Jack Kerouac - The Scripture Of The Golden Eternity

 
     

     EARLY BIRD BOOKS

     FRESH EBOOK DEALS, DELIVERED DAILY

     BE THE FIRST TO KNOW—


     NEW DEALS HATCH EVERY DAY!


      


    The Scripture of the Golden Eternity


     Jack Kerouac

      


    Jack Kerouac died suddenly in 1969

     at the age of 47.


    Publisher's Note


     Long before they were ever written down, poems were organized in lines. Since the invention of the printing press, readers have become increasingly conscious of looking at poems, rather than hearing them, but the function of the poetic line remains primarily sonic. Whether a poem is written in meter or in free verse, the lines introduce some kind of pattern into the ongoing syntax of the poem's sentences; the lines make us experience those sentences differently. Reading a prose poem, we feel the strategic absence of line.
     But precisely because we've become so used to looking at poems, the function of line can be hard to describe. As James Longenbach writes in The Art of the Poetic Line, "Line has no identity except in relation to other elements in the poem, especially the syntax of the poem's sentences. It is not an abstract concept, and its qualities cannot be described generally or schematically. It cannot be associated reliably with the way we speak or breathe. Nor can its function be understood merely from its visual appearance on the page." Printed books altered our relationship to poetry by allowing us to see the lines more readily. What new challenges do electronic reading devices pose?
     In a printed book, the width of the page and the size of the type are fixed. Usually, because the page is wide enough and the type small enough, a line of poetry fits comfortably on the page: What you see is what you're supposed to hear as a unit of sound. Sometimes, however, a long line may exceed the width of the page; the line continues, indented just below the beginning of the line. Readers of printed books have become accustomed to this convention, even if it may on some occasions seem ambiguous—particularly when some of the lines of a poem are already indented from the left-hand margin of the page.
     But unlike a printed book, which is stable, an ebook is a shape-shifter. Electronic type may be reflowed across a galaxy of applications and interfaces, across a variety of screens, from phone to tablet to computer. And because the reader of an ebook is empowered to change the size of the type, a poem's original lineation may seem to be altered in many different ways. As the size of the type increases, the likelihood of any given line running over increases.
     Our typesetting standard for poetry is designed to register that when a line of poetry exceeds the width of the screen, the resulting run-over line should be indented, as it might be in a printed book. Take a look at John Ashbery's "Disclaimer" as it appears in two different type sizes.
      

     Each of these versions of the poem has the same number of lines: the number that Ashbery intended. But if you look at the second, third, and fifth lines of the second stanza in the right-hand version of "Disclaimer," you'll see the automatic indent; in the fifth line, for instance, the word ahead drops down and is indented. The automatic indent not only makes poems easier to read electronically; it also helps to retain the rhythmic shape of the line—the unit of sound—as the poet intended it. And to preserve the integrity of the line, words are never broken or hyphenated when the line must run over. Reading "Disclaimer" on the screen, you can be sure that the phrase "you pause before the little bridge, sigh, and turn ahead" is a complete line, while the phrase "you pause before the little bridge, sigh, and turn" is not.
     Open Road has adopted an electronic typesetting standard for poetry that ensures the clearest possible marking of both line breaks and stanza breaks, while at the same time handling the built-in function for resizing and reflowing text that all ereading devices possess. The first step is the appropriate semantic markup of the text, in which the formal elements distinguishing a poem, including lines, stanzas, and degrees of indentation, are tagged. Next, a style sheet that reads these tags must be designed, so that the formal elements of the poems are always displayed consistently. For instance, the style sheet reads the tags marking lines that the author himself has indented; should that indented line exceed the character capacity of a screen, the run-over part of the line will be indented further, and all such runovers will look the same. This combination of appropriate coding choices and style sheets makes it easy to display poems with complex indentations, no matter if the lines are metered or free, end-stopped or enjambed.
     Ultimately, there may be no way to account for every single variation in the way in which the lines of a poem are disposed visually on an electronic reading device, just as rare variations may challenge the conventions of the printed page, but with rigorous quality assessment and scrupulous proofreading, nearly every poem can be set electronically in accordance with its author's intention. And in some regards, electronic typesetting increases our capacity to transcribe a poem accurately: In a printed book, there may be no way to distinguish a stanza break from a page break, but with an ereader, one has only to resize the text in question to discover if a break at the bottom of a page is intentional or accidental.
     Our goal in bringing out poetry in fully reflowable digital editions is to honor the sanctity of line and stanza as meticulously as possible—to allow readers to feel assured that the way the lines appear on the screen is an accurate embodiment of the way the author wants the lines to sound. Ever since poems began to be written down, the manner in which they ought to be written down has seemed equivocal; ambiguities have always resulted. By taking advantage of the technologies available in our time, our goal is to deliver the most satisfying reading experience possible.

    1


     Did I create that sky? Yes, for, if it was
     anything other than a conception in my mind
     I wouldnt have said "Sky"—That is why I am the
     golden eternity. There are not two of us here,
     reader and writer, but one, one golden eternity,
     One-Which-It-Is, That-Which-Everything-Is.
     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 G-d, or,
     Tathagata—the name. The Named One.
     The human G-d. Sentient G-dhood.
     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.
     3


     That sky, if it was anything other than an
     illusion of my mortal mind I wouldnt have said
     "that sky." Thus I made that sky, I am the
     golden eternity. I am Mortal Golden Eternity.
     4


     I was awakened to show the way, chosen to
     die in the degradation of life, because I am
     Mortal Golden Eternity.
     5


     I am the golden eternity in mortal animate form.
     6


     Strictly speaking, there is no me, because all is
     emptiness. I am empty, I am non-existent.
     All is bliss.
     7


     This truth law has no more reality than the world.
     8


     You are the golden eternity because there is
     no me and no you, only one golden eternity.
     9


     The Realizer. Entertain no imaginations whatever,
     for the thing is a no-thing. Knowing this then
     is Human G-dhood.
     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.
     11


     If we were not all the golden eternity we
     wouldnt be here. Because we are here we
     cant help being pure. To tell man to be pure on
     account of the punishing angel that punishes the
     bad and the rewarding angel that rewards the good
     would be like telling the water "Be Wet"—Never
     the less, all things depend on supreme reality,
     which is already established as the record of
     Karma-earned fate.
     12


     G-d is not outside us but is just us, the
     living and the dead, the never-lived and
     never-died. That we should learn it only now, is
     supreme reality, it was written a long time ago
     in the archives of universal mind, it is already
     done, there's no more to do.
     13


     This is the knowledge that sees the golden
     eternity in all things, which is us, you,
     me, and which is no longer us, you, me.
     14


     What name shall we give it which hath no
     name, the common eternal matter of the mind?
     If we were to call it essence, some might think it
     meant perfume, or gold, or honey. It is not even
     mind. It is not even discussable, groupable into
     words; it is not even endless, in fact it is not
     even mysterious or inscrutably inexplicable; it is
     what is; it is that; it is this. We could easily
     call the golden eternity "This." But "what's in
     a name?" asked Shakespeare. The golden eternity
     by another name would be as sweet. A Tathagata,
     A G-d, a Buddha by another name, an Allah, a Sri
     Krishna, a Coyote, a Brahma, a Mazda, a Messiah,
     an Amida, an Aremedeia, a Maitreya, a Palalakonuh,
     1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 would be as sweet. The golden
     eternity is X, the golden eternity is A, the
     golden eternity is  , the golden eternity is  ,
     the golden eternity is  , the golden eternity is
     t-h-eg-o-l-d-e-ne-t-e-r-n-i-t-y. In the
     beginning was the word; before the beginning, in
     the beginningless infinite neverendingness, was
     the essence. Both the word "G-d" and the essence
     of the word, are emptiness. The form of emptiness
     which is emptiness having taken the form of form,
     is what you see and hear and feel right now, and
     what you taste and smell and think as you read
     this. Wait awhile, close your eyes, let your
     breathing stop three seconds or so, listen to
     the inside silence in the womb of the world, let
     your hands and nerve-ends drop, re-recognize
     the bliss you forgot, the emptiness and
     essence and ecstasy of ever having been and
     ever to be the golden eternity. This is
     the lesson you forgot.
     15


     The lesson was taught long ago in the other
     world systems that have naturally changed
     into the empty and awake, and are here
     now smiling in our smile and scowling in our
     scowl. It is only like the golden eternity
     pretending to be smiling and scowling to
     itself; like a ripple on the smooth ocean of
     knowing. The fate of humanity is to vanish
     into the golden eternity, return pouring into
     its hands which are not hands. The navel shall
     receive, invert, and take back what'd issued
     forth; the ring of flesh shall close; the personalities
     of long dead heroes are blank dirt.
     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.
     17


     It came on time.
     18


     There is a blessedness surely to be believed,
     and that is that everything abides in
     eternal ecstasy, now and forever.
     19


     Mother Kali eats herself back. All things but
     come to go. All these holy forms, unmanifest,
     not even forms, truebodies of blank bright
     ecstasy, abiding in a trance, "in emptiness and
     silence" as it is pointed out in the Diamond-cutter,
     asked to be only what they are: Glad.
     20


     The secret G-d-grin in the trees and in the teapot,
     in ashes and fronds, fire and brick, flesh and
     mental human hope. All things, far from yearning
     to be re-united with G-d, had never left themselves
     and here they are, Dharmakaya, the body of the
     truth law, the universal Thisness.
     21


     "Beyond the reach of change and fear, beyond
     all praise and blame," the Lankavatara Scripture
     knows to say, is he who is what he is in time and in
     time-less-ness, in ego and in ego-less-ness, in self
     and in self-less-ness.
     22


     Stare deep into the world before you as if it were
     the void: innumerable holy ghosts, buddhies,
     and savior G-ds there hide, smiling. All the
     atoms emitting light inside wavehood, there is
     no personal separation of any of it. A hummingbird
     can come into a house and a hawk will not: so rest
     and be assured. While looking for the light, you
     may suddenly be devoured by the darkness
     and find the true light.
     23


     Things dont tire of going and coming.
     The flies end up with the delicate viands.
     24


     The cause of the world's woe is birth,
     the cure of the world's woe is a bent stick.
     25


     Though it is everything, strictly speaking
     there is no golden eternity because everything
     is nothing: there are no things and no goings and
     comings: for all is emptiness, and emptiness is
     these forms, emptiness is this one formhood.
     26


     All these selfnesses have already vanished.
     Einstein measured that this present universe is an
     expanding bubble, and you know what that means.
     27


     Discard such definite imaginations of phenomena
     as your own self, thou human being, thou'rt a
     numberless mass of sun-motes: each mote a shrine.
     The same as to your shyness of other selves,
     selfness as divided into infinite numbers of beings,
     or selfness as identified as one self existing
     eternally. Be obliging and noble, be generous
     with your time and help and possessions, and be
     kind, because the emptiness of this little place
     of flesh you carry around and call your soul,
     your entity, is the same emptiness in every direction
     of space unmeasurably emptiness, the same, one,
     and holy emptiness everywhere: why be selfly and
     unfree, Man G-d, in your dream? Wake up, thou'rt
     selfless and free. "Even and upright your mind
     abides nowhere," states Hui Neng of China.
     We're all in Heaven now.
     28


     Roaring dreams take place in a perfectly silent
     mind. Now that we know this, throw the raft away.
     29


     Are you tightwad and are you mean, those are
     the true sins, and sin is only a conception of ours,
     due to long habit. Are you generous and are
     you kind, those are the true virtues, and they're
     only conceptions. The golden eternity rests beyond
     sin and virtue, is attached to neither, is attached
     to nothing, is unattached, because the golden
     eternity is Alone. The mold has rills but it is one
     mold. The field has curves but it is one field.
     All things are different forms of the same thing.
     I call it the golden eternity—what do you
     call it, brother? For the blessing and merit
     of virtue, and the punishment and bad fate
     of sin, are alike just so many words.
     30


     Sociability is a big smile, and a big smile is
     nothing but teeth. Rest and be kind.
     31


     There's no need to deny that evil thing called
     GOOGOO, which doesnt exist, just as there's no
     need to deny that evil thing called Sex and Rebirth,
     which also doesnt exist, as it is only a form of
     emptiness. The bead of semen comes from a long
     line of awakened natures that were your parent,
     a holy flow, a succession of saviors pouring from
     the womb of the dark void and back into it,
     fantastic magic imagination of the lightning, flash,
     plays, dreams, not even plays, dreams.
     32


     "The womb of exuberant fertility," Ashvhaghosha
     called it, radiating forms out of its womb of
     exuberant emptiness. In emptiness there is no
     Why, no knowledge of Why, no ignorance of Why,
     no asking and no answering of Why, and no
     significance attached to this
     33


     A disturbed and frightened man is like the
     golden eternity experimentally pretending at
     feeling the disturbed-and-frightened mood; a
     calm and joyous man, is like the golden eternity
     pretending at experimenting with that experience;
     a man experiencing his Sentient Being, is like
     the golden eternity pretending at trying that out
     too; a man who has no thoughts, is like the golden
     eternity pretending at being itself; because
     the emptiness of everything has no beginning
     and no end and at present it is infinite.
     34


     "Love is all in all," said Sainte Thérèse, choosing
     Love for her vocation and pouring out her
     happiness, from her garden by the gate, with
     a gentle smile, pouring roses on the earth,
     so that the beggar in the thunderbolt received
     of the endless offering of her dark void.
     Man goes a-beggaring into nothingness.
     "Ignorance is the father, Habit-Energy is
     the Mother." Opposites are not the same
     for the same reason they are the same.
     35


     The words "atoms of dust" and "the great
     universes" are only words. The idea that they
     imply is only an idea. The belief that we live here
     in this existence, divided into various beings,
     passing food in and out of ourselves, and casting off
     husks of bodies one after another with no cessation
     and no definite or particular discrimination, is
     only an idea. The seat of our Immortal Intelligence
     can be seen in that beating light between the eyes
     the Wisdom Eye of the ancients: we know what
     we're doing: we're not disturbed: because
     we're like the golden eternity pretending at
     playing the magic cardgame and making believe
     it's real, it's a big dream, a joyous ecstasy of
     words and ideas and flesh, an ethereal flower
     unfolding and folding back, a movie, an
     exuberant bunch of lines bounding emptiness,
     the womb of Avalokitesvara, a vast secret
     silence, springtime in the Void, happy young
     G-ds talking and drinking on a cloud. Our
     32,000 chillicosms bear all the marks of
     excellence. Blind milky light fills our night;
     and the morning is a crystal.
     36


     Give a gift to your brother, but there's no gift
     to compare with the giving of assurance that he
     is the golden eternity. The true understanding of
     this would bring tears to your eyes. The other
     shore is right here, forgive and forget, protect
     and reassure. Your tormentors will be purified.
     Raise thy diamond hand. Have faith and wait.
     The course of your days is a river rumbling over
     your rocky back. You're sitting at the bottom of the
     world with a head of iron. Religion is thy sad
     heart. You're the golden eternity and it must be
     done by you. And means one thing: Nothing-
     Ever-Happened. This is the golden eternity.
     37


     When the Prince of Kalinga severed the
     flesh from the limbs and body of Buddha, even
     then Buddha was free from any such ideas as
     his own self, other self, living beings
     divided into many selves, or living beings
     united and identified into one eternal self.
     The golden eternity isnt "me." Before you
     can know that you're dreaming you'll wake up,
     Atman. Had the Buddha, the Awakened One,
     cherished any of these imaginary judgments
     of and about things, he would have fallen
     into impatience and hatred in his suffering.
     Instead, like Jesus on the Cross he saw the
     light and died kind, loving all living things.
     38


     The world was spun out of a blade of grass:
     the world was spun out of a mind. Heaven
     was spun out of a blade of grass: heaven was spun
     out of a mind. Neither will do you much good,
     neither will do you much harm. The Oriental
     imperturbed, is the golden eternity.
     39


     He is called a Yogi, he is called a Priest,
     a Minister, a Brahmin, a Parson, a Chaplain,
     a Rôshi, a Laoshih, a Master, a Patriarch, a Pope,
     a Spiritual Commissar, a Counselor, an Adviser,
     a Bodhisattva-Mahasattva, an Old Man, a Saint,
     a Shaman, a Leader, who thinks nothing of
     himself as separate from another self, not
     higher nor lower, no stages and no definite
     attainments, no mysterious stigmata or secret
     holyhood, no wild dark knowledge and no
     venerable authoritativeness, nay a giggling sage
     sweeping out the kitchen with a broom. After
     supper, a silent smoke. Because there is no
     definite teaching: the world is undisciplined
     Nature endlessly in every direction inward
     to your body and outward into space.
     40


     Meditate outdoors. The dark trees at night
     are not really the dark trees at night, it's
     only the golden eternity.
     41


     A mosquito as big as Mount Everest is much
     bigger than you think; a horse's hoof is more
     delicate than it looks. An altar consecrated to
     the golden eternity, filled with roses and lotuses
     and diamonds, is the cell of the humble prisoner,
     the cell so cold and dreary. Boethius kissed the
     Robe of the Mother Truth in a Roman dungeon.
     42


     Do you think the emptiness of the sky will ever
     crumble away? Every little child knows that
     everybody will go to heaven. Knowing that
     nothing ever happened is not really knowing
     that nothing ever happened, it's the golden eternity.
     In other words, nothing can compare with telling
     your brother and your sister that what happened,
     what is happening, and what will happen, never
     really happened, is not really happening and never
     will happen, it is only the golden eternity.
     Nothing was ever born, nothing will ever die.
     Indeed, it didnt even happen that you heard about
     golden eternity through the accidental reading of
     this scripture. The thing is easily false. There
     are no warnings whatever issuing from the
     golden eternity: do what you want.
     43


     Even in dreams be kind, because anyway there is
     no time, no space, no mind. "It's all not-born,"
     said Bankei of Japan, whose mother heard this
     from her son and did what we call "died happy."
     And even if she had died unhappy, dying unhappy
     is not really dying unhappy, it's the golden eternity.
     It's impossible to exist, it's impossible to be
     persecuted, it's impossible to miss your reward.
     44


     Eight hundred and four thousand myriads of
     Awakened Ones throughout numberless swirls
     of epochs appeared to work hard to save a grain
     of sand, and it was only the golden eternity.
     And their combined reward will be no greater and
     no lesser than what will be won by a piece of
     dried turd. It's a reward beyond thought.
     45


     When you've understood this scripture, throw it
     away. If you cant understand this scripture,
     throw it away. I insist on your freedom.
     46


     O Everlasting Eternity, all things and all truth
     laws are no-things, in three ways, which is the
     same way: AS THINGS OF TIME they dont
     exist and never came, because they're already gone
     and there is no time. AS THINGS OF SPACE they
     dont exist because there is no furthest atom than
     can be found or weighed or grasped, it is emptiness
     through and through, matter and empty space too.
     AS THINGS OF MIND they dont exist, because
     the mind that conceives and makes them out does
     so by seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting,
     and mentally-noticing and without this mind they
     would not be seen or heard or felt or smelled or
     tasted or mentally-noticed, they are discriminated
     from that which they're not necessarily by imaginary
     judgments of the mind, they are actually dependent
     on the mind that makes them out, by themselves
     they are no-things, they are really mental, seen only
     of the mind, they are really empty visions of the
     mind, heaven is a vision, everything is a vision.
     What does it mean that I am in this endless universe
     thinking I'm a man sitting under the stars on the
     terrace of earth, but actually empty and awake
     throughout the emptiness and awakedness of
     everything? It means that I am empty and
     awake, knowing that I am empty and awake,
     and that there's no difference between me and
     anything else. It means that I have attained
     to that which everything is.
     47


     The-Attainer-To-That-Which-Everything-Is,
     the Sanskrit Tathagata, has no ideas whatever
     but abides in essence identically with the essence
     of all things, which is what it is, in emptiness and
     silence. Imaginary meaning stretched to make
     mountains and as far as the germ is concerned it
     stretched even further to make molehills. A
     million souls dropped through hell but nobody
     saw them or counted them. A lot of large people
     isnt really a lot of large people, it's only the
     golden eternity. When St. Francis went to heaven
     he did not add to heaven nor detract from earth.
     Locate silence, possess space, spot me the ego.
     "From the beginning," said the Sixth Patriarch
     of the China School, "not a thing is."
     48


     He who loves all life with his pity and
     intelligence isnt really he who loves all life
     with his pity and intelligence, it's only natural.
     The universe is fully known because it is
     ignored. Enlightenment comes when you dont
     care. This is a good tree stump I'm sitting on.
     You cant even grasp your own pain let alone
     your eternal reward. I love you because you're
     me. I love you because there's nothing else
     to do. It's just the natural golden eternity.
     49


     What does it mean that those trees and
     mountains are magic and unreal?—It means
     that those trees and mountains are magic and
     unreal. What does it mean that those trees and
     mountains are not magic but real?—it means
     that those trees and mountains are not magic
     but real. Men are just making imaginary
     judgments both ways, and all the time it's
     just the same natural golden eternity.
     50


     If the golden eternity was anything other than
     mere words, you could not have said "golden
     eternity." This means that the words are used
     to point at the endless nothingness of reality.
     If the endless nothingness of reality was anything
     other than mere words, you could not have said
     "endless nothingness of reality," you could not
     have said it. This means that the golden eternity
     is out of our word-reach, it refuses steadfastly
     to be described, it runs away from us and leads
     us in. The name is not really the name. The same
     way, you could not have said "this world" if this
     world was anything other than mere words. There's
     nothing there but just that. They've long known
     that there's nothing to life but just the living of it.
     It Is What It Is and That's All It Is.
     51


     There's no system of teaching and no reward
     for teaching the golden eternity, because
     nothing has happened. In the golden eternity
     teaching and reward havent even vanished let alone
     appeared. The golden eternity doesnt even have to
     be perfect. It is very silly of me to talk about
     it. I talk about it because there's no command or
     warning of any kind, and also no blessing and no
     reward. I talk about it simply because here I am
     dreaming that I talk about it in a dream already
     ended, ages ago, from which I'm already awake, and
     it was only an empty dreaming, in fact nothing
     whatever, in fact nothing ever happened at all.
     The beauty of attaining the golden eternity is
     that nothing will be acquired, at last.
     52


     Kindness and sympathy, understanding and
     encouragement, these give: they are better
     than just presents and gifts: no reason in the
     world why not. Anyhow, be nice. Remember
     the golden eternity is yourself. "If someone will
     simply practice kindness," said Gotama to
     Subhuti, "he will soon attain highest perfect
     wisdom." Then he added: "Kindness after all
     is only a word and it should be done on the spot
     without thought of kindness." By practicing
     kindness all over with everyone you will soon
     come into the holy trance, definite distinctions
     of personalities will become what they really
     mysteriously are, our common and eternal blissstuff,
     the pureness of everything forever, the great bright
     essence of mind, even and one thing everywhere the
     holy eternal milky love, the white light everywhere
     everything, emptybliss, svaha, shining, ready, and
     awake, the compassion in the sound of silence, the
     swarming myriad trillionaire you are.
     53


     Everything's alright, form is emptiness and
     emptiness is form, and we're here forever, in
     one form or another, which is empty. Everything's
     alright, we're not here, there, or anywhere.
     Everything's alright, cats sleep.
     54


     The everlasting and tranquil essence, look around
     and see the smiling essence everywhere. How
     wily was the world made, Maya, not-even-made.
     55


     There's the world in the daylight. If it was
     completely dark you wouldnt see it but it would
     still be there. If you close your eyes you really see
     what it's like: mysterious particle-swarming
     emptiness. On the moon big mosquitos of straw
     know this in the kindness of their hearts. Truly
     speaking, unrecognizably sweet it all is.
     Dont worry about nothing.
     56


     Imaginary judgments about things, in this
     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.
     57


     Perfectly selfless, the beauty of it, the butterfly
     doesnt take it as a personal achievement, he just
     disappears through the trees. You too, kind and
     humble and not-even-here, it wasnt in a greedy
     mood that you saw the light that belongs to
     everybody.
     58


     Look at your little finger, the emptiness of it is
     no different than the emptiness of infinity.
     59


     Cats yawn because they realize
     that there's nothing to do.
     60


     Up in heaven you wont remember all these
     tricks of yours. You wont even sigh "Why?"
     Whether as atomic dust or as great cities, what's
     the difference in all this stuff. A tree is still
     only a rootdrinker. The puma's twisted face
     continues to look at the blue sky with sightless
     eyes, Ah sweet divine and indescribable verdurous
     paradise planted in mid-air! Caitanya, it's only
     consciousness. Not with thoughts of your mind,
     but in the believing sweetness of your heart,
     you snap the link and open the golden door
     and disappear into the bright room, the everlasting
     ecstasy, eternal Now. Soldier, follow me!—there
     never was a war. Arjuna, dont fight!—why
     fight over nothing? Bless and sit down.
     61


     I remember that I'm supposed to be a man and
     consciousness and I focus my eyes and the
     print reappears and the words of the poor book
     are saying, "The world, as G-d has made it"
     and there are no words in my pitying heart
     to express the knowless loveliness of the
     trance there was before I read those words,
     I had no such idea there was a world.
     62


     This world has no marks, signs or evidence of
     existence, nor the noises in it, like accident
     of wind or voices or heehawing animals,
     yet listen closely the eternal hush of silence
     goes on and on throughout all this, and has been
     going on, and will go on and on. This is because
     the world is nothing but a dream and is just thought
     of and the everlasting eternity pays no attention
     to it. At night under the moon, or in a quiet
     room, hush now, the secret music of the Unborn
     goes on and on, beyond conception, awake beyond
     existence. Properly speaking, awake is not really
     awake because the golden eternity never went to
     sleep: you can tell by the constant sound of
     Silence which cuts through this world like a
     magic diamond through the trick of your not
     realizing that your mind caused the world.
     63


     The G-d of the American Plateau Indian was
     Coyote. He says: "Earth! those beings living on
     your surface, none of them disappearing, will
     all be transformed. When I have spoken to them,
     when they have spoken to me, from that moment
     on, their words and their bodies which they
     usually use to move about with, will all change.
     I will not have heard them."
     64


     I was smelling flowers in the yard, and when
     I stood up I took a deep breath and the blood all
     rushed to my brain and I woke up dead on my
     back in the grass. I had apparently fainted,
     or died, for about sixty seconds. My neighbor
     saw me but he thought I had just suddenly
     thrown myself on the grass to enjoy the sun.
     During that timeless moment of unconsciousness
     I saw the golden eternity. I saw heaven. In it
     nothing had ever happened, the events of a
     million years ago were just as phantom and
     ungraspable as the events of now or of a million
     years from now, or the events of the next ten
     minutes. It was perfect, the golden solitude, the
     golden emptiness, Something-Or-Other, something
     surely humble. There was a rapturous ring of
     silence abiding perfectly. There was no question
     of being alive or not being alive, of likes and
     dislikes, of near or far, no question of giving
     or gratitude, no question of mercy or judgment,
     or of suffering or its opposite or anything.
     It was the womb itself, aloneness, alaya vijnana
     the universal store, the Great Free Treasure, the
     Great Victory, infinite completion, the joyful
     mysterious essence of Arrangement. It seemed
     like one smiling smile, one adorable adoration,
     one gracious and adorable charity, everlasting
     safety, refreshing afternoon, roses, infinite
     brilliant immaterial golden ash, the Golden Age.
     The "golden" came from the sun in my eyelids,
     and the "eternity" from my sudden instant
     realization as I woke up that I had just
     been where it all came from and where it
     was all returning, the everlasting So, and
     so never coming or going; therefore I call it
     the golden eternity but you can call it anything
     you want. As I regained consciousness I felt so sorry
     I had a body and a mind suddenly realizing I
     didnt even have a body and a mind and nothing
     had ever happened and everything is alright
     forever and forever and forever, O thank you
     thank you thank you.
     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.

    About the Author


     Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) was an American writer best known for his novel On the Road. Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Kerouac attended Columbia University and then, during World War II, briefly served in the Merchant Marine and the US Navy. Along with his friends, including Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and Neal Cassady, Kerouac was a key figure in the counterculture movement known as the Beat Generation. He wrote his first novel, The Town and the City, about his struggle to balance the expectations of his family with his unconventional life. Kerouac took several cross-country trips with Cassady, which became the basis for On The Road. The manuscript, which was presented to his editor on a single, unbroken roll of paper—the scroll was later exhibited to record crowds in Lowell—was initially rejected. Upon its publication six years later in 1957, Kerouac was faced with challenges resulting from his newfound fame as he tried to live up to the image portrayed in his novels and faced criticism from the literary establishment for being part of what was considered a fad. He published several more novels including Doctor Sax, The Subterraneans, The Dharma Bums, and his final great work, Big Sur. He settled with his mother and his wife, Stella Sampas, in Florida, where he died in 1969 at age forty-seven.
     Kerouac's popularity has not waned since his death. On The Road remains widely read, and a new film adaptation starring Garrett Hedlund and Kristen Stewart premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Kerouac was named one of the most important figures of the twentieth century by Life magazine and the Times (London). Interest in Kerouac continues to grow with the publication of his letters, poetry, spiritual writings, early novels, and more from his remarkable literary archive. Countless writers and musicians, including the Doors, Bob Dylan, and Patti Smith, have cited Kerouac as an influence.

    All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

     Copyright © 1960 by Jan Kerouac and Anthony Sampatakakos

     Cover design by Mauricio Díaz

     ISBN: 978-1-5040-3399-2

     This edition published in 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

     180 Maiden Lane

     New York, NY 10038

     www.openroadmedia.com

      


     

     EARLY BIRD BOOKS

     FRESH EBOOK DEALS, DELIVERED DAILY

     BE THE FIRST TO KNOW—


     NEW DEALS HATCH EVERY DAY!


      


    EBOOKS BY JACK KEROUAC

     FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA

        

        

     Available wherever ebooks are sold

      


     

     Open Road Integrated Media is a digital publisher and multimedia content company. Open Road creates connections between authors and their audiences by marketing its ebooks through a new proprietary online platform, which uses premium video content and social media.

     Videos, Archival Documents, and New Releases

     Sign up for the Open Road Media newsletter and get news delivered straight to your inbox.

     Sign up now at

     www.openroadmedia.com/newsletters

     FIND OUT MORE AT

     WWW.OPENROADMEDIA.COM

     FOLLOW US:

     @openroadmedia and

     Facebook.com/OpenRoadMedia