Anya Corneliu's CU

The East and the Beat Generation

Anya Cornelius

Academic Setting

This curriculum unit is created for eleventh grade students who attend Albuquerque High School. AHS is an inner-city school, located in downtown Albuquerque, with a rich culture. There are a wide variety of cultures and ethnic groups that are embraced at our diverse school. Hispanics make up the majority of the student population, approximately 68%; Anglos compose the next highest percentage of 19.8%; African Americans, Native Americans and Asian make up the rest of the student population at Albuquerque High School. The majority of teachers, on the other hand, are Anglo, which is why it is essential for the teachers to be aware of their multi-cultural students.

            Students face a challenge at Albuquerque High School that they may not at other public schools. We currently have the second highest dropout rate of all high schools in the APS (Albuquerque Public School) district. In order to combat this problem, teachers must be encouraged to engage students immediately. We have to be the ones to “hook” them, so that they will come back another day. Unfortunately, through my experience, minimal parent buy-in diminishes the amount of academic motivation displayed by the students. For some, education is not an essential facet in their everyday lives and they therefore do not stress their children’s educational careers. Parents may be more interested in paying bills and providing for their families. In most cases, this means their children play an essential role by working to pay the family bills as well. If parents do not find their children’s education important, than how can we expect students to do so on their own?

            Eleventh graders at Albuquerque High School are required to take American literature. Our school gives teachers the liberty to choose from a wide variety of American literature books along with the eleventh grade textbook. I teach my eleventh grade survey of American literature in a chronological order, because I believe it offers a logical and basic framework or scaffold from which students can build. I begin by teaching about the Puritans, and we read plays and novels, such as The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter. These books are an introduction to what American life began as and are also useful in showing examples of symbolism and character. We then journey through time to read about Edgar Allan Poe. I spend approximately three weeks working on the short stories of Poe, and involve the students in multiple group projects. My Antonia and Huckleberry Finn are the next two novels that the students read. They are able to comprehend the life changes as America was expanding and growing both culturally and socially. In the past I have only briefly discussed poets such as Whitman, Thoreau, and Emerson. With this proposed curriculum unit, I would incorporate these Transcendentalists to show who the Beat Generation writers were reading. Following these poets, students and I would begin looking at the Beat Generation, which would conclude in the reading of Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Rationale

Part of the rationale for teaching students about the Beat Generation is that the writing of that time is a key part of late twentieth-century American literature. It is important for students taking an American literature class, to not only read the classics from the cannon, but to also read modern American literature. When I have taught One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in the past, students have really responded to the novel. Getting students engaged in a novel is not an easy task and the interest that I have seen is more than enough reason to continue. Therefore, I have chosen for this curriculum unit to add to my previous one by giving students more background information on the history, politics, religion and most importantly those works of world literature that inspired and influenced these writers.

            Why teach world literature in an American literature class or in an American school at all? There are many reasons why it is important for American students to be exposed to world literature. Students may read a work by a Japanese writer that deals with death and suicide and realize that they are not the only one who thinks and deals with these ideas. Universal themes in literature are important to show our students, so that they don’t feel so alone with their feelings and events in their lives. It is important for them to see that there is a greater world out there and people from different cultures think, feel and have experienced many of the same life experiences. As Gary Harrison states, this literature “transcends the material and cultural differences inherent in nations and local cultures”(“What is World Literature”, 4). For teenage students especially this concept of not being the only one is very important; “we can no longer afford isolationism or indifference to the plight of others”(Harrison, 7). Teenagers are very self-involved, and I believe this is evident in their extremely high suicide rate. I believe that teenagers take too much into themselves, believing that they are the only ones in the world feeling the pain they do. Reading world literature allows them to broaden their scope. It gives students “vicarious experience and personal growth as well as the excitement of an aesthetic voyage among masterpieces”(Lawall, “Introduction: Reading World Literature”, 1).

            World literature also allows students to hear voices of peoples that they will probably never know. Studies have shown that most people will never go any further than thirty miles from where they live in their life. Such limits are probably the case even more so for Albuquerque High students, because of their economic and cultural backgrounds. Many of the students aren’t concerned with the global impact on their lives, for it doesn’t seem relevant in the here and now; I would like to try to show them otherwise. We live in a global world and students must be aware of how their lives are affected by people all over the world.   By using world literature in my American literature class, I can begin to show students how American literature, in particular the literature of the Beat Generation, was influenced by other cultures, other writers from outside of America. Thomas Greene states, “as we know, there are few remaining places on this planet where the traces of Western society cannot be found, for better or for worse”(“Misunderstanding Poetry, 82). Without these outside influences these authors would not have written the important works that they did.

            I believe it is essential to the understanding of the Beat Generation writers to show students where many of these authors received their inspiration from and how it changed their writing style. Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder are three of these writers that were influenced by Zen Buddhism and Japanese, Chinese and Indian literature. Through the study of Zen Buddhism these writers became influenced by it. They believed in the religion’s teachings of self experience and ridding oneself of attachments. These ideas can be seen in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, where the main character leaves all attachments and travels aimlessly all over the country, experiencing life. The Japanese, Chinese, and Indian literature also helped to shape these writer’s works of literature. Allen Ginsberg wrote many sutras, such as “Sunflower Sutra”, Gary Snyder translated Japanese poems, and Jack Kerouac wrote a piece called “Wake Up,” which is a sort of biography of Buddha. The Beat Generation writers were ever changed by the writings and religions of the East and their works would not be the same without these outside influences.

            Many students do not understand the importance of travel or have an understanding of cultures other than that of America. Most of the Beat Generation authors are ex-patriots and gained self-knowledge through their experiences abroad. My students need access to the world around them to expand their horizons with hopes of finding their true selves. I believe their confinement to New Mexico because of economic, education and cultural reasons never let them discover themselves. I hope that this unit will help them to see the importance of self-discovery through global literature.

Context and Background

The Name

The Beat Generation arose in the 1950s, after World War II, and was a precursor to the hippies of the 1960s. The term was given to a group of American authors and artists, “beat, in the sense of beaten, frustrated, played out”(Cook, 6), it is a word that encompassed how that generation saw itself. The attitudes of society at the time seemed to be beaten or worn down, tired of what the world and they had become. “The perennial questions that motivate what we call the Beat spirit, a gnawing, nagging feeling that we’ve been missing out on something: that something has been lost or distorted”(Cook, 5). These feelings and thoughts gave rise to a group of artists who wanted or needed to experience life, so that they could feel that they had overcome being beaten. They did this through education, travel, drugs, sex, and religion; they were interested in the “theology of experience”(Lardas, 128), an idea from Zen Buddhism. They became the rebels in American society because they questioned everything, rather than accept it. They didn’t agree with the social norms during the 1950s and instead decided to experiment with life as much as possible in order to enlighten themselves. Their self-taught education took them all over the world including, Tangier, India, South America, and Japan. They learned and read about other religions like Zen Buddhism and Hinduism. The literature they read from these other countries influenced their own writing styles. For example Kerouac wrote in a free form style, Snyder wrote about nature and used colloquial language, and Ginsberg wrote using similar rhythmic methods.

The Authors

Allen Ginsberg who was one of the founding fathers of the Beat Generation. He was born in New Jersey in 1926 and he died in 1997. Ginsberg’s family was radical. His father was a Jewish Socialist and his mother was a radical Communist who suffered from mental illness. Ginsberg was introduced to the world of political activism by his mother who took him to Communist meetings. Ginsberg attended Columbia University with the intentions of studying labor law to fulfill his father’s wishes. During his tenure at Columbia, his interest shifted and he began to study “Chinese History and painting, Haiku and Zen Buddhism,” (Lardas, The Bop Apocalypse, 158) as well as literature. His greatest influence was Walt Whitman, who embodied the Bohemian philosophy that Ginsberg was drawn to. “Whitman was one of the primary Beat ancestors, a man who eagerly embraced Eastern mysticism, refuted gender roles, and advocated a wide-open political vision, all earmarks of Beat ethics” (Ash, Beat Spirit, 32). While at Columbia, he met two fellow philologists by the names of Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs in 1944, and they shared similar feelings about the problems they saw with America. Early on Ginsberg was primarily a poet, but he never concentrated on the publication of his writings. He focused instead on insuring that Kerouac and Burroughs were published.

Ginsberg moved to San Francisco with Kerouac and Burroughs in 1954 and began reading his poetry to audiences. At the Six Gallery in 1955, Ginsberg became a literary icon. He read his poem “Howl” with such drama, including improvisational dance and voice inflection, that Ginsberg was seen as a cultural visionary. He captured the spirit and anger in the rhythm of the poem and the audience began chanting to him in the same syncopated beat. He did eventually publish Howl and Other Poems in 1956. Feeling as though his words were lacking, he sought spiritual enlightenment and began reading Indian Literature and studying Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism in 1962. Feeling the need to be closer to the source of these great practitioners of enlightenment, he moved to India. He eventually returned to the United States and began collaborating with musicians, such as Bob Dylan and The Clash. Ginsberg’s interest in Buddhism continued and in 1970 he formally became a Buddhist.

            While in India, Ginsberg began reading Indian writers such as Kabir, Ganeshwar and Ghalib. He wrote about his experiences in a journal, to be published later, which was called The India Journals. One night he read the Kaddish, which is a Jewish prayer for the dead. The rhythm, beats and repetition inspired him to write a poem with this same kind of style called “Kaddish,” a poem he wrote about his ailing mother. The influence of Indian literature and Buddhism lead him to write “The Change,” a poem that explained Ginsberg’s new beliefs about how he was leading his life. He “realized that he did not want to be dominated” by drugs or to try to expand his consciousness; he wanted to live for the present and to be able to “accept himself for what he was”(Miles, Ginsberg a Biography, 326). After formally becoming a Buddhist in 1970, Ginsberg began writing poetry, which reflected that subject. “Mind Breaths,” Land O’Lakes, Wisc.,” “Do the Meditation Rock,” and “Why I Meditate” are a few examples of these poems that were written in the seventies and eighties.

            Jack Kerouac was born into an “all American” Irish Catholic family in New England. He played football in college on scholarship; however, shortly after arriving at Columbia, he quit football. He left college in 1942. In 1944, he met Ginsberg and William Burroughs. Kerouac was interested in jazz and influenced by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and the Count Basie Orchestra. This jazz music was another influence on Kerouac’s writing due to its free-formed style and syncopated rhythms. In his novel On the Road, he tried to follow this jazz style by writing through a stream of consciousness.

            He began to question the teachings of the Catholic Church and began a self-taught quest to obtain enlightenment. By 1953, Kerouac was “immersed in Buddhism,” (Lardas, 229). At the same time Ginsberg was reading Indian literature, Kerouac delved into The Buddhist Bible, The Life of Buddha, and Diamond Sutra, books that dealt with the life of Buddha. Kerouac asked Ginsberg to help him in his studies of Buddhism, and Ginsberg replied by giving him a further reading list. This list consisted of: The Gospel of Buddha, Buddhist Legends, and Buddhism in Translation. Inspired by his new teachings he began writing Some of the Dharma and a poem called “How to Meditate.” According to Dennis McNally, “though harassed by loneliness and poverty in North Carolina, Jack was beatific as he tended a huge vegetable garden, typed up his latest book Buddha Tells Us, an American version of the Surangama Sutra, and worked on a biography of the Buddha to be called Wake Up (Desolate Angel, 193).

            Kerouac’s first book, The Town and the City, which dealt with his childhood wasn’t an instant success. It wasn’t until 1957 that he achieved literary fame with On The Road. “He became the rebel/hero who epitomized the style of living and writing associated with the Beat movement” (Siepmann, Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, 527). Even though he achieved literary fame, success didn’t keep him from becoming an alcoholic, which eventually killed him in 1969 at the age of 47.

            William Burroughs was from an upper class Midwest family. His father was the inventor of the adding machine. Burroughs received a monthly allowance from his parents during the 1940s and 1950s. He attended Military School at the Los Alamos Ranch School in New Mexico. He then went to Harvard, where he obtained a degree in American Literature. Burroughs began traveling, did a stint in medical school in Vienna, returned to Columbia to take psychology classes, where he met Kerouac and Ginsberg, then went to South America for a short period, finally settling in Tangier in 1954. Burroughs held many odd jobs, one as an exterminator in Chicago, which became the basis for the novel Naked Lunch. Burroughs was not a stranger to high profile drama. He was a well-known drug addict who was accused of killing his common-law wife while trying to recreate the William Tell story in 1951 while they were in Mexico. He fled the country to avoid prosecution. However, Burroughs turned tragedy into triumph by claiming that the murder of his wife made him into a serious writer. Burroughs died in August of 1997, four months after Ginsberg’s death.    Burroughs was never interested in Buddhism, as his fellow writers were. He questioned all religion and didn’t agree with his friends’ obsession with it. Instead Burroughs came up with his own philosophy of living. He traveled and lived in South America and Tangier, which undoubtedly had an impact on his writing.

Gary Snyder is said to be credited with introducing Burroughs, Kerouac, and Ginsberg to the taste of the East that, “flavored the whole Beat movement” (Cook, Beat Generation, 29). Snyder wrote about Zen Buddhist monks, translated Oriental literature, wrote haiku, studied Zen in Japan, and even lived in the Japanese section of San Francisco. His interest with Native American cultures extended into Oriental cultures. He met Ginsberg and Kerouac in 1952, and became their “teacher” of Eastern philosophy. He moved to Japan to study Zen, for a period of twelve years, returning to the Bay Area in the late 1960s.

            Snyder was a student of classical Chinese and became skilled in translation and calligraphy. His most famous translation was of Han Shan’s Cold Mountain poems, “short poems written by an eccentric Zen monk centuries before” (Ash, 188). The writings by Han Shan are written in colloquial language, which in turn inspired Snyder to do the same in his poetry. He also translated the works of Po Chu-i and other Tang Poems. Bob Steuding states, “Snyder is the contemporary poet whose work most closely approximates in philosophy, tone, and style the Chinese poem of the T’ang dynasty poet-painter Wang Wei (A.D. 701-760)”( Gary Snyder, 45).

            “Snyder is significantly influenced by Oriental poetry…”(Steuding, 22).   His studies in Zen Buddhism and Oriental translations helped lead to his own development as a writer and person. The essential concepts of Zen Buddhism are the awakening of one’s Real Self and that Zen cannot be learned but experienced. Snyder used these teachings to inspire his writing and how he chose to lead his everyday life. Snyder leads a quite and simple life, only working when he needs money and continuing his education as a Zen student. His life experiences are an integral inspiration for his writings; his travels, education and encounters with fellow writers are all shown throughout his work.

     Ken Kesey was born in 1935 in Colorado. He was a championship college wrestler at the University of Oregon. Kesey was a, “paid volunteer for governmental drug experiments in a California hospital, where he later worked as an attendant,” (Plimpton, Beat Writers at Work, 208). These experiences were the premise for his 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Kesey was the originator of the Merry Pranksters, a band of bohemians that drove around in a bus and took the drugs that Kesey had obtained from the government. Neal Cassidy, the muse of the Beat generation, was the driver of the Further Bus. Kesey’s writing style, “employs stream-of-consciousness techniques,” (Seipmann, 528), which is similar to the styles of his fellow Beat Generation writers. Kesey lived in a barn in Oregon until his death in 2001. Robert Bell III writes, Kesey “expresses with the beautiful imagery in his poetry and prose a pathway out of those boxes set by these doctrines for freemen seeking a sense of rebirth in this Eden of America. It is this expression of individualism that sets Kesey apart with-in the archives of world literature as an American writer” (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/12813/88003).

The Influences

Zen Buddhism

Zen Buddhism is a Buddhist sect found in China and Japan that originates in the teachings of a 500B.C. Indian Prince who renounced his privileged position after seeing the suffering around him. He sought for enlightenment and realized that, “everything is subject to change and that suffering and discontentment are the result of attachment to circumstances and things which, by their nature, are impermanent. By ridding oneself of these attachments, including attachment to the false notion of self or ‘I’, one can be free of suffering”

(http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVLPages/ZenPages/ZenSchools.html). The Prince became known as the Buddha, which means (loosely translated) “one who is awake.” These teachings are where Zen Buddhism originates from Cha’an (meditation) developed in China in the fifth century and was then transformed by the Japanese into the word Zen. “A Zen Buddhist is beyond either logic or confusion; he exists without trying to grasp mentally, in a state of simple uninterrupted experience”

(http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/Topics/Buddhism.html). One of the Zen focal points is intuitive understanding. The result is, generally, words and phrases that have no set meaning and logic is often unnecessary. Words are only relevant in context (who is using them, what is the purpose and who the intended audience is). Therefore, understanding the writings of the Beat Generation often elicits high levels of frustration by the reader because these writings are for those living in their time. The readings are temporally specific; thus if you are not or haven’t been part of the 1950s, you cannot truly understand the words. A reader therefore needs to have an understanding of the 1950s to connect with these words on a greater level. However, no matter what era a person lives in, there is meaning to be made by the individual reader that is timeless.

Implementation

Lesson 1 (day 1-2)

Materials: chalkboard, chalk, paper, pen

Standards & Benchmarks: III-5, V-1

This lesson will introduce students to the Beat Generation.

Students will take notes and ask questions, while the teacher lectures about the important authors, influences, name and history of the Beat Generation. (see attached notes)

Lesson 2 (day 3)

Materials: story of Siddhartha (attached copy), pen, paper

Standards & Benchmarks: I-1,2,3,4,6,10

This lesson is designed to introduce the story of Siddhartha to the students. Students will gain a better idea of the religion of Buddhism, an influence on the Beat writers.

The teacher will hand out copies of the attached story of Siddhartha. Students and teacher will read aloud during class. Class discussion will take place at the conclusion of this story.

Lesson 3 (day 4)

Materials: Cold Mountain poems by Han-Shan, construction paper, colored pencils

Standards & Benchmarks: I-3,6,9 V-1,2,3

This lesson will expose students to the influence on Gary Snyder’s writing.

The teacher will hand out construction paper and colored pencils to students. The teacher will then instruct students to listen and draw the images that are presented in the poems the teacher will read. The teacher will then read out loud selected poems from Han-Shan’s Cold Mountain poems. Students and the teacher will then discuss these poems using student’s drawings as a prompt.

Lesson 4 (day 5)

Materials: Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”, journal, pen

Standards & Benchmarks: I-1,2,3,4,5,6,10 II-1,2,5,6,7, III-1,2,4,5 V-1,3,5

This lesson is designed to expose students to the poetry of Allen Ginsberg.

The teacher will hand out copies of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl.” The teacher will instruct students to follow along as the teacher reads this poem out loud. Students will then be prompted to immediately write in their journals. Students should write down any immediate thoughts about the poem and/or questions about the poem (10 minutes). When students finish writing they will switch their journal with one other person. Each student will then read the other’s journal entry and write a comment about it at the end of the journal. Class discussion will begin using these journal entries.

Lesson 5 (day 6)

Materials: newspapers, scissors, pen, notebook paper, instructions for cut-up activity (attached)

Standards & Benchmarks: I-2,3,6,8,9,10 III-1,2,3,4,5 IV-1,2,3

This lesson is designed for students to recognize William Burrough’s ideas behind his work with cut-ups. Students will gain an understanding of Burrough’s style and his concept that the “true meaning” of the writer is exposed through the breakdown of their work.

Students will be given scissors and a newspaper (only one sheet). Students will then be instructed to fold the right side of the paper over to the left side of the paper. Students will then read their new articles, looking for any messages that “pop out” at them. They will then re-write these passages on paper. Students will share their new articles at the end of class. (for complete instructions, see the attached sheet)

Lesson 6 (day 7-8)

Materials: “The Source” video, TV, VCR

Standards & Benchmarks: V-1,2,4,5

This lesson will give students more information and review concepts previously outlined about the Beat Generation.

Students will watch the video “The Source.” Teachers may want students to take notes on the video while viewing.

Lesson 7 (day 9)

Materials: essay worksheet, paper, pen

Standards & Benchmarks: III-1,2,3,4,5

This lesson will assess student’s knowledge about the Beat Generation.

Students will be given the attached worksheet that contains an essay question about the Beat Generation. Students will be given all period if necessary to write on this topic.

Lesson 8 (day 10-28)

Materials: copies of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Standards & Benchmarks: I-1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10 II-1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 III-2,4,5

This lesson is designed to expose students to a novel of the Beat Generation. Students will also learn about Ken Kesey’s style of writing.

Students will begin reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The students and teacher will read this book out loud during class and give reading for outside the class. Students will write dialectics/questions for reading outside of class, which will prompt discussion for the next day. At the end of the novel students will be given a test on the novel.

Lesson 9 (day 29-31)

Materials: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest video, TV, VCR

Standards & Benchmarks: V-1,2,4,5

This lesson will allow students to revisit the novel through the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. There will be no exercise joined with the viewing of the movie; student’s attention is very good.

Lesson 10 (day 32-33)

Materials: student's own poetry, coffee, music

Standards & Benchmarks: III-1,2,3,4,5 IV-1,2,3 V-1,3

This lesson is designed to complete the unit on the Beat Generation. Students will be able to understand the mood of the poetry readings from the 1950s.

Students will have been instructed to write their own poems. Students will then stand in front of the class and read their poetry out loud. The teacher may provide coffee, dim the lights and have students sit on the floor in front of the reader, to help create the mood.

Documentation

*for student use

Ash, Mel. Beat Spirit. Penguin Putnam: New York. 1997.

An interactive book dealing with the Beat Generation writers

Asher, Levi. “Buddhism: the Beat Religion”. Literary Kicks. http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/Topics/Buddhism.html

An explanation of Buddhism

Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki and many others. The Four Seasons. The Peter Pauper Press:          Mount Vernon. 1958.

Examples of Haiku, by various authors

Bell III, Robert. “A bus trip into the soul of mind”. 30. December. 2001. <http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/12813/88003>

Information about Ken Kesey

*Boeree, Dr. George “The Life of Siddhartha Gautama”. 1999.

The story of Siddhartha

Cook, Bruce. The Beat Generation. Charles Scribner’s Sons: New York. 1971.

An extensive overview about the Beat Generation

Daryl. “What is Zen? (the simple question)”. 15. May. 1998. <http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVLPages/ZenPages/ZenSchools.html>

An explanation of Zen Buddhism

Foster, Edward. Understanding the Beats.   University of South Carolina Press: Columbia. 1992.

An in depth look at the individual Beat writers

*Graham, A.C. Poems of the Late T’ang. Penguin Books: Baltimore. 1965.

An assortment of poetry of the Late T’ang

Greene, Thomas. “Misunderstanding Poetry: Teaching outside the Western Canon” Reading              World Literature: Theory, History, Practice. University of Texas P: Austin. 1994.

An essay on the use and benefit of world literature

*Han-Shan. Cold Mountain Poems. Press-22: Portland. 1965.

Harrison, Gary. “What is World Literature?”. University of New Mexico: Albuquerque. 2002.

An essay that explores world literature

Lardas, John. The Bop Apocalypse. University of Illinois Press: Urbana and Chicago. 2001.

Information about the Beat Generation and the influences of these writers

Lawall, Sarah. “Introduction: Reading World Literature”. Reading World Literature: Theory, History, Practice. University of Texas P: Austin. 1994.

An essay exploring how to read world literature

McLean, Wm., eds. The Real Work Gary Snyder. New Directions: New York. 1980.

An in-depth look at Gary Snyder

McNally, Dennis. Desolate Angel. Random House: New York. 1980.

An in-depth look at Jack Kerouac

Miles, Barry. Ginsberg a Biography. Viking: New York. 1989.

A biography on Allen Ginsberg

Mitgang, Herbert. “Allen Ginsberg’s FBI file”. 14. August. 2000. http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/ginsberg-fbi.html

Information about Allen Ginsberg

Plimpton, George, eds. Beat Writers at Work. The Modern Library: New York. 1999.

Interviews with various Beat writers

Siepmann, Katherine, eds. Benet’s Third Edition Reader’s Encyclopedia. Harper Collins Publishers: New York. 1987.

Brief synopsis of multiple authors

Smith, Huston. The World’s Religions. Harper San Francisco: New York. 1991.

An explanation of world religions

Steuding, Bob. Gary Snyder. Twayne Publishers: Boston. 1976.

A biography about Gary Snyder

*Stryk, Lucien. Zen Poems of China and Japan. Anchor Press: Garden City. 1973.

Various Zen poems from China and Japan

Videos

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Dir., Milos Forman. Prod., Michael Douglas. Videocasette.              1975.

The Source. Dir., Chuck Workman. Videocasette.

Appendix

Appendix A

The Beat Generation

Essay

Write an interesting, intelligent essay (open books, open notes) on the following.

It’s Friday night and you are at a party with your friends. A friend says to you, “I heard you were learning about the Beat Generation in your English class. I think I read something by that guy Kerouac or Carowac or whatever once. What IS the Beat Generation? What are Beat writers?”

In other words, using what you’ve learned from lectures, films and your readings thus far—spend about an hour explaining Beat Generation, Beat writers, and Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs to your friend. Your essay may be very formal or very casual—it MUST, however, be focused and intelligent.

Don’t worry about touching all the basis re: each writer; instead use the work and ideas of each writer to try to explain the idea(s) of the BEAT.

The Life of Siddhartha Gautama

Dr. C. George Boeree
Shippensburg University

There was a small country in what is now southern Nepal that was ruled by a clan called the Shakyas. The head of this clan, and the king of this country, was named Shuddodana Gautama, and his wife was the beautiful Mahamaya. Mahamaya was expecting her first born. She had had a strange dream in which a baby elephant had blessed her with his trunk, which was understood to be a very auspicious sign to say the least.

As was the custom of the day, when the time came near for Queen Mahamaya to have her child, she traveled to her father's kingdom for the birth. But during the long journey, her birth pains began. In the small town of Lumbini, she asked her handmaidens to assist her to a nearby grove of trees for privacy. One large tree lowered a branch to her to serve as a support for her delivery. They say the birth was nearly painless, even though the child had to be delivered from her side. After, a gentle rain fell on the mother and the child to cleanse them.

It is said that the child was born fully awake. He could speak, and told his mother he had come to free all mankind from suffering. He could stand, and he walked a short distance in each of the four directions. Lotus blossoms rose in his footsteps. They named him Siddhartha, which means "he who has attained his goals." Sadly, Mahamaya died only seven days after the birth. After that Siddhartha was raised by his mother’s kind sister, Mahaprajapati.

King Shuddodana consulted Asita, a well-known sooth-sayer, concerning the future of his son. Asita proclaimed that he would be one of two things: He could become a great king, even an emperor. Or he could become a great sage and savior of humanity. The king, eager that his son should become a king like himself, was determined to shield the child from anything that might result in him taking up the religious life. And so Siddhartha was kept in one or another of their three palaces, and was prevented from experiencing much of what ordinary folk might consider quite commonplace. He was not permitted to see the elderly, the sickly, the dead, or anyone who had dedicated themselves to spiritual practices. Only beauty and health surrounded Siddhartha.

Siddhartha grew up to be a strong and handsome young man. As a prince of the warrior caste, he trained in the arts of war. When it came time for him to marry, he won the hand of a beautiful princess of a neighboring kingdom by besting all competitors at a variety of sports. Yashodhara was her name, and they married when both were 16 years old.

As Siddhartha continued living in the luxury of his palaces, he grew increasing restless and curious about the world beyond the palace walls. He finally demanded that he be permitted to see his people and his lands. The king carefully arranged that Siddhartha should still not see the kind of suffering that he feared would lead him to a religious life, and decried that only young and healthy people should greet the prince.

As he was lead through Kapilavatthu, the capital, he chanced to see a couple of old men who had accidentally wandered near the parade route. Amazed and confused, he chased after them to find out what they were. Then he came across some people who were severely ill. And finally, he came across a funeral ceremony by the side of a river, and for the first time in his life saw death. He asked his friend and squire Chandaka the meaning of all these things, and Chandaka informed him of the simple truths that Siddhartha should have known all along: That all of us get old, sick, and eventually die.

Siddhartha also saw an ascetic, a monk who had renounced all the pleasures of the flesh. The peaceful look on the monks face would stay with Siddhartha for a long time to come. Later, he would say this about that time:

When ignorant people see someone who is old, they are disgusted and horrified, even though they too will be old some day. I thought to myself: I don’t want to be like the ignorant people. After that, I couldn’t feel the usual intoxication with youth anymore.

When ignorant people see someone who is sick, they are disgusted and horrified, even though they too will be sick some day. I thought to myself: I don’t want to be like the ignorant people. After that, I couldn’t feel the usual intoxication with health anymore.

When ignorant people see someone who is dead, they are disgusted and horrified, even thought they too will be dead some day. I thought to myself: I don’t want to be like the ignorant people. After than, I couldn’t feel the usual intoxication with life anymore. (AN III.39, interpreted)

At the age of 29, Siddhartha came to realize that he could not be happy living as he had been. He had discovered suffering, and wanted more than anything to discover how one might overcome suffering. After kissing his sleeping wife and newborn son Rahula goodbye, he snuck out of the palace with his squire Chandara and his favorite horse Kanthaka. He gave away his rich clothing, cut his long hair, and gave the horse to Chandara and told him to return to the palace.    He studied for a while with two famous gurus of the day, but found their practices lacking.

He then began to practice the austerities and self-mortifications practiced by a group of five ascetics. For six years, he practiced. The sincerity and intensity of his practice were so astounding that, before long, the five ascetics became followers of Siddhartha. But the answers to his questions were not forthcoming. He redoubled his efforts, refusing food and water, until he was in a state of near death.

One day, a peasant girl named Sujata saw this starving monk and took pity on him. She begged him to eat some of her milk-rice. Siddhartha then realized that these extreme practices were leading him nowhere, that in fact it might be better to find some middle way between the extremes of the life of luxury and the life of self-mortification. So he ate, and drank, and bathed in the river. The five ascetics saw him and concluded that Siddhartha had given up the ascetic life and taken to the ways of the flesh, and left him.

In the town of Bodh Gaya, Siddhartha decided that he would sit under a certain fig tree as long as it would take for the answers to the problem of suffering to come. He sat there for many days, first in deep concentration to clear his mind of all distractions, then in mindfulness meditation, opening himself up to the truth. He began, they say, to recall all his previous lives, and to see everything that was going on in the entire universe. On the full moon of May, with the rising of the morning star, Siddhartha finally understood the answer to the question of suffering and became the Buddha, which means “he who is awake.”

It is said that Mara, the evil one, tried to prevent this great occurrence. He first tried to frighten Siddhartha with storms and armies of demons. Siddhartha remained completely calm. Then he sent his three beautiful daughters to tempt him, again to no avail. Finally, he tried to ensnare Siddhartha in his own ego by appealing to his pride. That, too, failed. Siddhartha, having conquered all temptations, touched the ground with one hand and asked the earth to be his witness.

Siddhartha, now the Buddha, remained seated under the tree -- which we call the bodhi tree -- for many days longer. It seemed to him that this knowledge he had gained was far too difficult to communicate to others. Legend has it that Brahma, king of the gods, convinced Buddha to teach, saying that some of us perhaps have only a little dirt in our eyes and could awaken if we only heard his story. Buddha agreed to teach.

At Sarnath near Benares, about one hundred miles from Bodh Gaya, he came across the five ascetics he had practiced with for so long. There, in a deer park, he preached his first sermon, which is called “setting the wheel of the teaching in motion.” He explained to them the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. They became his very first disciples and the beginnings of the Sangha or community of monks.

King Bimbisara of Magadha, having heard Buddha’s words, granted him a monastery near Rahagriha, his capital, for use during the rainy season. This and other generous donations permitted the community of converts to continue their practice throughout the years, and gave many more people an opportunity to hear the teachings of the Buddha.

Over time, he was approached by members of his family, including his wife, son, father, and aunt. His son became a monk and is particularly remembered in a sutra based on a conversation between father and son on the dangers of lying. His father became a lay follower. Because he was saddened by the departures of his son and grandson into the monastic life, he asked Buddha to make it a rule that a man must have the permission of his parents to become a monk. Buddha obliged him.

His aunt and wife asked to be permitted into the Sangha, which was originally composed only of men. The culture of the time ranked women far below men in importance, and at first it seemed that permitting women to enter the community would weaken it. But the Buddha relented, and his aunt and wife became the first Buddhist nuns.

The Buddha said that it didn’t matter what a person’s status in the world was, or what their background or wealth or nationality might be. All were capable of enlightenment, and all were welcome into the Sangha. The first ordained Buddhist monk, Upali, had been a barber, yet he was ranked higher than monks who had been kings, only because he had taken his vows earlier than they!

Buddha’s life wasn’t without disappointments. His cousin, Devadatta, was an ambitious man. As a convert and monk, he felt that he should have greater power in the Sangha.   He managed to influence quite a few monks with a call to a return to extreme asceticism. Eventually, he conspired with a local king to have the Buddha killed and to take over the Buddhist community. Of course, he failed.

Buddha had achieved his enlightenment at the age of 35. He would teach throughout northeast India for another 45 years. When the Buddha was 80 years old, he told his friend and cousin Ananda that he would be leaving them soon. And so it came to be that in Kushinagara, not a hundred miles from his homeland, he ate some spoiled food and became very ill. He went into a deep meditation under a grove of sala trees and died. His last words were...

Impermanent are all created things;
Strive on with awareness.

(Reprinted from Ash, 1997)