East Meets West: Spontaneity in Beat Poetry as Buddha-Dharma and Visions of Spiritual Ecology

The Beat Generation was a popular group of American counter-culture writers in the mid-1940s and the 1950s, the era when bebop jazz thrived as a revolutionary genre against the earlier big swing bands. Beat writings are famous for being bohemian and subterranean in their spontaneous poetics embodying both jazz and Buddhist spirituality. However, not many readers realize that the essence of this Beat spontaneity articulates a vision of life that unfolds the nature of phenomena and the interdependent relationship between all things, and between phenomenal objects and one's sense perception. The Beat vision privileges Buddhist teachings about the emptiness of phenomena, the major dharma in Mah?y?na Buddhism. Beat writers viewed phenomena as being empty of self-nature, and therefore believed that one should not cling to or grasp onto phenomenal objects, and should respond to them in a spontaneous way. This spirit of spontaneity is embodied in the frenetic rhythm and fast tempo of bebop jazz, which flourished as an insurgent genre in America in the era of the Beats. The franticness and quickness of bebop suggest an entreaty to jettison one's engrossment in material goods, corresponding with spontaneity as a result of one's insight into the emptiness of phenomena in Buddhism. The amalgamation of spontaneity derived from Mah?y?na Buddhism and bebop jazz that Beat writers express in their poems epitomizes an encounter between East and West. This encounter between Eastern spirituality and Western music in their poetry not only typifies Beat aesthetics but also evokes a vision of spiritual ecology. Beat poetry articulates this vision through the notion of emptiness, the interdependent relation between one thing and another, and the idea of inherent value in any form of life or being.;This dissertation discusses spontaneity in Beat poetry as a simulation of elements of bebop jazz and as a spiritual insight into the emptiness of phenomena leading one to nurture his or her vision of spiritual ecology. This vision pertains to the Buddha-dharma that posits the notion of the emptiness of phenomena, which encourages one not to objectify phenomenal things while relying on them for one's necessities in a conventional sense. Analyses are focused on the poems of two male Beat poets from the East Coast, the originators of the Beat Generation, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg; two female Beat poets from the East Coast, Diane di Prima and Anne Waldman; two male Beat poets from the West Coast, Philip Whalen and Gary Snyder; and two female Beat poets from the West Coast, Lenore Kandel and Joanne Kyger. The poetics of spontaneity of Beat poets from the East and West Coasts inspired by frenetic bebop musical rhythm and the Buddha-dharma of emptiness, generally articulate a similar vision in their evocation of non-objectification of material phenomena. At the same time, this vision entreats one towards care and compassion for material phenomena possessing spiritual entities, despite the fact that one needs material things to live daily life.;Kerouac's choruses in his Mexico City Blues, Ginsberg's poem "Howl", di Prima's "Death Sunyata Chant: A Rite for Passing Over", Waldman's "Fast Speaking Woman", Whalen's "Sourdough Mountain Lookout", Snyder's "Riprap", Kandel's "Rose/Vision" and Kyger's "Tapestry" all epitomize their authors' poetics of spontaneity interweaving jazz and the Buddha-dharma of emptiness. They evoke a vision of spiritual ecology through one's realization of the empty essence of phenomena and one's "skillful means" in behaving properly toward material phenomena and the natural environment. The Beat vision, then, did not solely originate from the male Beats; the female Beats likewise shared this notion through their poetics of spontaneity and emptiness. Reading their poetics in this modern time, the Beat vision would still benefit every individual to change the way he or she consumes material goods and resources from the natural environment. One's ecologically aware manner contributes to lessen environmental problems and to foster an ecological sustainability of the planetary life for the next decades and generation.