1950-69 BERKELEY - JACK KEROUAC. 200+pp Archive on Zen Buddhism by Early Beat - Hippie Advocate

A fascinating archive relevant to the emergence of Zen Buddhism in Berkeley, California during the early 1950’s Robert [Bob] Jackson was an early attendant at the Temple in Berkeley, alongside Jack Kerouac, Alan Watts, and others. He was a regular contributor to the Berkeley Bussei, one of the most influential Zen Buddhist publications in America, taught classes at the Berkeley Temple where many of the early Beats attended, etc. In 1957, he published what is now viewed as perhaps the most prescient article on the subject, Buddhism and the Beat Generation, for The American Buddhist magazine [who also published Watts, etc.].

This particular archive shows a sincere desire to situate American Zen Buddhism, and the Beat and Hippie manifestations of it, into the larger global and historical story of Buddhism.

Of particular interest are the lengthy correspondences with Sachin, famed disciple and lover [or victim] of Sangharakshita, and Ryukyo Fujimoto of Japan.

Additionally, Jackson sought correspondence with both major and minor Buddhist scholars from around the Asian world as well as ordinary practitioners of Buddhism, especially Zen Buddhism, and young people in predominantly Buddhist countries.

The archive is composed of three parts; I. Over 100 pages of directly relevant Buddhist letters, correspondences, and pieces of ephemera; II. An unusual group of 1969-1971 anonymous hippie poetry written in homage to psychedelic drugs and experiences in the High Sierras; III. Well in excess of 100 pages of family correspondence, often with excellent content.

I. BUDDHIST CORRESPONDENCE

Original MSs letter on beautiful print Japanese letterhead with original envelope from Buddhist minister of Kauai, Hawaii, Kyodyo Naitoh [held formerly in an Japanese internment camp] to Rev. Kanmyo Imamura [Roy Imamura], Buddhist Bishop of Hawaii and important figure in West Coast Buddhism in the 1950’s and 1960’s at Berkeley. This influence would include having Alan Watts, Jack Kerouac, Philip Whalen, Gary Snyder, and Robert Jackson attend his classes at the Buddhist Temple in Berkeley.

1948 correspondence with Prince Atanda a Eniafe of Nigeria.

1956 TLS to Bob Jackson from from Kanmo Imamura thanking Bob for teaching the Primary Classes at the Buddhist Churches of American Study Center in Berkeley.

1956 6pp ALS from Djokja Karni of Indonesia [including two small photographs] on the Korean War, fear of a Third World War, Dutch Colonization, etc.]

1951 ALS from Anthony Turlay Van Couvering of Fuji Magazine & Book Shop to Bob Jackson referring him to begin an important correspondence with Rev. Ryukyu Fuijimoto of Ryukoku University in Japan. Van Couvering was one of the most influential publishers of Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, and emerging American Counterculture Thought on the West Coast, including the works of John Cage, etc., More on Rev. Fujimoto to come. Van Couvering says he is only referring Bob as he is a friend of Kenny Fujiyoshi’s.

1951 ALS from Kenneth Fujiyoshi regarding Sensei Senzaki [Nyogen Senzaki, influential proponent of Zen Buddhism in America], the publication Aryan Path, etc. on Fuji Magazine & Book Shop letterhead.

1953 TLS to Bob Jackson from Yoshiaki Tajima of Berkeley regarding scholarly contacts on Oriental Philosophy in Japan, etc.

An extensive 5pp TLS to Bob Jackson by Ryukyu Fujimoto of Ryukoko University in Japan regarding non-dualism, and thoughtlessness enlightenment and liberation, appreciating Jackson’s accurate understanding of oriental philosophy and theology, Zen Buddhism and enlightenment, Supreme Wisdom, Shin Buddhism, D. Suzuki’s view that Shin Buddhism was influenced by Christianity in the 7^th century and that the two are really two names for one religion, on the nature of poetry and Zen, on the dualism in advanced enlightenment, on mantras, etc. A fine, historically important letter. Ryukyu was author of An Outline of Triple Shin Buddhism, etc.

1953 extensive 2pp TLS to Bob Jackson from Ryuku Fujimoto of Ryukoko Universit regarding the translation of Jackson’s articles into Japanese and their distribution in Japan through the Buddhist Magazine, excavation of early Buddhist communities, Fujimoto’s current project An Introduction to Shin Buddhism, existentialism, mental phenomena, etc.

1951 2pp TL from Ryukyu Fujimoto [see above] discussing the challenges of reconciling Zen and Shin Buddhism, engagement in politics by Buddhists in Japan, the potential conflict of science and religion and reasons the challenges are less acute in Buddhism than in Christianity, the four laws or criterion of Buddhism, etc. [incomplete]

1951 extensive 2pp TLS from Fujimoto [see above] discussing his knowledge of Unitarian and Christian theology in general. He was then reading Reinhold Niebuhr’s Nature and the Destiny of Man. He then asks Jackson to explain the poem Death by Water by T. S. Eliot, discussing how difficult Eliot is for him to read, etc.,

1p, 1957 ALS from the Palo Alto Junior Buddhists regarding Jackson’s teachings

A 1955 2pp ALS from West Newton, MA addressed to Dear Brother in Dharma regarding his articles in the Berkeley Brussei, etc., the person mentions Alan Watts, who the correspondent apparently knew from “old Buddhist days in London,” etc.,

1956 TLS from Bob Jackson to The Buddhist Union at Jalan Senyum Shrine in Singapore on the influence of Mahayanist Buddhism in America, Buddhism among Caucasians as usually a turning away from rigid and intolerant Christianity, often co-existent with agnostic philosophy, etc.,

1956 3.5pp ALS from Bob Jackson to Sachindra Coomar [Kumar] Singh of The Hermitage in India. Sachindra [more often, Sachin] was one of the most significant of the new generation of 20^th century Zen Buddhist thinkers in India. He was heavily influenced by his sensei, Sangharakshita and Sachin is mentioned dozens of times in Sangharakshita’s Buddhism alone, and perhaps hundreds of times in all his 20+ volumes of writings. The two traveled together and it was later revealed that the two had an ongoing pederastic sexual relationship. Sangharakshita has been accused of utilizing his religious position in India to engage in decades of child sexual abuse, Sachin often included, though Sachin always maintained it was consensual. In this letter Jackson discusses Buddhism’s need to move back to its original spirit, the growth of the Young Buddhist Association in Berkeley, the problem of articulating Buddhism in English, a desire to bring young American Buddhists together with young Indian and Tibetan Buddhists, etc.

1953 3pp ALS from important Buddhist, Sachindra Kumar Singh [see above], very early while still studying literature and before becoming acquainted with Sangharakshita. Discusses his failure at college, etc.,

1952 3pp ALS from Bob Jackson to Sachin [see above] re: Stepping Stones, Lama Anagarika Govinda, the connection of Unitarians to Buddhism, Nyogen Senzaki, Zen Buddhism, etc., Unsent apparently, or a retained copy.

1953 3pp ALS from Sachin regarding American Buddhism, pious Hindus, and the Lama, etc.

1953 2pp ALS from Sachin mentioning for the first time Bhishu Sangharakshita, divisions among the Buddhists at the Hermitage, etc.,

1954 7pp ALS by Sachin with original photographs, including a young Sachin, and likely not reproduced elsewhere. Discusses Nepali versus Tibetan Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism, the problems of translation, ignorant lamas, etc.,

6pp 1957 ALS from John M. Kashiwabara regarding pastoral questions for a practicing Buddhist, etc.

3pp 1956 ALS to Bob Jackson from Rev. T. Yoshinami of Oahu regarding Zen Culture, etc.

Fine 1p ALS by Jane Imamura of the Buddhist Churches of America Study Center to Bob Jackson regarding his talk at Berkeley and their observation that some of the young Buddhists [probably the emerging Berkeley students] are not ready for “manhood,” etc. Jane, as her brother, was a significant influence on Kerouac, Watts, etc.,

10pp 1956 ALS to Bob and Bev Jackson from Berkeley Poet and Translator, Glen M. Grosjean of Ibuka in Gifu Prefecture, Japan regarding the desire to spread Buddhism in America, etc.

TL Advert from 1957 addressed to Bob Jackson on Alan Watts, 310 Laverne Avenue, Mill Valley letterhead inviting Bob to Watts’ seminary on “The Philosophy of Nature in Taoism & Zen Buddhism.” Limited to 25 attendees and attendees must have some reading knowledge of the principles of Taoist and Buddhist philosophy.

1956 Christmas card with autograph letter from Glen M. Grosjean of Ibuka

1p. TLS from Bob Jackson from Mihoko Okamura of New York regarding the printing of the Lankavatara of Dr. Suzuki, Stepping Stones, Okamura’s reading of Jackson’s article sin the Berkeley Bussei, and sends his greetings to all their mutual friends in the Bay Area, including Alan Watts by name, etc.

A charming Japanese Christmas card to Bob Jackson from Nyogen Senzaki, signed and including an original photograph of Senzaki. He also provides an address for Rev. So Yen Nakagawa, etc.

Fine TL on printed stationary to Bob Jackson regarding having Jackson speak at the O-Bon Festival for the Stockton Buddhist Church, 1956. A bit stained.

1p 1957 ALS From Hiroshi Kashiwagi, editor of The American Buddhist on American Buddhist letterhead. Requesting that Bob respond to a correspondent, with letter included, who had converted from Christianity to Buddhism, the challenges posed with his family, etc. Kashiwagi was an important voice for Japanese poetry, theatre, and, as here, Buddhism in America.

1pp ALS in Japanese by Rev. K. Fujinaga of the Buddhist Church of Lodi, Lodi, California. Presumably to Bob Jackson regarding a speaking engagement there.

1967 3pp TLS from Dan Nakamura, President of the Senshin Jr. Young Buddhists Association of Los Angeles requesting that Jackson speak on the current happenings with Buddhism among the young.

Unsent 2pp ALS from Bob Jackson to the Buddhist Society of London [1956] ordering a cache of their Buddhist publications.

1955 postcard from Nyogen Senzaki to Bob Jackson regarding Inu-Hariko, etc., Stained.

1957 ALS from George & Lyn Du Bois, “We, we ain’t leaving Berkeley even if they have Siamese sex shows and sweet meats from Uzbek and even two headed Yaks from Outer Mongolia,” and “A Buddhist is a man who never gets off the elevator because no floor is his floor . . . does this mean that all elevator operators are Buddhists?” etc.,

1951 Order from Taraporevala’s Treasure House of Books, including Hindu Religion, Hindi Made Easy, the Indian Philosophy of Radhakrishnan, etc.

Fine 1953 postcard from Japan by Berkeley feminist, Dorothy Edith Smith regarding Mr. Suzuki, a Zen Priest, etc.,

A 1956 Year of the Monkey woodcut greeting card from The First Zen Institute of America, Kyoto Branch [Ruth F. Sasaki]. Stained.

1956-1957 Associate Membership Card for The First Zen Institute of America for Robert Jackson.

1957 letter to the Berkeley Bussei regarding the compassion of the Buddha . . . in which is a complaint against the author’s inability to communicate the teachings of the Buddha clearly, etc.,  

TLS from Robert Aitken, Zen Buddhist and Teacher, LGB+ Advocate, Native Hawaiian Advocate, etc., discussing the value of Krishnamurti over Zen, etc.

2pp 1952 TOLS from Indian and Buddhist scholar, N. Aiyaswami Sastri re: Jackson’s grasp of “the true spirit of Buddhism.,” Mahayanic and Hinayanic forms, Zen Buddhism, etc.

Lengthy 1967 TLS from Isao Fujimoto of the University of California at Davis. Discusses the tragedy of the Vietnam War, Isao’s teaching at UCDavis, etc., Damaged.

Another TLS from Robert Aitken, including his catalogue of Senzaki San’s library, Studies in Meditation, etc.

Various letters from A Victor Rajarajan of Keda Malaya [1950 – Post British Occupation – Westernization – Capitalism and Commercialization, etc.]; another of Rajarajan of Ceylon [1950 – The Chola Kings, Tamil Kings, Indian Languages, Hinduism and Buddhism in Ceylon, etc.] another of Rajarajan now in Kuala Lumpur [1950 – Jackson’s request to know how Rajarajan came to be a Christian rather than a Buddhist, Unrest in Malaya, Chinese Bandits & Communists Terrorizing Malaya . . . their merciless actions sweep the whole of the country with terror, europeans and asiatics are brutally murdered, trains derailed, etc.]

1964 letter from Indian correspondent; 1955 letter from an Indian correspondent; 1954 letter from Indian correspondent; letters from Bob Nakata, 1965 ALS from Truvala; 1955 letter from India, 1954 ALS from India, 1950 ALS from Japan, 1953 letter from India, 2pp ALS from Taiwan discussing Chinese-Taiwanese Relations,

II. PSYCHEDELIA.

Ten original, unpublished hippie – countercultural poems on 8 sheets written on buddhist, hallucinogenic - drug, and social themes. Accompanied by a hand-drawn map to the unknown author’s house just past Paradise and Magalia off 99 by Chico, California.

All Creatures Suffer [1969], I Saw Nixon [1969], Volcano Sutra [1970], Dream Vision of Han Shan [i.e. Hanshan, 1970, High Sierra], Enola Gay [B-29, some lady, she – pregnant with Western Victory, she gave dead birth to a half million of my children, etc., 1970], Run down the Road, Man [1970], Poem as Seen on the 6 O’Clock News [1970], Ode on Tea [Smoked just then half a fat one . . . an ode to marijuana], Thoughts of Your Riddle of Cities’ Desolate Terror and Dreams of Legendary Herbos [Cocaine, Marijuana, Berkeley in ’66, etc.] No Moon Reflected in No Lake, etc.

III. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE.

Over 100 pages of correspondence between various family members and Bob and Bev Jackson, often quite lengthy and with valuable content related to the communications above.