"Remember Jack, I studied and practised Buddhism in my usual sloppy way to be sure. The conclusion I arrived at, and I make no claims to speak from a state of enlightenment, but merely to have attempted the journey, as always, with inadequate equipment and knowledge…
… my conclusion was that Buddha is only for the West to study as history, that it is a subject for understanding, and yoga can profitably be practised to that end. But it is not for the West, An Answer, not A Solution. WE must learn by acting, experiencing, and living, that is, above all by Love and by Suffering. A man who uses Buddhism or any other instrument to remove love from his being in order to avoid suffering, has committed, in my mind, a sacrilege comparable to castration. You were given the power to love, in order to use it, no matter what pain it might cause you.
Buddhism frequently amounts to a form of psychic junk… I may add that I have seen nothing from those California Vedantists but a lot of horse shit, and I denounce them without cavill as a pack of frauds. Convinced of their own line to be sure, thereby adding self-deception to their other failings. In short a sorry bunch of psychic retreaters from the dubious human journey. Because if there is one thing I feel sure of it is this: that human life has direction."
William S Burroughs Letter to Jack Kerouac, 1954
Charters (Ed.) - Selected Letters of Jack Kerouac - Volume 1 p.438-9 - Penguin 1995
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