Mexico City Mysticism

Here is a beautiful Chorus from Kerouac's Mexico City Blues:

140th Chorus

Fifty pesos

3 Cheers Forever
It's beautiful to be comfortable
Nirvana Here I am

When I was born Tathagatas
Assembled from all universes
And chanted in my ear
The gray song of Nirvana
     Saying "Dont Come Back"
        Then my Angel Gerard
        Protected and comforted me
        In the Rainy Misery
        And my mother smiled
        And my father was dark
        And my sister
        And I sat on the floor
        And I Void Listened
        To the Eternal Return
        With no Expression

I wanted to share this because it represents, to me, Kerouac's lonely mysticism and his love of Buddhism. There is an idea in Buddhism of Emptiness: all things are inherently empty. What this means though is that all things -- mountains, trees, rivers, you and I, have no inherit separate existence. Kerouac emphasizes this in his being born not 'a' Tathagata, but being born Tathagatas: he is all Tathagatas, as are we. A Tathagata is one who has attained Nirvana; that is one who has relinquished attachments. Nirvana has been described as an Extinguishing of Self, or Leaving the Wheel of Birth and Death: another meaning for Tathagata is one who has gone.

Kerouac channels this Tathagataness when he says "I Void Listened/To the Eternal Return/With no Expression. To be without expression is to be void, is to be free of attachments; the eternal return being both the Buddha Nature and Samsara, the World of Life and Death, and Illusions.

I like to bring this up because I think it's really worth reminding ourselves that Kerouac's spirituality was the core of his writing: he was a self proclaimed christian mystic with a deep and reverential love of Buddhism.