Free Wake Up by Jack Kerouac Page B

origin of the world and by striking down the forgotten path had renewed the ancient vow that had been a long time already hidden in the world like the jewel in the lotus, inquired: “Who is the teacher under whose guidance you have renounced the world?”
    “I have no master,” replied the Enlightened One, “no honor-able tribe; no point of excellence; self-taught in this profoundest doctrine, I have arrived at superhuman wisdom.
    “Through all Benares soon will sound the drum of life, no stay is possible—I have no name—nor do I seek profit or pleasure.
    “That which behooves the world to learn, but throughout the world no learner found, I now myself and by myself have learned completely; ’tis rightly called Perfect Wisdom.
    “That hateful family of griefs the sword of wisdom has destroyed, this then is what the world has named and rightly named, the ‘Chiefest Victory.’”
    And he said: “I have no master. To me there is no equal. I am the perfect one, the Buddha. I have attained peace. I have obtained Nirvana. To found the Kingdom of righteousness I am going to Benares. There I shall light the Bright Lamp for the benefit of those who are shrouded in the gloomy darkness of life and death.”
    “Do you profess to be the conqueror of the world?” demanded the monk.
    The Awakened One replied: “Conquerors of the world are those who have conquered self, those alone are victors who control their passions and abstain from sin. I have conquered self and overcome all sin. Therefore am I the conqueror of the world.
    “Like as the lamp shines in the dark, without a purpose of its own, self-radiant, so burns the lamp of the Tathagata, without the shadow of a personal feeling.”
    And he moved on to Benares.
    There, in the deer park Isipatana, sat the five mendicant ascetics with whom he’d spent those futile six years in the Forest of Mortification. They saw him coming, slowly, his eyes cast down with circumspection and modesty a plough’s length along the ground as if he was ploughing and planting the Ambrosial crop of the law as he went. They scoffed.
    “There comes Gotama who broke his first vow by giving up ascetic practices and mortification. Don’t rise in salutation, give him an offhand greeting, don’t offer him the customary refreshments when he comes.”
    However, when the Buddha approached them in a dignified manner, they involuntarily arose from their seats, and in spite of their resolution greeted him and offered to wash his feet and do all that he might require. It struck awe in their hearts. But they addressed him as Gotama after his family. Then their Lord said to them: “Call me not after my private name, for it is a rude and careless way of addressing one who has obtained Saintship (Arhatship). My mind is undisturbed whether people treat me with respect or disrespect. But it is not courteous for others to call one who looks equally with a kind heart upon all living beings by his familiar name. Buddhas bring salvation to the world, and therefore they ought to be treated with respect as children treat their fathers.”
    Then he preached to them his first great sermon.
    It is known as the “Sermon at Benares,” the Dharmachakra-pravartana Sutra, in which he explained the Four Great Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, and made converts of them. Thoroughly versed in highest truth, full of all-embracing intelligence, the Buddha on their account briefly declared to them the one true Way, the Middle Way.
    “These are the two extremes, O bhikshus (Religious Wanderers) which the man who has given up the world ought not to follow—the habitual practice, on the one hand, of self-indulgence which is unworthy, vain and fit only for the worldly-minded—and the habitual practice, on the other hand, of self-mortification which is painful, useless and unprofitable.
    “Neither abstinence from fish or flesh, nor going naked, nor shaving the head, nor wearing matted hair, nor dressing in a rough garment,