collection of symbols and appeals. The general message of promoting meditation is deliberately reinforced by Ryan’s pose, the informing the audience with his findings of the benefits of meditation in the accompanying text.
Sources Cited:
Wehrman, Jessica. “Congressman Uses Meditation to Relieve Stress.” The Columbia Dispatch. 31 Mar. 2013. Web. 11 Sept. 2013. http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/03/31/finding-his-focus.html

The Man-Made Obstacle

The following information I have encountered in an international Buddhist magazine by the name Tricycle, this particular summer of 2014 seasonal issue being my primary source.

            Buddhism holds a very special place in my heart – a refuge for difficult or otherwise negative feelings and information. To me, Buddhism shines as a means of cultivating some truly worthwhile values and skills (i.e. patience, mindfulness, and appreciation) while providing a more open and considerate perspective on daily life. In the structure of a widely practiced chant, I take refuge in the Buddha, a figure who, as a human, found the divine through achievable contemplation; I take refuge in the Dharma, a path of compassion that inhales deeply the power of intention and exhales fully open expression and exploration; I take refuge in the Sangha, the people around me with which I may find and help find higher identities. Taking this all into a more realistic consideration, however, I see that within Buddhism lurk quite a few archaic and unenlightened mentalities that must be shed in order to bring Buddhist practice at large into something more accessible and balanced.

            In her article entitled The Man-Made Obstacle, Rita M. Gross contends with modern Buddhism, expressing that masters and scholars working to advance Buddhist thought and practice en masse have neglected an unthinkable proportion of the world’s Buddhists – Women. It took only the first few points Gross made for me to realize how blind I too have been. Gross explains that the general Buddhist mentality toward obstacles one faces throughout life to be the “practitioner on the path of awakening,” wondering why then “female birth [alone is] regarded differently” (Gross.69). In order to best deliver her point, Gross strings together a series of distinct argument, taking forensic, ceremonial, and deliberate stances, utilizing the most celebrated principles of the Dharma lifestyle to reveal Buddhism’s persisting inequality.

            Delivering a forensic argument, Gross looks on her own experience, having been born in the 1940’s. In her early years, Gross confronted the unjustified impression of nearly all masters and teachers that being born a woman is a dead-end to attaining enlightenment. Gross cites traditional Buddhist literature including the ‘Three Subserviences’ and ‘Five Woes’ which “acknowledge, though not explicitly, that the real obstacle faced by beings with a female rebirth is male dominance, not their female bodies” (Gross.72). Further, Gross challenges commonplace advice given to women suffering under this misogynistic system. She describes a key “weakness of traditional Buddhist thought” as being the suppression or ignoring of perceived and experienced injustices under the claim that these situations have always held a degree of being “karmically appropriate” (Gross.73).

            By pulling her argument into present relevance, Rita Gross establishes the ongoing circumstances of this supposed ‘obstacle.’ Returning to the belief that obstacles, by nature of learning and overcoming, are beneficial, “but that female birth is not” Gross states, “entail a contradiction at the heart of Buddhism” (Gross.69). By placing women beneath men on the divine scale, “for no other reason than that we are female” (Gross.70), Buddhism continues to overlook its own disservice to the principals of equality and compassion.

            Additionally, this Buddhist scholar imparts her kin to harness their faith and intellect, inspiring Buddhists toward changing these sexist attitudes. She expresses that Buddhist feminists already “reject” this “contradictory” claim toward female rebirth. She insists that women “not excuse overlooking [such] serious obstacles to dharmic practice… by naively reciting that obstacles can be one’s best friend on the path” (Gross.72). Essentially, no one should accept things that are blatantly wrong as friendly challenges, these are things that MUST be changed in order to move our thinking forward. Indeed, women should “expect respect and help from our dharma brothers” advising men to “apply their advice to themselves” (Gross.105).

Sources Cited:

Gross, Rita. “The Man-Made Obstacle.” Tricycle Summer 2014:69-73,105-107. Print.