In the first chapter, the main character Ray (which is Kerouac) defines Dharma as "True Meaning" and a Dharma Bum as a kind of "religious wanderer."(pg. 5) When I looked up the meaning of Dharma, I found that it generally refers to one's religous duty. The way that I interpret this is that if you are a true Dharma Bum, then you are living a simple, meager, and homeless life as a sort of duty to free yourself of any distraction so that you may concentrate on your religion.
Ray describes himself as being a "perfect Dharma Bum" when he is in fact wandering, train jumping, and practicing his charity and kindness. His religious aspirations are to remain this perfect Dharma Bum, and it proves to be an inner struggle for him to do so throughout the book.
I believe that this is a key reason why Japhy Ryder is so important. Ray looks up to him as a sort of effortless master of Zen. In fact, the differences in the way they practice their forms of buddhism is a key theme in "The Dharma Bums". One example of their contasting spirituality is Japhy's "yab yum" ceremony which he accepts as key buddhist practice, versus Ray's year of celebacy because he sees lust as a distraction to his focus on enlightenment.
The inner struggle that Ray endures being a Dharma Bum made complete sense to me today when in class I learned that Kerouac always struggled between being catholic and buddhist.
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3 comments:
I like your interpretation on what it means to be a Dharma Bum. You take a different approach at analyzing this, but its done well, and well thought out.
It's really interesting to compare and contrast the characters of Ray and Japhy. They can both be seen as Dharma Bums, but they definitely do have very different ideas on some things, such as the game of yabyum. I think that it is the moments when we see the differences between the two characters that show how different the definition of a Dharma Bum can be. I really like your connection between the wandering and freedom from everyday constraints in order to concentrate on religion and the “perfect Dharma Bum.” Ray is a wanderer, and his connection to a home or a hometown seems to be existent, but not particularly strong. He treats San Francisco as a kind of resting place from which to base his quest for beatitude through the Dharma Bum lifestyle. I think he also seeks some kind of deeper relationship and definition to religion through living the life of a bodhisattva and/or Dharma Bum. I also really liked your point that Dharma generally refers to one's “duty.” I think on some level, both Ray and Japhy consider some of their actions to be the “duty” of a Dharma Bum. It makes me think of Ray's early encounter with the hitchhiker on the train, who he calls a “true Dharma Bum,” who seems to just take his lifestyle as a matter of course and doesn't really seem to do anything out of duty. It's interesting to think of the link between duty and religion, and especially how it is represented in this book. Really great interpretation!
The way you distinguished Japhy and Ray was completely right on. Ray is just trying to live up to the Zen Buddhist way like Japhy, yet he is held back by his Catholic upbring and the way he was taught to view spirituality. You have a very clear and concise way of explaining it, and you really understand the way Ray is feeling.
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