The summary, discussion, introduction, sample meditation, and example of Kerouac's are almost done.  The review of literature, small as it is may add an extra week to the process.  As both will inform the review of Tom Clark’s The Great Naropa Poetry Wars, that will have to wait as well. 

Commentary and Interpretation of Jack Kerouac’s 1958 Essay, “The Essentials of Spontaneous Prose.”

by Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.

Abstract

Jack Kerouac and many of the poets around him are variously thought to have created a new art movement or a new means of a foray into spontaneous poetry and prose partially inspired by their involvement in Zen and Tibetan Buddhism and partly as a development out of modernism, existentialism, and the avant garde.  Jack Kerouac was particularly well-known and successful in this area and credited with leading the movement.  His essay, “The Essentials of Spontaneous Prose” is a description of and instruction in this method.  It is rather clumsily written and presupposes an ability to understand and apply the principals therein described which may be too obscure for the average reader.  In this essay, I attempt to describe and interpret Kerouac’s description from within the experience of an individual with Western academic training and experience who has spent 30 years doing the Zen and Tibetan practices and with experience describing psychological and contemplative practices and states. 

1.  Introduction. 

The essay is divided into five sections: a) a brief introduction, b) brief description of the history of, interest in, and experiments with spontaneous prose, c) a review of the literature (largely non-existent) in instructions in spontaneous prose, d) a commentary on the instruction, and e) a guided meditation meant to indicate the application of Kerouac’s instruction.  Kerouac’s original 1958 essay is included in the appendix. 

2. History of, Interest in, and Experiments with Spontaneous Prose.  3. Review of the Literature (Largely Non-Existent) of Instructions on Spontaneous

Prose. 

4. Commentary and Interpretation on Kerouac’s Essay.

In Jack Kerouac’s 1958 essay, “Essentials of Spontaneous Prose” (see appendix), his description of the steps necessary to participate in his artistic discovery, he describes a 9 step process toward the writing of spontaneous prose.  The essay is clumsily written and written with more of a “beat” than an effort toward clarity of description, organization and communication except for the “telephathic shock.’  That is, in his own words, he may have relied on his own dictum to “satisfy yourself first, then reader cannot fail to receive telepathic shock and meaning-excitement by same laws operating in his own human mind”  the sort of belief that derailed many, beats, hippies, and new agers into thinking they “got it” by merely getting a nod at the right time from a poet, a leader or guru or breezing through an instruction for the “transmission,” “the telepathic shock,” that would excuse them from reading, research, thinking through, study, and the work of getting Kerouac’s style on a more effective and practical level as well as an excuse to dismiss other methods and disciplines, always looking for the transmission, the telepathic shock as a means of self-justification of genius equal to or coming from Kerouac or other leaders. 

There are a few topics that need to be discussed in some detail before going into a discussion of the practical application of the technique:  a) Kerouac’s background, training, and experience with Buddhist meditation techniques and practice b) the rather profound technique he discovered and pioneered in general rather than in its specifics, c) the alternation of exhalation and inhalation with very specific rather than general use of an object, as well as d) his specific rather than general.object itself. 

a) Kerouac’s background, training, and experience with Buddhist meditation techniques and practice

Kerouac’s interest in and appreciation for Zen and Buddhist meditation is undoubted, but his actual knowledge of the techniques and training and actual experience and success with them seem quite limited.  The technique he describes seems more intuitive than trained and comes also from western literary traditions as indicated by quotes from ... .  This lack of experience, training, and study is no crime certainly and his technique does seem pretty close to genuine Buddhist meditation techniques and states in many ways; however, there was always a clear danger, one that was realized in the many of the beats, the hippies and the new agers, that others would see themselves equally as talented and equally as not requiring long hours on a cushion to attain to their own technique and experience. 

The technique certainly is a meditation, a contemplative practice because of the increased mindfulness of an object and a working on it with the breath as a focal poiint, but it is questionable how much it can be considered a Buddhist meditation in that the specific focus of the technique (the breath work and the nature of the object) indicate something quite other.  In

particular, his focus on particular, immediate objects and a technique that focuses on particular words or thoughts (on the in breath) rather than universal objects and the dissolving of all particular thoughts into an “empty” state of mind are strikingly different. 

The koan practice taught by the well-known Zen teacher and lineage holder, Aitken Roshi and the sitting practice of the well-known Tibetan teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche illustrate the differences between the Kerouac technique and that of Buddhism as well as to illustrate the sort of techniques that were known at the time in the atmosphere of the beat generation and their interest in Buddhist philosophy, art, and meditation. 

Trungpa Rinpoche and Shamatha Practice:

In the Tibetan technique taught by Trungpa Rinpoche, one sits on the cushion, takes a good posture, and regards the breath and the thoughts that arise.  The outbreath is of particular importance as the work of the meditation:  one allows thoughts to arise without resistance (as much as possible) on the in breath and then on the out breath one labels the entirety of them “thinking,” one term for the entirety of what occurs in thought without categorization or value judgment, just label the verbal thoughts and images “thinking” and let it all go:  everything that occurs in the mind is “just thinking.”  The in breath is ignored as the thoughts are allowed to arise as they will.  The overall effort being one to discover the mind of non-thought and emptiness via letting go and exhausting the obscuring thought processes.  An object is also possible with this technique but not used much in the Trungpa school.  Typical objects include an image of the Buddha, a geometric figure, a flower and so forth.  Of crucial importance for the choice of a Buddhisst object of meditation is that it not be tied to time or place like a newspaper headline or current gossip: a wide universality such as the examples just given is required. 

At much later stages in the development of one’s practice in the basic Tibetan techniques (months and years and many, many hours spent on the cushion with this technique), object practice is introducted and becomes more developed as one begins to focus on the deities of the Tibetan pantheon[1][1]. 

Aitken Roshi and Koan Practice: 

The technique for koan practice taught by Aitken Roshi is similar to the sitting practice just described, at least initially. In the earliest stages one focuses on the out breath as with the Tibetan practice merely letting thoughts go while counting the out breaths and trying to get to a count of 10 (for a beginner getting to 2 or 3 without getting lost in thought is rare.  The in breath is ignored and the thoughts are allowed to arise as they will as with the Tibetan technique.  After

[1][1] Many other Tibetan teachers do not begin with the sitting practices and use the simpler deities of the Tibetan pantheon from the beginning. Kalu Rinpoche even remarked one time that he thought the sitting practices of Zen and that taught by Trungpa Rinpoche were quite dangerous for beginners, particularly in a culture that did not have such a tradition in the first place. Trungpa Rinpoche on the other hand thought that the visualization techniques would be confusing for westerners who were too “theistic” as he called it and could become confused around it. Trungpa’s strategy was to give the students as full and thorough a training in Tibetan Buddhist practices as possible and therefor taught the full “3-yana” path beginning with the initial discipline of the “hinayana,” the path of self-discipline.

long hours at this practice, if the student is interested, he can request permission to do koan practice and will be given a new technique for focusing on the outbreath. 

In this secondary practice, the first koan is presented and the student is instructed to focus on the breathing of the word “mu” (Chinese for “not”) as the main technique and then during interviews with the teacher will try to answer the koans nderlying this practice.  The first koan is the enigmatic question, “Does a dog have Buddha nature?” and the student is given the initial answer “mu” or “not.”  This is enigmatic because even the most beginning student of Buddhist philosophy is aware that all sentient beings are considered to have Buddha-nature, the potential to become a “fully enlightened one.”  The practioner then keeps the question “at the ready” and breaths quite quietly the word “mu” on the outbreath hoping a response to the koan will arise as the obscuring thoughts are let go of and the mind of emptiness begins o arise. 

Kerouac’s Technique:

Kerouac’s technique, described in more detail below, consists in “blowing” like a jazz musician on the outbreath while reciting a spontaneous poetry or prose in response to an object selected from daily life. On the in breath, one does not simply allow thoughts to arise but instead looks not for the proper word but for the “infantile pile-up of scatological, build-up words” which then become the inspiration or “fuel” to be transformed via the “blowing” of the out breath and the “expostulated statement.” 

In a similar way, but with a more general object and the letting go of all thinking, the Tibetan spontaneous poems are meant to arise from that universal mind.  There is no reference to particular objects, and the poetry is meant to express the universal mind.  There is no looking for words on the in breath but an assumption that the thoughts of the obscuring mind have been cleared and that the poet is speaking directly from the universal, empty mind.  For this reason, they are done “on the spot” as Trungpa says with no planning or editing or second guessing of any sort. 

What needs to be emphasized is the contrast between Kerouac’s technique and typical Buddhist techniques: the object and the practice in Kerouac’s technique is focused on real world, daily life objects and is looking for a response to them and a poem or prose output.  The Buddhist techniques are very, very general and mitigate against the specific and emphasize the general or universal, the latter being more indicative of the presence of the enlightened mind.  Any responses or prose output stay within the general and do not address the specific.

This difference is rarely mentioned.  It is reasonable to suspect that Kerourac thought it important to address specific issues much like the poet addressing the peace movement or something equally as important and timely and too demanding to wait for the universal.  For the Buddhist purist, there is no need to address specific issues at all but assumes that all worldly issues and problems in the practioners life and in the world are being addressed simultaneously through the more universal technique.  Thus, the main distinction between Kerouacian meditation and the Buddhist is the universal or general vs the specific, the Celestial vs the mundane, the classics versus rock and roll. 

However, given this difference, should Kerouac be dismissed as a mere “Buddhist contemplative ‘wannabe’”?  Should his work be dismissed as a near miss and relegated to the trash heap of failed noble experiments in the Western literary exploration of Buddhism? Probably not.  Given an understanding of Buddhist meditative techniques and their results (a growing awareness of relationship to universal, emptiness mind).  It is possible to see Kerouac’s technique as not only effective in this regard but also as a strong contribution to Western understanding of the Buddhist view of universal mind and as a good training in spontaneity that could actually lead (but may not actually need to) to the Tibetan purist spontaneous poetry of composing “on the spot” directly from the universal, emptiness mind. 

To recognize this, it is necessary to look at the results of Kerouac’s alternation on the out breath and in breath of blowing on the object and using the infantile as fuel which is a clearing of the obscuring thoughts via a spontaneous expressing and clearing of them.  The infantile fuel is further clarified and the poetic output expresses this clarification and perhaps communicates it to others, and it is reasonable to suspect that at some point this entire process will exhaust much of the obscuring thoughts, particularly that of the infantile fixations.  The overall result of one poetic expression done correctly would be one of heightened relation to the mind of clarity and a deepening connection to it. 

Are we further to assume that this is a discovery that the Buddhists were not aware of or one that was dismissed by them or one that may actually be covertly supported via the more general techniques?  All three questions may be answered positively:  the Buddhist emphasis on renunciation of the mundane life and world may have made the practions and teachers unaware of and disinterested in such a technique rooted as it is in ones daily life, it may also have  rejected for just that one reason, and finally, it may have been covertly accepted by some – but why covertly?

It may have been covertly supported because of the inherent danger in it and the fact that it presupposes a tremendous awareness of one’s own thought processes and a pre-existing, perhaps innate discipline sufficient to maintain the technique.  The danger is that it would be quite simple for the beginner to be overwhelmed by the infantile, not recognizing it sufficiently, and end up exhaling ones neurosis rather than clarifying it, a being taken over rather than a taking over and transforming of infantile neurotic thinking, resulting in a neurotic (perhaps psychotic) flare up.  And far worse, it could be used by the unscrupulous to deceive competitors or enemies into thinking they are “beating” a poem on the path to enlightenment rather than “beating” a neurosis or psychosis into actualization and the self-destruction that would result. 

Can we conclude from this that Kerouac was somehow enlightened or a “Boddhisattva” or something of that sort?  This of course is quite unlikely as it would presuppose a tremendous stability in the universal that would preclude a need for or problem with the specific.  The existence of the infantile neurosis itself also demonstrates that such an achievement is not possible in his case.  However, it is necessary to conclude that he did have a deep intuitive recognition of the universal and a means to heighten that experience, though perhaps a particularly dangerous one for all those who cannot truly recognize the infantile fixations for what they are and thereby transform them. 

One further note on his technique is perhaps warranted and that has to do with the notions of “embodied” and “disembodied” of the beats, terms which they used to refer to the state of mind of the beat poet.  Having done some research into western psychology and having an awareness of dissociative states (disembodiedness, perhaps) and PTSD, it seems reasonable to conclude that the Kerouacian poetic-psychological, meditative technique is designed to address and return from a disembodied (dissociative) neurotic state and return to a better (embodied) awareness of oneself in the immediate.  So rather than a direct technique for the enhancement of enlightenment, it may be better to see the Kerouacian technique as a Buddhist inspired western poetic-pscyhological technique to gain access to universal mind and art via working directly with particular life situations and the underlying, infantile fixations that may be contributing to them.

Is the Buddhist technique better?  It would seem so in that it works with the entirety of obscured mind rather than the particular. However there are many who would approach the Buddhist techniques and are far too distracted by the pressing demands of the immediate and the neurotic and may need something like Kerouac’s technique as a supplement or as a step toward more direct and more universal Buddhist practices. 

b) the rather profound technique he discovered and pioneered in general rather than in its specifics,

In his description, he provides 9 steps to the process:  set up, proceedure, method, scoping, lag in procedure, timing, center of interest, structure of work, and mental state. 

Given the description of Buddhist and the Kerouacian techniques above, it is useful to look at these subdivisions in this order:

In order to prevent the dangers described above it it good to have a sense of the goal of “enlightenment”  The following short meditation gives an idea of what to look for in the end and a short preparation by which to take a look

Meditating with Phil

1. Guided Meditation

There is a danger in trying Kerouac’s method without being very cautious about the difference between the outbreath of rhetorical exahalation over the jewel center of interest and the inhalation in which one touches in with the infantile scatalogical build up words for “fuel”/inspiration for the exhalation.  If the latter becomes the source of the poetry rather than the former, it will be a kind of impulsive Beavis-ing rather than a sponteous artistic expression and will lead to negative consequences and behaviors.  It is crucial that the exhalation from … be the source of the output and the inhalation merely the fuel. 

Analogies with orgasm and the ever-present though unstated explosive flatus both should probably be avoided though that with orgasm may not be that inaccurate, it just leads to an emphasis on an oversexualization of the art rather … Freud’s sense of sublimation is important

in this regard.  “Sublimation” is an old alchemical term incorporated by Freud to describe the process of turning fixations on biological processes into creative and life affirming expressions.  It is frequently misunderstood as a form of repression on the analogy with “subliminal” but it actually comes from the word “sublime” and refers to transforming the base fixations by sublime-ing them to something higher.  This is quite the opposite of repression which is a mere pushing of the baser impulses into the unconscious while replacing them with a pretense to higher ones.  Well-known references to an Angel’s trumpet as deriving from flatus are not inaccurate but this is a transformation into something heavenly not a denial, repression and replacement of the biological process.

Before actually beginning the rather dangerous Kerouac technique, it is perhaps of value to have some experience with one that demonstrates a good result without the potential for Beavis-ing. 

COMMENT ON GOING OFF RUNNING W/ONES OWN AND BEAVISING

Orignially posted a Blog post: 

Meditating w/ Phil: First lay on the couch if you have one.  Get a comfy pillow.  If it is chilly, get a blanket.  Have your coffee, liquor, or smokes w/in arms reach.  Leave the tv on.  The volume doesn't matter.   “Now” ... Don't you hate that de rigeur “now” that seems to precede every bad guided meditation?  Usually followed by a stupid grin and an arrogant, nose-pointed-in-the-air, curvy-necked pretense to enlightenment, like a puppy insisting on an undeserved treat or a yoga teacher stealing your soul, and you hope that at least she has something, anything, memorized that might actually be of value ...  In any case, once you are comfy on the couch w/ tv on and smokes etc nearby, you wait.  Just wait like in the midst of a chaotic work and social life or in the midst of isolation and no life at all, your car breaks down in a pleasant, quite neighborhood, and you have that 45 minutes to an hour for the tow truck to come but at least you have the 60 bucks cash necessary to pay him even though that may break you ... like you have that time and suddenly a wave of nothing-can-be-done relaxation wafts over you, and you open the hood so the neighbors don't think you are 'casin' the joint' and sit on the trunk, leaning against the back window hands clasped behind your neck.   On the comfy couch, you wait like that.  You don't care if it will be five minutes or one hour, it is up to the tow guy anyway ... and you wait.   

What you are waiting for is not really clear, but the idea is that at some point, w/out really noticing it, you find yourself pleasantly going about the business of doing something vaguely interesting and didn't really notice you left the couch.   This is a taste of true enlightenment, pleasantly going about the business of doing something vaguely interesting.  You do not feel like a master of the universe, you do not feel like you are saving the world or destroying it or the world needs saving or destroying.  You do not feel like a new age guru, a martial arts warrior, or a saint. You may find the rest of the day to be pleasant and vaguely interesting as well. That's it.  Meditating w/ Phil.  Refresh from time to time.  It takes a long time for it to be a common place occurrence.  

PREPARATION: SET UP MENTAL STATE TIMING

Object:  Center of interest,

OutBreath:  PORCEDURE Scoping METHOD STRUCTURE OF WORK

in Breath  lag in procedure

TECHIQUE: 

PREPARATION:  MENTAL STATE TIMING

Unlike Buddhist meditations, there is no recommended posture, the usual beginning of an instruction.  However, state of mind is usually mentioned.  In Kerouac’s description, he says, write without consciousness in semi-trance.  This is somewhat vague for most people and the idea of a “trance-like” state can be quite confusing, invoking thoughts of palm readers, Hindu mystics and so forth.  The Zen instruction is perhaps more helpful where the student is instructed to combine an alert state of mind via a dreamlike one:  the posture (though this is not its only purpose) helps maintain the altert state of mind while at the same time maintaining a somewhat dreamy state (the darker room, subdued colors etc meant to encourage this). 

So the mental state is a mix of alert and dreamy.

The Timing he refers to is “nothing in muddy that runs in time.”  This refers to an ability, not easy for most, to let go of all three of the past, the immediate, and the future and related to the movement of mind without any fixations in time.  “Nowness” often results in a  fixation on the

immediate.  He suggests this is still muddy and that it is best to stay with the movement of the mind rather than the fixation on the immediate. 

He also states that one begins the practice from this dreamy/alert state with the added instruction to begin from “the mind of personal secret idea-words, …”  This is finished with, “…blowing as per Jazz musician on subject of image,”  but this takes us to the outbreath which follows the discussion of the object just below, the exhalation and the expostulation of the spontaneous prose. 

OBJECT:  SET UP Center of Interest

He does not give any particular objects as examples, but his poetry and prose indicate it is the experiences of life represented by an image held either in memory or in a sketch or physical representation of some sort.  He gives no details about where this holding in “memory” takes place e.g. in front of oneself as an image, in the head in the heart etc or just where it seems to be in memory.  A lack of knowledge of a variety of Buddhist techniques may have left him unaware of the sort of “targeting” of help memories and obects may take place. 

TECHNIQUE:

On the OUTBREATH:  Procedure, scoping method of work

SCOPING:  As per above from the “mind of personal secret idea words” … one “blows: “as per Jazz musician on subject of image.” 

The “blowing” is verbal expression as “… free deviation (association) of mind into limitless blow-on seas of thought, swimming in sea of English.” 

METHOD The output of these breaths, the prose itself, is spontaneous and without structure, “…no periods separating sentence structures already arbitrarily riddled by false colons and timid usually unnecessary commas but the vigorous space dash separating rhetorical breathing, (as Jazz musician drawing breath between outblown phrases)  measured pauses which are the essentials of our speech.” 

The “… drawing breath between outblown phrases” takes us to the In-Breath.”

STRUCTURE 

On the IN BREATH :  LAG IN PROCEDURE

He further mentions that during a gap in the writing, one should not look for the proper word but instead for  “… the infantile pile-up of scatological, build-up words …” which is followed by “till satisfaction is gained.”  I find these to be two very challenging passages in the instruction, but I think they can be understood by looking at the infantile, scatological build-up words as blocks to spontaneity and looking at them as a means of unblocking it.  “Pooh pooh,” “Ca ca,”  “Pooh pooh head” and so forth are probably the first of these words and are likely the present in

earliest language learning (the one-word stage and the two-word stage), a time when the recognition of biological processes and the impending loss of “care” and the need to clean oneself cause both resentment and resistance due to the unwillingness to accept and resistance to the loss of care and the insistence that the caretaker due the cleaning for the toddler.  The disappointment in and resentment of new responsibility drifts into the angry, selfish demands such as “you clean me” or to the as yet untrained younger sibling “you are dirty” via the build-up words resulting in a fascination with the process, a nostalgia for being cleaned, and the build-up words which are often met with hysterical over reactions by immature parents which freeze the fascination and the resentment in the unconscious linked to these words.  Left unresolved they “build-up” into preadolescent, adolescent and even adult name calling, bullying, and rebelliousness recognized in phrases such as Beavis’ “He said ‘nads’,” “dirt bag,” “shit head,” and so forth.  These words then become “curse words” often met with the same hysterical reactions as in childhood and they have the ability to block art and spontaneity.   These same resentments of self-care and fascination with the source of the withdrawal care and the blame of siblings, the other caretaker (“It’s dad’s fault mom won’t change me.”) also likely lead to frozen rascist epithets which also have a lot to do with displacing the feeling of being dirty, the loss of care by the caregiver and so forth.

In the pauses between bits of spontaneous prose which he compares to the drawing in of breath of  jazz musician. Kerouac recommends looking for these build up words while precluding the looking for the correct or proper word to be used in the next taking up of the piece. 

Some of the beat and hippie use of these curse words was often meant to unblock and reduce the negative impact (the power of the curse) of these words which keep one tied to infantile resentments and disappointments.  Though more often it was just an indulgence of the Beavis and Butthead dynamic rather than a relaxing of it. 

Art is essentially clean and cleansing and Kerouac’s prose comes out that way rather than scatological, so it is necessary to conclude that is what this passage is talking about how to clear the head and the speech of the clouds and sputters of the infantile pile up of scatological build up words

TECHNIQUE

Summary:

Having selected an object, not worrying much about posture though it would help, holding an alert and dreamy (trancelike) state of mind and from the “secret personal idea words,” exhale, “blow” a verbal outbreath naturally and spontaneously across “the jewel center of the interest in object as river rock” without concern for anything but honesty, good or bad, the words fanning out from the held steady center of interest in the object.  On the inhalation, or on a longer lag in the procedure, note the infantile, build-up of scatological build up words (those built from ca ca and pooh pooh as rebellious), breathe out again.  END

Sketch:

From dream/alert state blow verbally across the center of interest in object, on in breath or lag touch in with the infantile scataological verbage and blow again.  END

Guided Meditation in Kerouac’s method.

These terms may need further experience or explanation

            -- Personal secret idea words

            -- free deviation (association)

            -- limitless seas of thought

            -- sea of English

            -- jewel center of interest (cf below jewel center need)

            -- craft is craft

            -- infantile, pile-up of scatological build-up words

            -- different themes give illusion of new life

            -- outlowing movement over subject as over river rock

-- follow roughly outlines in outflowing movement over subject as river rock so mindflow over jewel center need arriving at pivot where dim-formed  beginning becomes sharp

-- Personal secret idea words:  your personal inspiratiuions for upcoming work and the mind that “contains” holds and works on those. 

            -- free deviation (association):  much like seeing anything long and straight as a phallic symbol but not necessarily so deep, direct, or oedipal

            -- limitless seas of thought:  when you have an object before, especially if you are new to writing, you will likely be overwhelmed by the number of images, words phrases and NEAR sentences flipping through your head as you seek to find an idea – the sea of words phrases and so for the and particularly the NEAR images  is what you want to look at, not the particular ideas.

            -- sea of English:  this is much more esoteric and may not have been well undrerstood by Kerouac himself, but that sea of thought also come with some verbage and that verbage

            -- jewel center of interest (cf below jewel center need):  if you choose a Buddha, a flower, or a twisted rusted piece of metal (not advised) something piqued your interest.  It may be in the

object itself as an image to focus on or in your head, but that jewel center needs to be noticed as well. 

            -- craft is craft:  this is the reminder that craft is not fresh or novel – it is a reworking of something already known  kill the bad guy get the girl, kill the monster get the girl, kill the bad get the girl and so forth is craft it is not novel.  A good chase seen is steel craft – this is the structure of the work not a reference to artistic effort that may yet be embedded nor is it a total dismissal of craft..  It is merely looking for the cutting edge of art and personal expression not to write a template for a movie career. 

            -- infantile, pile-up of scatological build-up words:  this is particularly important and is discussed in section 4 above.  But this is done on the inhalation can be prepared for a bit in advance and can be recognize in a whitish cloud if this cloud is the voice rather than the fuel it will ;lead to being overwhelmed by beavis like behaviors and speech and could be as disastrous as it is to Beavis. 

            -- different themes give illusion of new life

            -- outlowing movement over subject as over river rock:  hold the jewel center of object and let the language flow (over that may be a bit too much to say)

-- follow roughly outlines in outflowing movement over subject as river rock so mindflow over jewel center need arriving at pivot where dim-formed  beginning becomes sharp

I. Koan practice (sleepy and sharp “trance-like state”) the posture of Zen coupled with growing skills in remaing semi sleepy at the same time is a “trance like state” that is easy to describe and work with andhas proven itself over centuries to be effective. 

II. Object is either in reality or in memory []  : picture stature etc.  Don’t be to worried or rigid about where you place it just easy to note

III. Writing/Reciting (into recorder for instance): a. From the mind of personal, secret idea words b. sketching language is undisturbed (unmuddied) flowc. “blow” on subject image [blow is perhaps a poor choice of word as it leads to

beavising.  Exhalation is better but perhaps to passive for Kerouac’s likingd. Begin not from preconceived idea but from jewel center of interest in subject

(object?) at moment of writinge. Follow free deviation (association) into limitless sea of thoughts [ joking and

punning]

f. Swimming in sea of English – no discipline but ryhthms of rhetorical exhalation and expostulated statement [but there is THAT discipline NO discipline would result in beavising.]

g. Blow as deep as you want, write as deeply as you want, fish as deeply.  Satisfy yourself first

IV. Continue to peripheral release and exhaustiona. Do not after-think or [second guess]b. Good or bad doesn’t matter but always honestc. Interesting because not crafted.  Craft is craft.

V. Ending is necessitated and language shortens in race to wire of time-race of work following laws of deep form to…

VI. Conclusion:  Last words, last thoughts.  Night is the end. 

I. Lag in Procedure:  Pause not to think of proper word but to [think of/about?] infantile pile-up of scatological build-up words.  Nothing is muddy that runs in time.

II. STRUCTURE:  Modern structures are dead (bolier plates/templates].  Different themes merely give the illusion of new life

Example:

To begin the actual application of the instructions, an object is required.  The one chosen for this paper is presented in the photos below, the bar Vesiuvio’s but particularly, Kerouac’s name written in stone.

Jewel Interest:  The world of Beats

Jewel Center of Need:  Where is it written in stone?

*

Posture:  Laying on the couch, vodka, cold cup of coffee, and smokes at hand.

State:

Exhale:

A great wind blowing across centuries of civiliczzatio strikes the heart of a generation

Inhale:

Lazy escapists no life plan

Exhale

Ginzberg Kerouac jazz Tibetans and bebop blow together across the world twain is twain and never the two shall meet

Inhale:

Crazy ass hippies and perverts came from that lazy mess of cast offs

Exhale:  Zen and Tibetan Ginsberg and trungpa a village called north beach

Finish:  bubbling churing blowing calling what next what nex

Last trickle:  Nothing is next nothing is left the bows of the westerners are empty of sincerety their arts are their bows their stars their gurus – breathe out breathe out great civilization breath out look to the east and blow from the west breath out ever on the road at home or away breathe out

Night is the end --- my only friend

Twain

Appendix

The Essentials of Spontaneous Prose

1958

Jack Kerouac

SETUP:  object is set before the mind, either in reality, as in sketching (before a landscape or teacup or old face) or is set in the memory wherein it becomes the sketching from memory of a definite image-object.

PROCDEURE:  flow from the mind of personal secret idea-words, blowing (as per jazz musician) onsubject of image.

METHOD:  No periods separating sentence-structures already arbitrarily riddled by falsecolons and timid usually needless commas but the vigorous space dash separating rhetoricalbreathing (as jazz musician drawing breath between outblown phrases) “measured pauses whichare the essentials of our speech” 

SCOPING:  Not “selectivity” of expression but following free deviation (association) ofmind into limitless blow-on-subject seas of thought, swimming in sea of English with no discipline

mind.

LAG IN PROCEDURE No pause to think of proper word but the infantile pileup ofscatological buildup words till satisfaction is gained, which will turn out to be a great appendingrhythm to a thought and be in accordance with Great Law of timing.

TIMING:  Nothing is muddy that runs in time and to laws of time Shakespearian stress of

CENTER OF INTEREST:  from jewel center of interest in subject of image at moment of writing blow! now! your way is your only way “good” or“bad always honest, (“ludicrous”), spontaneous, “confessional” interesting, because not“crafted.” Craft is craft.

STRUCTURE OF WORK:  roughly outlines inoutfanning movement over subject, as river rock, so mindflow over jewel-center need (run yourmind over it, once) arriving at pivot, where what was dim-formed “beginning” becomes sharp—necessitating “ending” and language shortens in race to wire of time-race of work, following lawsof Deep Form, to conclusion, last words, last trickle Night is The End.

MENTAL STATE:  if possible write “without consciousness” in semitrance

BELIEF & TECHNIQUE FOR MODERN PROSE Jack Kerouac

1. Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy2. Submissive to everything, open, listening 3. Try never get drunk outside yr own house 4. Be in love with yr life 5. Something that you feel will find its own form 6. Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind 7. Blow as deep as you want to blow 8. Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind 9. The unspeakable visions of the individual 10. No time for poetry but exactly what is 11. Visionary tics shivering in the chest 12. In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you 13. Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition 14. Like Proust be an old teahead of time

15. Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog 16. The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye 17. Write in recollection and amazement for yourself 18. Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea 19. Accept loss forever 20. Believe in the holy contour of life 21. Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind 22. Dont think of words when you stop but to see picture better 23. Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning 24. No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge 25. Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it 26. Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form 27. In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness 28. Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better 29. You're a Genius all the time 30. Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven

References

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/kerouac-spontaneous.html

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/kerouac-technique.html