I read this online and had no idea how long it was when I started, but I read it start to finish in that, because I could immediately tell this was the kind of writing you lose track of the moment you break away from it. I do like the format, all these interconnecting ideas stated separately. And the subject too, it's a really interesting way of presenting the world. I probably agree with a lot of different would views and I'd say this is one of them. As I was reading, in the back of my head, a "yes, that sounds right" often chimed it.
So, I enjoyed this and would recommend.

Sinceramente me pareció puro caos, en los pequeños instantes que podía ver algo que tuviera un mínimo sentido se sepultaba rápidamente por la verborragia de palabras. Me terminó aturdiendo.

The Scripture of the Golden Eternity by Jack Kerouac is a personalized collection of Beat interpreted Buddhism. The Open Road Integrated Media ebook version of the book uses their own typesetting which keeps the lines together and in their original format when you change text size. Many poems read better when the lines are presented when intended. In other ebooks, I am forced to go into landscape mode to retain line format. Unlike prose line breaks are important in many poems and can change the meaning of a line when the breaks are not in the right place.

The Scripture of the Golden Eternity is a collection of sixty-six poems written in what seems to me a prayer book. Each short poem is self-contained and is meant to be read and pondered on. Kerouac and the Beat version of Buddhism takes on its own unique form. Anyone with a knowledge of Buddhism who has read Dharma Bums understands this. It is not bad, but just a different Americanized, Beat interpretation.

Kerouac presents a compact version of his exploration into Buddhism and like many Americans he comes from a Christian or Catholic culture and attempts to reconcile his family religion with Buddhism. The Scripture of the Golden Eternity is a more mature view than the sometimes satirized Beat view that can be seen in Dharma Bums. A nice collection that is meant to be read and meditated upon.

This is a book of spiritual "poetry" or meditations written by Jack Kerouac, famous for his work, On The Road. It was a fairly short read, being under a hundred poems in the entire collection but it was quite difficult to navigate as I was reading an uncorrected proof (ebook) and the lines of poetry were spliced in odd places. The language just didn't flow as I believe it was intended to.

Other than that, I had mixed feelings about it. Some of the poems read like The Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield became a Buddhist and rambled on and on (i.e. "In other words, nothing can compare with telling your brother or your sister that what happened, what is happening, and what will happen, never really happened, is not really happening and never will happen, it is only the golden eternity." - #42 or "Cats yawn because they realize that there's nothing to do." - #59) while others were quite beautiful (i.e. "Perfectly selfless, the beauty of it, the butterfly doesn't take it as a personal achievement, he just disappears through the trees. You too, kind and humble are not-even-here, it wasn't in a greedy mood that you saw the light that belongs to everybody." - #57)

I'm quite analytical when I read, and to a fault sometimes, so I think that might play into my apathy for this book, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I did not get any great spiritual enlightenment from reading this but perhaps others will appreciate it more than I did.

*I received an advance reading copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.*

This volume is everything and nothing and the same time, it is a buddhist modern mantra that leads you to "golden eternity." Whatever that means, this volume contains:

Some sensical non-sense(?):
"The form of emptiness
which is emptiness having taken the form of form,
is what you see and hear and feel right now, and
what you taste and smell and think as you read
this."

Some positivity(?):
"There is a blessedness surely to be believed,
and that is that everything abides in
eternal ecstasy, now and forever."

Some advice(?):
"Stare deep into the world before you as if it were
the void: innumerable holy ghosts, buddhies,
and savior gods there hide, smiling."

Some neuroscience(?):
"Discard such definite imaginations of phenomena
as your own self"

Some theology(?):
"sin is only a conception of ours,
due to long habit."

Some science(?):
"All things are different forms of the same thing."

Some philosophy(?):
"the emptiness of everything has no beginning
and no end and at present it is infinite."

Some truth(?):
"the world is undisciplined
Nature endlessly in every direction inward
to your body and outward into space."

Some poetry(?):
"Do you think the emptiness of the sky will ever
crumble away?"

Some manners(?):
"Even in dreams be kind, because anyway there is
no time, no space, no mind."

Some wisdom(?):
"When you’ve understood this scripture, throw it
away. If you cant understand this scripture,
throw it away. I insist on your freedom."

Some psychology (?):
"You cant even grasp your own pain let alone
your eternal reward."

Some humor(?):
"Everything’s alright, cats sleep. [...] Cats yawn because they realize
that there’s nothing to do."

Anyway, note 64 is the essence of this volume and the best of all of them...

“Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world."

just poetry, bluesy

Primero del año y primero de Kerouac que leo. ¡Grata experiencia! Puedo vislumbrar lo profundo y experimental del estilo de Kerouac, del cual he escuchado mucho, mas me gustaría aproximarme a algo diferente suyo, con lo que de seguro podré conectar mucho mejor. Este ha sido un libro increíble de reflexiones muy profundas... no me suscribo mucho al pensamiento budista, pero lo he disfrutado bastante.

In Jack’s inimitable style of waterfall of words, he amalgamates Buddhist thought with his prophetic intuition about life, death, and all there is... Haven’t read a Kerouac book in many years and it was memory provoking for me about a time in my life that has made me who I am...

This book blow my mind. Its been ten years since I read it so I need to read it again soon.

A series of numbered poems from Kerouac exploring consciousness and unreality with heavy Buddhist overtones. Although I find Kerouac's poetry dilettantish, this selection is probably his best.

"Because there is no definite teaching: the world is undisciplined Nature endlessly in every direction inward to your body and outward to space."

3.5

“While looking for the light, you may suddenly be devoured by the darkness and find the true light.”