Dharma Bums in My New Life

My friend in Dallas sent me a TikTok video with a young man stating America is a giant prison camp, and that he should have the option to go live in the woods, be poor, and grow his own food. It was quite a humorous sketch yet desperate at the same time. I remember that age. My friend wanted to know my thoughts on the subject. I can’t say I was too different from that young man at a certain time. I remember tuning 18, and moving out on my own. I was working at a Mellow Mushroom in Lexington, Ky. At first I started out in Dishland so they called it. I would eventually get trained on the Salad/Grill Line; that was working a flattop, an industrial size Convection Oven, Salads and Appetizers and Desserts. All in a timely manner; timed with the pizza chefs at a different end of the kitchen. I remember being hounded by the Servers if their food wasn’t out at the right time. 40 hour weeks; I took my paycheck home and I remember what sort of bite was taken out of my check just to pay rent. It felt ridiculous. I had big plans for my life, and that paycheck wasn’t cutting it.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8SeFRVB/

I was looking into going into Massage Therapy there when my mother called me from Alabama. My entire family had uprooted and moved down South. My friends around Lexington were all going separate ways, and mom said she would help me through college if I moved down to Alabama with her.

In high school I was reading Beat literature among other novels, and decided I wanted to be a writer. My friend, C_, down in Alabama and I had been keeping, up and decided we were going to Hitchhike cross country to California. So, I took a year off in between high school and college for a Gonzo Journey, or excursion from Alabama to California. A third friend, A_, decided he would join us the night or two before our departure. This is a novel in a series I am writing.

Back to the TikTok video. And my experience in the Dharma Bum life before college, I would say the man in the video is a philosopher. That’s actually a point my Greek friends in college (actual Greek brothers K_, and F_) would make. They used to take summer trips to Greece when they were in high school in The States, and live on the beach in tents there for an entire summer. They were completely confused that there is no place in America like the beaches of Greece. You can’t just live at a State Park without being arrested in “The Land of the free.” They would say they felt more “free” in Europe.

This is actually a point of interest in American culture for me. The life I spent on the road was a completely freeing experience. It was absolutely life changing. There are fascinating phenomenons in “the road, beatnik, and homeless culture.” You will meet enlightened individuals sort of mixed in with the mentally ill, drug addict, and homeless folks.

I actually have yet to read it, but Jack Kerouac wrote a novel called The Dharma Bums after his more widely known novel On The Road which I read before our excursion out West.

Holy;
Beat down;
The Beatitude;

It was actually a big turning point for me in my Religious views. I grew up in church as a preacher’s kid. Even my friend in Dallas who texted me the initial video for this entry was a friend from church growing up. I remember hitchhiking past a church that was letting out of services, and potentially looking for a ride from one of them. And I remember the way they all looked at us, and the way it made me feel personally. All three of us grew up in church. We all knew each other through church camps, and all of our families are exceptionally religious never missing a Sunday church service. But, the folks at that church seemed to categorize us as less than human, or at least that’s what it felt like.

As far as my own personal Religious Studies have gone, and American culture; remember, we are “One Nation Under God ‘’ with a whole sleuth of religious zealots, yet anyone who is different from the norm will get treatment as less than human. Charlatanism. God is money. If God loves you he will bless you with success and money. Thus, we were on the road without money, so God didn’t love us. We must have had done something we were being punished for. At least that was what that type saw. In all actuality, all three of us were having the best time of our lives. It was a tale of heraldry, adventure and excitement. it was an Odyssey, and for me, it would change every portion of my life from that journey forward. We would eventually be picked up by an Divine Princess who would teach us yoga and nutrition. I have since been a vegetarian and devout practitioner of yoga for the larger part of a decade.

Later, in college, I would meet my Greek friends, and we would philosophize and discuss ideas, and politics. As far as the beach in Greece we would philosophize about the Right to being Alive, or a Right to be on the earth. It’s similar to the young man in the video who was speaking on inAlienable Rights. Who owns a tract of land? Isn’t it just borrowed? The State Parks are owned by the US gov’t so if you are caught smoking pot in the wilderness it is a felony. The US owns the parks until China takes over, and then China will own the parks.

There is a Japanese concept in Zen Buddhism called Mu. It is the state in between Yes & No, or the script of a computer being 1s and 0s the computer is Off. It is a Grey Area. When the planet was ruled by dinosaurs did a T-Rex have a parcel stating that he owned some region near a volcano? Homo Sapiens have a rigorous system in place marking our territory. It’s just in Greece they have a larger sense of belonging. And I believe it boils down to psychology.

Essentially, the young man in the video wishes to opt-out of the pursuit of wealth. This has been an option to humans since ancient India. People could opt-out, go into the jungle, live off rice, and practice yoga. These were called Ascetics. It was seen as a holy pursuit to live off alms, and spend your life in this manner. But, here in America we don’t really have an opt-out button. Which is what the young man in the video is talking about. He/we are resources of The State. You are either contributing to American Society or you are depleting it. There is no state of Mu (or at least in the minds of most Americans). So, American Ascetics are lumped in with the mentally ill, homeless, and drug addicts.

Last updated November 03, 2023