The Beat Generation has always been associated, and rightly so, with themes related to sexuality. Beat writers were, and still are, famous for advocating sexual liberation and free love, for being open about their homosexuality when it was the case (as Allen Ginsberg did throughout his life), and much of of their literary production is filled with erotic experiences. . All of this inevitably clashed, or merged, with the Buddhist faith with which most Beats had come into contact, during different periods and certainly with different results. The relationship between Buddhism and sexuality can be seen in Jack Kerouac's novel The Dharma Bums, published in 1958. The novel's protagonists are Ray Smith and Japhy Ryder, based on Kerouac himself and his dear friend and writer Gary Snyder ( who had largely introduced him to Buddhism), in a semi-fictional journey of self-discovery in nature. The two have completely opposite approaches to sexuality: while Ryder has fully embraced it, Smith cannot find a way to reconcile it with his commitment to the Buddhist faith. Throughout the book, there are several allusions to the duality that troubles Smith and the difficulty he encounters in trying to reconcile his religious side with his sexual urges. He sees sexuality as an obstacle to faith and a source of unhappiness, and he explains having "experienced an entire year of celibacy based on my feeling that lust was the direct cause of birth which was the direct cause of suffering and of death and I really didn't lie, I got to a point where I considered lust to be offensive and even cruel. “Pretty girls make graves,” I said” (Kérouac 31). This may be related to a Buddhist belief contained in the Sutta Nipata, in which Buddha states that desire (tanha), and particularly sensual desire (kama), brings pain (dukkha) and is an obstacle to obtaining of an enlightened mind. “We must therefore, always be attentive, avoid sexual desires. By letting them go, he will cross the flood like the one who, after bailing out the boat, has reached the opposite bank. (Kama Sutta, Sutta Nipata, 4.1)Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Buddhist expert Barbara O' Brien, in her article What Buddhism Teaches About Sexual Morality, offers a more modern, arguing that "the second noble truth teaches that the cause of suffering is craving or thirst (tanha). This does not mean that cravings should be repressed or denied. Instead, in Buddhist practice, we recognize our passions and learn to see that they are empty and no longer control us. This is true for hatred, greed, and other emotions. Sexual desire is no different. ('O Brien 1) This seems more consistent with Japhy Ryder's views. He is much more confident than Smith, comfortable expressing his sexuality, and even explicitly linking it to religion. In chapter five of The Dharma Bums, a girl named Princess wishes to join the group through a sort of sexual initiation – "she wanted to be a great Buddhist like Japhy and being a girl, the only way she could 'expressing was that way' (Kerouac 31) – and 'Japhy wasn't at all nervous or embarrassed and just sat there in perfect form, like he was supposed to' (Kerouac 30). He explains that “this is what they do in the temples of Tibet. It is a sacred ceremony, it takes place in front of chanting priests. People pray and recite Om Mani Pahdme Hum, which means Amen thunderbolt in the voiddark. I am lightning and the princess is the dark void, you see. (Kerouac 30) This isn't just something Ryder completely makes up to legitimize his actions. Buddhist expert Peter Harvey, in his Introduction to Buddhist Ethics, states that certain sexual practices are "necessary at the highest level to achieve Buddhahood." , even if their use is “highly regulated”. This is only permitted after years of training and [...] has historically been extremely rare. (Harvey 142) Smith is fascinated by this practice and has feelings of admiration and envy towards Ryder's freedom, but his own inhibitions, guilt and fear of failing in his convictions prevent him from joining the sexual encounter. Yet he can't shake this conflict, and he constantly oscillates between wanting sex and either being repulsed by it or denying it. In chapter twenty-five, he details a mundane party he attended before deciding to embark on the Buddhist journey; he is with a friend, they are sitting in a corner, observing the behavior of the others, and he describes it like this: "We were the old monks who were no longer interested in sex but Sean, Japhy and Whitey were the young monks . and were still full of the fire of evil and still had much to learn. Every now and then Bud and I would look at all that flesh and secretly lick our lips. (Kerouac 178) This quote is the perfect example of his internal conflicts: he thinks that people giving in to sexual desires are somehow weak and "bad" and lack wisdom, but he still can't help but “secretly” aspire to what they have. The conflict continues in chapter twenty-six: "I felt lonely seeing everyone in pairs and having a good time and all I did was huddle in my sleeping bag in the rose bushes, sigh and say bah. For me it was just red wine in my mouth and a pile of firewood.” (Kerouac 187) Thus, he regrets his self-imposed isolation and wishes he could resolve to do like everyone else, but “then I would find something like a dead crow in the deer park and I would think “C It's a pretty sight for sensitive human eyes, and it all comes from sex. » So I once again put sex out of my mind. (Kerouac 187) Some may say that such hesitation, such a binary view, does not constitute a true Buddhist attitude. For example, 'O Brien comments that "Western culture currently seems to be at war with itself over sex, with rigid puritanism on one side and libertinism on the other. Buddhism always teaches us to avoid extremes and find a middle path. As individuals we may make different decisions, but wisdom (prajna) and kindness (metta), not lists of rules, show us the way” ('O Brien 1). While Smith is caught in his contradictions, Ryder spontaneously and concretely internalizes Buddhist spirituality as it relates to sexual behavior. “There was no question of what to do about sex,” he says, “and that’s what I always loved about Eastern religion. […] I didn't feel American at all, with all this suburban ideal, this sexual repression and this dreary general newspaper censorship of all our true human values” (Kerouac 32). It's easy to see Gary Snyder's personality and character. state of mind behind that of Japhy. In his article Buddhist Anarchism, Snyder himself argued for a similar position. "The 'free world' has become economically dependent on a fantastic system of stimulating greed which cannot be satisfied, sexual desire which cannot be, 2007