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Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha Kindle Edition

by Jack Kerouac (Author), Robert Thurman (Introduction) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 103 ratings
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Though raised Catholic, in the early 1950s Jack Kerouac became fascinated with Buddhism, an interest that would have a profound impact on his ideas of spirituality and their expression in his writing from Mexico City Blues to The Dharma Bums. Published for the first time in book form, Wake Up is Kerouac’s retelling of the story of Prince Siddhartha Gautama, who as a young man abandoned his wealthy family and comfortable home for a lifelong search for Enlightenment. As a compendium of the teachings of the Buddha, Wake Up is a profound meditation on the nature of life, desire, wisdom, and suffering. Distilled from a wide variety of canonical scriptures, Wake Up serves as both a concise primer on the concepts of Buddhism and as an insightful and deeply personal document of Kerouac’s evolving beliefs. It is the work of a devoted spiritual follower of the Buddha who also happened to be one of the twentieth century’s most influential novelists. Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha will be essential reading for the legions of Jack Kerouac fans and for anyone who is curious about the spiritual principles of one of the world’s great religions.
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  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
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    Penguin Books
  5. Publication date
    September 18, 2008
  6. Reading age
    18 years and up
  7. File size
    373 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1958, Kerouac published his groundbreaking novel The Dharma Bums, which met with great acclaim and has since been heralded as the opening salvo of an indigenous American Buddhism. This fall, Viking is repackaging that novel in a 50th-anniversary edition while also releasing Kerouac's unsung and long-forgotten tale of the Buddha's life, published in book form for the first time. The titular theme of "wake up" is rehearsed throughout Kerouac's story of Prince Siddartha Gotama, who left an indolent but meaningless life of riches to embrace asceticism and enlightenment. Drawing on multiple sutras and accounts of the Buddha's life, Kerouac focuses on Gotama's renunciation of worldly things by repeating that trope with several other wealthy characters who forsake riches in favor of nirvana. The prose is as meandering as it is beautiful, with Kerouac's Buddha spouting memorable sayings about sensation, illusion, emptiness and suffering. If there is an almost evangelistic zeal to this loose collection of axioms and Buddhist conversion stories, Kerouac at least states that openly: "The purpose is to convert," he explains at the outset.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Praise for Wake Up:

"[Kerouac] defines the attitudes of an entire generation." —The Guardian

"[Wake Up] contributes significantly to the fascinating picture of Kerouac's spirituality." —Jonah Raskin, The Beat Review

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0017SV11Q
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; 1st edition (September 18, 2008)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 18, 2008
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 373 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 188 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 103 ratings

About the author

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Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac

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Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), the central figure of the Beat Generation, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922 and died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1969. Among his many novels are On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Big Sur, and Visions of Cody.

Photo by USGov (National Archives) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
103 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Tim Lukeman
5.0 out of 5 stars A deeply personal spiritual amalgam & confession
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2018
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This is an unusual book in the Kerouac corpus: part Buddhism filtered through working class, French-Canadian Catholicism; part retelling of classic Buddhist writings; and most of all, part baring of the soul of a man intimately acquainted with suffering & loss, which informs the always energetic, tumbling flow of his prose. In writing of the Buddha as a counterpart to Christ, Kerouac is really offering his own confession of exactly where he was at that moment, struggling with the painful personal questions of purpose, meaning, despair & salvation. In short, it's essentially his own spiritual autobiography to that point in his life.

Some reviewers have complained that this isn't "real" Buddhism, or that it's woefully misunderstood at best. And I can't entirely disagree—if that's the viewpoint from which you're reading this book. In that case, it's bound to disappoint. But I'd suggest that reading it as the naked statement of the individual man, one caught up in the possibilities of redemption & meaning that his struggling but earnest perception of Buddhism offered him, may well be more rewarding for the reader.

In any case, it's well worth reading simply for the beauty & vividness of the language, composed when he was at the height of his power as a writer. I only wish there was a recording of Kerouac reading it himself, as he was always the best reader of his own work, with a wonderful voice that was open & honest, filled with life—and that included suffering as well as joy, intermingling in a way that goes right to the heart. The audiobook version captures some of that with a skilled reader; but try reading it aloud to yourself & see how it sounds.

So—an absolutely vital book? Perhaps not, even for some Kerouac devotees ... but for me, a lovely, sometimes heartbreaking work that illuminates both his writing & his life—for that reason, hsppily recommended!
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robin friedman
5.0 out of 5 stars Kerouac's Biography of the Buddha
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2008
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In the early 1950s, Jack Kerouac (1922 -- 1969)became fascinated with Buddhism. In 1955, he wrote this short, highly personalized biography of the Buddha, "Wake Up". The biography was serialized in 1993 in the Buddhist magazine "Tricycle" but it has never before appeared in book form. The book was published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Kerouac's most overtly Buddhist novel, "The Dharma Bums" which has also appeared in a new commemorative edition this year.

"Wake up" is a small gem. The writing is a passionate mixture of Kerouac and Buddhist texts. The book shows fervor and commitment and explains what Kerouac found valuable in Buddhism. The Buddha is treated as almost an Asian equivalent of Jesus. Kerouac never left the Catholicism in which he was raised. He was among the first of a long generation of Americans that have tried to combine the insights of the Buddha with a western religion.

For an American in the 1950s Kerouac had read widely if unsystematically in Buddhism. Thus this biography draws on texts from different Buddhist traditions which are not fully consistent with each other. In much of the book, Kerouac drew on a book called "The Buddhist Bible" in which an earlier American writer, Dwight Goddard, who likewise was attracted to both Buddhism and Christianity, translated some basic Buddhist texts. Kerouac had great problems with alcohol, drugs, and sex througout his life. As often is the case, the writer was wiser than the man. "Wake up" evidences an excellent lay understanding of the Buddhism which so inspired Kerouac. While this book is introductory, informal and nonscholarly, Kerouac had a sympathetic grasp of his subject.

Kerouac describes the purpose of his book at the outset: "I have designed this to be a handbook of the ancient Law. The purpose is to convert." But this, Kerouac meant to transform the reader by showing the life-changing character of Buddhist teachings.

Here is how Kerouac begins his biography.

"Buddha means the awakened one. Until recently most people thought of Buddha as a big fat rococo sitting figure with his belly out, laughing, as represented in millions of tourist trinkets and dime store statuettes here in the western world... This man was no slob-like figure of mirth , but a serious and tragic prophet, the Jesus Christ of India and almost all Asia." (p7) Kerouac describes how the Buddha grew disillusioned with his life of luxury, his dancing girls, and even his lovely wife when, at the age of 29, he was confronted with the facts of aging, sickness and death. He left the life of a prince and became a wanderer in search of understanding human suffering for the purpose of alleviating it.

Kerouac loosely follows the story of Buddha's life, focusing upon his Englightenment experience six years after his wandering began. The Englightenment is described in a mixture of Buddhist texts and Kerouac's inimitable prose. As Kerouac describes it in part:

"Ho there! Wake up! the river in your dream may seem pleasant, but below it is a lake with rapids and crocodiles, the river is evil desire, the lake is the sensual life, its waves are anger, its rapids are lust, and the crocodiles are the women-folk."(p44) Earlier, Kerouac quotes an "eminent writer" who said that in looking for the cause of human unhappiness Gotama had "sought for it in man and nature, and found it not, and lo! it was in his own heart!" (p.21)

Kerouac leads the reader through the Buddha's ministry, his disciples, and his teachings including the famous "fire sermon" with a focus on the difficult Buddhist teachings of dependent origination and emptiness, which he explains well. Near the end of the book, Kerouac offers a long metaphysical discussion of the nature of reality and emptiness based upon a text known as the Surangama Sutra, which Kerouac knew from the translation in Goddard. The book closes with a Sutra-based account of the Buddha's death in which Kerouac writes

"The moon paled, the river sobbed, a mental breeze bowed down the trees.".... Voluntarily enduring infinite trials through numberless ages and births, that he might deliver mankind and all life, foregoing the right to enter Nirvana and casting himself again and again into Sangsara's stream of life and destiny for the sole purpose of teaching the way of liberation from sorrow and suffering, this is Buddha who is everyone and everything." (pp 145-146)

The book features an introduction by the noted American Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman which discusses Kerouac's understanding of Buddhism as it appears in "Wake Up" and in "The Dharma Bums" and which explores Kerouac's understanding of the relationship between Buddhism and the Catholicism to which he was born.

Readers interested in Buddhism or in Kerouac will enjoy this little-known book.

Robin Friedman
37 people found this helpful
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bgandl
5.0 out of 5 stars As good as his best
Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2017
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I love this book. Pre-drunk/derangement Kerouac. Lovely vibe and spirit. Good hearted book.
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HOANG THUY DUNG
4.0 out of 5 stars Wake up: A life of the Buddha
Reviewed in France on September 29, 2013
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Une lecture qui s'impose quand on a lu On the road.
Prose un peu ésotérique et différent de son style habituel, mais qui ne désoriente pas ceux qui sont familiers des ouvrages traitant de la spiritualité.
Pour Kerouac comme pour le Bouddhisme, la réalité n'est que le Vide et le monde n'est que la projection de nos désirs, dont la réalisation est vouée à l'échec et ne mène qu'à la souffrance. Pour s'en émanciper, il faut se distancier de ses sens et de la conscience de. "soi". Plus facile à dire qu'à faire, d'où désespoir. Et tentation d'annihiler la conscience de soi par des artifices, tels que drogues ou alcool. C'est peu être la raison pour laquelle Kerouac est mort jeune, terrassé par l'abus de cuites et de trips.
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André Cascais
5.0 out of 5 stars OM OM
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 19, 2013
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Well what can be said...one of the best Jack kerouac book in my opinion...everybody should read this piece..trully.....one more lesson from the master Jack....love you Jack..meet you later
One person found this helpful
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Mark Duerden
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 26, 2013
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Excellent product swiftly sent. Packaging and product quality were second to non. I will be looking to use this company in the future.ThanQ.
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comfy lover
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 8, 2015
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Brill
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Don't read it as a Buddha biography, and it's fine
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 20, 2013
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I have bought this as a source for investigating the Beat Generation's engagement with Buddhism, and as such it is fine. If you want to know about what traditional Buddhist sources have to say about the Buddha, this is not the book to read.
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