Jack Kerouac

"here's to the crazy ones. the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers. the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently. they're not fond of the rules and have no respect for the status quo. you can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. about the only thing you can't do is ignore them. because they change things, they push the human race forward. and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Before all the Western Buddhist Organizations appeared, before the great influx of spiritual masters invaded the West, before the orthodoxy of Zen and Buddhism appeared in the West, there were a handful of poets and thinkers who were known as the 'beats.'

For us to miss the original insight that evolved into the hippie movement, we have to realize that the American manifestation of Zen and Buddhism has already been cast; was it too radical for those who followed or is the bone of their vision still shining brightly in our lives today? 

I bow in reverence to the few who changed so much for all of us today. Much of what they stood for is now being challenged in the twenty-first century, its time to reflect and realize that the simplicity of what was imagined can still be manifest in all of our lives.

dochong, psn