The Dharma Bums

The true story of postwar America in all its speed, tomfoolery, and sorrowfulness, Kerouac believed, could only be told as interior monologue and confession. Once unleashed by ‘one hundred percent personal honesty,’ in Kerouac’s now-famous phrase, the inner self would discover its own art form; it had taken him fifteen years, he estimated, to tap and train his own ‘voice.’ (Location 91)

Ray almost perversely refuses to climb all the way up Matterhorn Mountain, though the last stretch is within his sight and within his capability. Clinging to his ‘protective nook’ instead, he momentarily wonders if Japhy, however admirable, is not insane. If Japhy’s Buddhism is about action, Ray is ‘Buddha the Quitter.’ Kerouac wanted to go further; he didn’t want to be tested or pushed. It may be as significant not to reach the peak as to scale it. (Location 263)

was very devout in those days and was practicing my religious devotions almost to perfection. Since then I’ve become a little hypocritical about my lip-service and a little tired and cynical. Because now I am grown so old and neutral … But then I really believed in the reality of charity and kindness and humility and zeal and neutral tranquility and wisdom and ecstasy, (Location 431)

‘Great.’ I wondered why Han Shan was Japhy’s hero. ‘Because,’ said he, ‘he was a poet, a mountain man, a Buddhist dedicated to the principle of meditation on the essence of all things, (Location 653)

‘Comparisons are odious, Smith,’ he sent sailing back to me, quoting Cervantes and making a Zen Buddhist observation to boot. ‘It don’t make a damn frigging difference whether you’re in The Place or hiking up Matterhorn, it’s all the same old void, boy.’ And I mused about that and realized he was right, comparisons are odious, it’s all the same, but it sure felt great and suddenly I realized this (in spite of my swollen foot veins) would do me a lot of good and get me away from drinking and maybe make me appreciate perhaps a whole new way of living. (Location 1064)

‘Maybe that’s a haiku, maybe not, it might be a little too complicated,’ said Japhy. ‘A real haiku’s gotta be as simple as porridge and yet make you see the real thing, like the greatest haiku of them all probably is the one that goes “The Sparrow hops along the veranda, with wet feet.” By Shiki. You see the wet footprints like a vision in your mind and yet in those few words you also see all the rain that’s been falling that day and almost smell the wet pine needles.’ (Location 1120)

‘The secret of this kind of climbing,’ said Japhy, ‘is like Zen. Don’t think. Just dance along. It’s the easiest thing in the world, actually easier than walking on flat ground which is monotonous. The cute little problems present themselves at each step and yet you never hesitate and you find yourself on some other boulder you picked out for no special reason at all, just like Zen.’ Which it was. (Location 1185)

A few minutes later he cleaned out the rest of the chocolate pudding but made sure that I got most of it. Then when he laid boughs over the rock of our clearing and the poncho over that he made sure his sleeping bag was farther away from the fire than mine so I would sure to be warm. He was always practicing charity. (Location 1330)

‘Come on Ray, everything comes to an end.’ In fact I realized I had no guts anyway, which I’ve long known. But I have joy. When we got to the alpine meadow I stretched out on my belly and drank water and enjoyed myself peacefully in silence while they talked and worried about getting down the rest of the trail in time. (Location 1515)

Comparisons are odious.’ (Location 1547)

‘Better to sleep in an uncomfortable bed free, than sleep in a comfortable bed unfree.’ I was making up all kinds of sayings as I went along. I was started on my new life with my new equipment: a regular Don Quixote of tenderness. (Location 1931)

saw that my life was a vast glowing empty page and I could do anything I wanted. (Location 2240)

One night I was meditating in such perfect stillness that two mosquitoes came and sat on each of my cheekbones and stayed there a long time without biting and then went away without biting. (Location 2753)

The night of the big party came. I could practically hear the hubbubs of preparation going on down the hill and felt depressed. ‘Oh my God, sociability is just a big smile and a big smile is nothing but teeth, I wish I could just stay up here and rest and be kind.’ (Location 2798)

like one of them real long Chinese silk paintings that show two little men hiking in an endless landscape of gnarled old trees and mountains so high they merge with the fog in the upper silk void. (Location 2899)

The closer you get to real matter, rock air fire and wood, boy, the more spiritual the world is. All these people thinking they’re hardheaded materialistic practical types, they don’t know shit about matter, their heads are full of dreamy ideas and notions.’ He raised his hand, ‘Listen to that quail calling.’ (Location 2980)

What hope, what human energy, what truly American optimism was packed in that neat little frame of his! (Location 3016)

‘Try the meditation on the trail, just walk along looking at the trail at your feet and don’t look about and just fall into a trance as the ground zips by.’ (Location 3017)

And suddenly everything Japhy had ever told me about Seattle began to seep into me like cold rain, (Location 3166)

Sometimes I’d get mad because things didn’t work out well, I’d spoil a flapjack, or slip in the snowfield while getting water, or one time my shovel went sailing down into the gorge, and I’d be so mad I’d want to bite the mountaintops and would come in the shack and kick the cupboard and hurt my toe. But let the mind beware, that though the flesh be bugged, the circumstances of existence are pretty glorious. (Location 3380)