TPS Reading Discussion: pgs. 447-502, specific focus on Jack Kerouac excerpt
Discussion Questions: Include evidence from the text to support your answers.
What stands out to you most in the Keroauc excerpt? Why?
Do you think that Keroauc and his fellow Beats appropriate Buddhist culture and perpetuate Orientalism? Or is Beat Buddhism an example of cross-cultural adaptation seen in the history of Buddhism as it traveled through Asia?
Taken as a whole, what do all of the section readings (Thurman, Kerouac, Day, and Merton) tell us about religiosity/spirituality in the US during the postwar moment (1950s-1960s)?
How do you think these readings are informed by domestic and international social/political/historical contexts of the time?