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Wake Up

A Life of the Buddha

By Jack Kerouac (Author), Robert Thurman (Contributor)

Paperback published by Penguin Books (Penguin Books)

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Wake Up

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About This Book
Jack Kerouac?s profound meditations on the Buddha?s life and religion

In the mid-1950s, Jack Kerouac, a lifelong Catholic, became fascinated with Buddhism, an interest that had a significant impact on his ideas of spirituality and later found expression in such books as Mexico City Blues and The Dharma Bums. Originally written in 1955 and now published for the first time in paperback, Wake Up is Kerouac?s retelling of the life of Prince Siddhartha Gotama, who as a young man abandoned his wealthy family and comfortable home for a lifelong search for enlightenment. Distilled from a wide variety of canonical scriptures, Wake Up serves as both a penetrating account of the Buddha?s life and a concise primer on the principal teachings of Buddhism.

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Jack Kerouac?s profound meditations on the Buddha?s life and religion

In the mid-1950s, Jack Kerouac, a lifelong Catholic, became fascinated with Buddhism, an interest that had a significant impact on his ideas of spirituality and later found expression in such books as Mexico City Blues and The Dharma Bums. Originally written in 1955 and now published for the first time in paperback, Wake Up is Kerouac?s retelling of the life of Prince Siddhartha Gotama, who as a young man abandoned his wealthy family and comfortable home for a lifelong search for enlightenment. Distilled from a wide variety of canonical scriptures, Wake Up serves as both a penetrating account of the Buddha?s life and a concise primer on the principal teachings of Buddhism.

Product Details
Paperback (224 pages)
Published: October 27, 2009
Publisher: Penguin Books
Imprint: Penguin Books
ISBN: 9780143116011
Other books byJack Kerouac
(57)
  • Jack Kerouac: Collected Poems: Library of America Series Jacket

    Jack Kerouac: Collected Poems: Library of America Series Jacket
    Poetry was at the center of Jack Kerouac’s sense of mission as a writer. This landmark edition brings together for the first time all Kerouac’s major poetic works—Mexico City Blues, The Scripture of the Golden Eternity, Book of Blues, Pomes All Sizes, Old Angel Midnight, Book of Haikus—along with a rich assortment of his uncollected poems, six published here for the first time. He wrote poetry in every period of his life, in forms as diverse as the classical Japanese haiku, the Buddhist sutra, the spontaneous prose poetry of Old Angel Midnight, and the poetic “blues” he developed in Mexico City Blues and other serial works, seeing himself as “a jazz poet blowing a long blues in an afternoon jam session on Sunday.” Many poets found Kerouac a liberating influence on their work: Robert Creeley called him “a genius at the register of the speaking voice”; for Allen Ginsberg he was “a poetic influence over the entire planet”; and Bob Dylan said that Mexico City Blues was crucial to his own artistic development. Also available in specially-designed jacket (978-1-59853-194-7)
    Visit Book Page

    On the Road (Essential Edition)

    On the Road (Essential Edition)
    (Penguin Essential Edition)
    Jack Kerouac's groundbreaking novel—soon to be a major motion picture with a star-studded cast In what is sure to be one of the major cinematic events of 2012, Jack Kerouac's legendary Beat classic, On the Road, will finally hit the big screen. Directed by Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries; Paris, Je T'Aime) and with a cast of some of Hollywood's biggest stars, including Kristen Stewart (The Twilight Saga), Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kirsten Dunst, Amy Adams (Julie & Julia, The Fighter), Tom Sturridge, and Viggo Mortensen (the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Road), the film will attract new fans who will be inspired by Kerouac's revolutionary masterwork.
    Visit Book Page

    On the Road

    On the Road
    The Original Scroll
    On the Road chronicles Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent-from East Coast to West Coast to Mexico-with his friend Neal Cassady, "a sideburned hero of the snowy West." Read by Will Patton
    Visit Book Page

    The Dharma Bums

    The Dharma Bums
    (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
    The Dharma Bums was published one year after On the Road made Jack Kerouac a celebrity and a spokesperson for the Beat Generation. Sparked by his contagious zest for life, the novel relates the adventures of an ebullient group of Beatnik seekers in a freewheeling exploration of Buddhism and the search for Truth.
    Visit Book Page

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  • March 02, 2010
    KELMUNGER
    LibraryThing User

    In 1955, roughly the time he was working on The Dharma Bums, our first beatnik also wrote this biography of Prince Siddartha Gotama, the Shakyamuni Buddha. Like all biographers, Kerouac filtered the narrative through his own lens, and this is a thoroughly Westernized version, addressed to potential converts. It stresses the abandonment of materialism and the search for meaning, a veritable primer of Buddhist thought. This new edition is being issued by Penguin to coincide with the release of the 50th anniversary edition of The Dharma Bums. It includes an introduction by renowned Buddhist philosopher Robert Thurman, which provides some historical context for Kerouac’s study and embrace of Buddhism, as well as placing the sutras and texts Kerouac used for the book in the context of the rest of the Buddhist canon. It will be an intriguing read for Buddhists, and will no doubt fascinate Keroumaniacs.

    Show less

    In 1955, roughly the time he was working on The Dharma Bums, our first beatnik also wrote this biography of Prince Siddartha Gotama, the Shakyamuni Buddha. Like all biographers, Kerouac filtered the narrative through his own lens, and this is a thoroughly Westernized version, addressed to potential converts. It stresses the abandonment of materialism and the search for meaning, a veritable primer of Buddhist thought. This new edition is being issued by Penguin to coincide with the release of the 50th anniversary edition of The Dharma Bums. It includes an introduction by renowned Buddhist philosopher Robert Thurman, which provides some historical context for Kerouac’s study and embrace of Buddhism, as well as placing the sutras and texts Kerouac used for the book in the context of the rest of the Buddhist canon. It will be an intriguing read for Buddhists, and will no doubt fascinate Keroumaniacs.


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  • January 21, 2010
    ANOCEANDROWNING
    LibraryThing User

    To be completely honest, I didn't really like Kerouac's Buddha. He was far too Catholic. With every "thee" and "thou" and every "lord" and "savior" I became a little more disenchanted. His Buddha was very personal, and, for that reason, largely inaccessible.While I feel somewhat certain that Kerouac might have considered this to be one of his greatest works, as he always seemed to be enthralled by his religious experiences, but it really wasn't. This, I think, was more of a personal reflection on his idea of Buddhism and a connection to a Buddha he could love. By blending together his lifelong beliefs with this Eastern philosophy, he was able to create a religion that he could believe in. A place where his guilt, perhaps his most defining characteristic, meant something greater than himself. His voice was missing with all its great unending sentences rambling long into the night like some sad locomotive barreling across the Nevada desert screaming its way into oblivion with every chug and pull and ache. But I digress. Reading this, I could not hear Kerouac. I could hear love and adoration and awe combined with the regurgitation of some prominent Buddhist texts. I cannot fault him for this single scholarly work, but it falls among the ranks of Pic and Orpheus Emerged, which, while not terrible works, were simply not Kerouac.Still, I cannot give Ti Jean a bad review. He is still closer to my heart than any writer has ever been, and for that I would love his grocery lists.

    Show less

    To be completely honest, I didn't really like Kerouac's Buddha. He was far too Catholic. With every "thee" and "thou" and every "lord" and "savior" I became a little more disenchanted. His Buddha was very personal, and, for that reason, largely inaccessible.While I feel somewhat certain that Kerouac might have considered this to be one of his greatest works, as he always seemed to be enthralled by his religious experiences, but it really wasn't. This, I think, was more of a personal reflection on his idea of Buddhism and a connection to a Buddha he could love. By blending together his lifelong beliefs with this Eastern philosophy, he was able to create a religion that he could believe in. A place where his guilt, perhaps his most defining characteristic, meant something greater than himself. His voice was missing with all its great unending sentences rambling long into the night like some sad locomotive barreling across the Nevada desert screaming its way into oblivion with every chug and pull and ache. But I digress. Reading this, I could not hear Kerouac. I could hear love and adoration and awe combined with the regurgitation of some prominent Buddhist texts. I cannot fault him for this single scholarly work, but it falls among the ranks of Pic and Orpheus Emerged, which, while not terrible works, were simply not Kerouac.Still, I cannot give Ti Jean a bad review. He is still closer to my heart than any writer has ever been, and for that I would love his grocery lists.


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Average Rating 2.5 out of 5
Paperback

 

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$11.54
List Price: $15.00
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