An excerpt from the introduction of the
City Lights Edition of
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity by Anne Waldman:
"The Scripture of the Golden Eternity is fueled by Kerouac's discerning meditation on the nature of impermanence & conciousness, subtle like the dharma it invokes. We're here to disappear, therefore let's be as vivid & generous as we can. The intelligence & compassion behind this text is still alive."
Jack Kerouac wrote this multiple-chorus poem in 1956. Gary Snyder had said to
him, "All right Kerouac, it's about time for you to write sutra." The Scripture of the Golden Eternity was
his sutra (sutra is a very interesting topic. click that
hard-link). Kerouack's sutra (this writing) combine Christian elements, from his Catholic
upbringing, and Buddhist elements, developed from Kerouac's relationship with Snyder
and the beats. "Scriptures" referring to the Christian
Bible and "Golden Eternity" from the Buddhist notion of the afterlife
(a.k.a. Nirvana).
Speakly from my experiences, this writing reads a
lot like the Tao Te Ching and, I am sure, many other
Eastern spiritual writings. While I am not in any position to expertly comment
on the ther relationships or the spiritualities they are about
(Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity), I will say I find these writings
on a very similar wavelength.