Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Reading Dharma Bums on an Airplane

This past summer, I held an internship that goes directly against the book I decided bring onto an airplane to read while on the way to a trade show. This book was of course "The Dharma Bums" by Jack Kerouac. I have yet to read on the road but I wanted to pick up something that wasn't so famous, so I choose this one.
My mind was blown into another dimension of eastern philosophy merging into a western world and I didn't know if I could truly understand what Ray was talking about. As I read more, I began to feel the pull of his words bringing me closer to enlightenment (whatever it can be) and I began to really feel zen. I don't know if it was because I was so high up in the air but with phrases like, "Here, this, is it. The world as it is, is heaven, I'm looking for a Heaven outside what there is," (141) and I can't forget, "Everything is empty but awake! Things are empty in time and space and mind," (144) I really felt lifted. The environment that I was raised in never let me enable this type of thought process and while I was flying through the clouds going north away from California, I felt the presence of the possibility of an after life or even just enlightenment though death as being heaven itself.
These aren't good thing to think when I have to be responsible and work for someone because it just makes me want to wander around and say fuck it.

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