(This post was first posted with the original blog so I am posting it again.)
The reference Dharma Bum comes from Jack Kerouac’s book The Dharma Bums (1959). I read this book in the summer of 1972 while I was killing time. My reason for killing time that summer was I had just graduated from college and was anticipating being inducted into the military due to my low number (15) in the draft lottery. I don’t know if at that point I had already made my decision to join the Coast Guard or not. Beside Kerouac I remembering reading Hesse, Watts, Camus, and who knows what else that summer.
Only a couple of years ago I found and read Gary Snyder’s Passage Through India: An Expanded and Illustrated Edition (2007). Passage Through India is the account of Snyder’s journey through the far east with companions Joanne Kyger, Alan Ginsburg, and others. The group visited Zen monasteries, Hindu and Buddhist temples, and even met with the Dalai Lama.
What makes someone one Dharma Bum? According to Kerouac’s book and Snyder’s travels, Dharma Bums are seeking the Dharma. Dharma has many definitions and I will address that topic in another post. Snyder’s group traveled via tramp steamers, backpacked, and generally traveled as cheaply as possible. My days of being that kind of bum are long past but in my days in college I did hitchhike around the country making trips to the Southwest from my base at Michigan State University. Jim Rojeski and Pete Greider joined me on those trips. Being a college student hardly qualified me to be a bum in the sense that we think of hobos or certainly the homeless that populate our streets today. I would say that the experience sticking one’s thumb out and hoping for ride to your destination gives a person a different insight on the world. Most trips I took that way ended up with detours some of which proved to be more interesting than the intended purpose of the trip.
So what have I been seeking all these years that I have considered myself a Dharma Bum. I guess if I knew the answer to that question I wouldn’t be writing this blog in an effort to clarify my thinking. Even at this age in my life I’m still trying to find my way. I know many paths I’m not interested in following and I’m happy with some of the paths I have taken. So what path shall I follow for the remaining days of my life is the question for which I have been and continue to seek the answer.
One answer I know for certain is that I’m constantly seeking new questions and new ways to answer them. I want to keep an open mind and heart in order to let the experiences I encounter enrich my life rather than close me off to other people and other experiences.
What about the book The Dharma Bums that drew me to the analogy and the importance of seeking? One of the most fascinating parts of the books was job of fire lookout on a tower up in the mountains. Something about that truly appealed to me. Another book I found a few years ago Poets on the Peaks (Suiter, 2002) gives a much fuller description of the life lived in a fire tower. I was lucking enough to be stationed at lighthouse when I was in the Coast Guard shortly after reading Dharma Bums. I took it as karma at the time. I will certainly write more about that experience later. Two other aspects of the book that hit home with me were the experience of hiking in the mountains and meditation. Being from the hills of North Carolina hiking is a source of great peace to me and I had been exposed to transcendental meditation during my junior year at college.
I hope this has whetted your appetite as I begin this exploration of where I’ve been and where I am going.
References
Kerouac, J. (1959). The Dharma Bums (First edition.). Signet.
Snyder, G. (2007). Passage Through India: An Expanded and Illustrated Edition (Exp Ill edition.). Emeryville, CA: Counterpoint.
Suiter, J. (2002). Poets on the Peaks: Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen & Jack Kerouac in the Cascades. New York: Counterpoint.
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