Dharma Bums: Zen and the Beats
The novel Dharma Bums by Beat Generation counter culture prophet Jack Kerouac is but one of the many works of literature of that period with Buddhist themes.
The generation of men and women, scarred by WWII, and unable to fit into the conformist post war period of gray flannel suits and homes in the suburbs, sought redemption in what transitioned into the counterculture of the 1960s.
Many of these people had been exposed to Japanese culture after the war during the occupation of Japan and had fallen in love with the minimalist Zen aesthetic. Kerouac, Ginsberg, Kesey and others gravitated to Chinatown in San Francisco. There they listened to jazz, and indulged in sex, opium and reefer and wrote. They wrote poems and novels which we now regard as classic.
Kerouac for all of his beat daddy hip was really a devout Catholic boy. He dabbled in Eastern philosophy but attended mass regularly. I imagine that his confessions were rather shocking to old father Flanagan.
In his later years Kerouac did not think much of the hippie generation which succeeded his generation. He thought that they were shallow and self absorbed. I tend to agree with him on this.
The Dharma Bums of the Beat Generation brought Zen to the mainstream and opened America's eyes to the Buddhist experience.
In truth you aren't going to find any deep insights into the dharma from Kerouac. His understanding was superficial at best but if you like your Buddhism served up with knife fights and Eisenhower era group sex, well, then it's the book for you.
