| -3/10/04
- Jack Kerouac - (Scripture of the Golden Eternity)
Jack Kerouac wrote The Scripture of the Golden Eternity in 1956, a year
before the publication of On The Road. He was was deeply immersed in his
study of Buddhism, which is evidenced in the sixty-six stanzas of this
book. The Scripture was originally published by Corinth Books in 1960.
The 1970 edition included an introduction by Eric Mottram. The current
City Lights edition includes a second introduction by Anne Waldman who
worked with Allen Ginsberg at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics
at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
Quoting Waldman from her introduction: Kerouac's "satori" or
flash of enlightenment comes, as he tells it, from a fainting spell ("I
had apparently fainted, or died, for about sixty seconds") in his
back yard. The "golden" is the sun on his eyelids. The "eternity"
is everything and nothing, the everlasting "So." The Scripture
of the Golden Eternity is fueled by Kerouac's discerning meditation on
the nature of impermanence & consciousness, subtle like the dharma
it invokes. We're here to disappear, therefore let's be as vivid &
generous as we can. The intelligence & compassion behind this text
is still alive.
Some selections from The Scripture of the Golden Eternity
2
The awakened Buddha to show the way, the chosen Messiah to die in the
degradation of sentience, is the golden eternity. One that is what is,
the golden eternity, or, God, or, Tathagata-the name. The Named One. The
human God. Sentient Godhood. Animate Divine. The Deified One. The Verified
One. The Free One. The Liberator. The Still One. The Settled One. The
Established One. Golden Eternity. All is Well. The Empty One. The Ready
One. The Quitter. The Sitter. The Justified One. The Happy One.
6
Strictly speaking, there is no me, because all is emptiness. I am empty,
I am non-existent. All is bliss.
10
This world is the movie of what everything is, it is one movie, made of
the same stuff throughout, belonging to nobody, which is what everything
is.
16
The point is we're waiting, not how comfortable we are while waiting.
Paleolithic man waited by caves for the realization of why he was there,
and hunted; modern men wait in beautified homes and try to forget death
and birth. We're waiting for the realization that this is the golden eternity.
26
All these selfnesses have already vanished. Einstein measured that this
present universe is an expanding bubble, and you know what that means.
40
Meditate outdoors. The dark trees at night are not really the dark trees
at night, it's only the golden eternity.
45
When you've understood this scripture, throw it away. If you cant understand
this scripture, throw it away. I insist on your freedom.
56
Imaginary judgments about things, in the Nothing-Ever-Happened wonderful
void, you dont even have to reject them, let alone accept them. "That
looks like a tree, let's call it a tree," said Coyote to Earthmaker
at the beginning, and they walked around the rootdrinker patting their
bellies.
58
Look at your little finger, the emptiness of it is no different that the
emptiness of infinity.
65
This is the first teaching from the golden eternity.
66
The second teaching from the golden eternity is that there never was a
first teaching from the golden eternity. So be sure.
Jack Kerouac, 1956
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