The Dharma Bums

by

Jack Kerouac

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Bodhisattva Term Analysis

Depending on the context, a bodhisattva is either anyone who has committed themselves to the path of enlightenment, or someone who has perfected their spirit and is ready for enlightenment but has chosen to stay in the world and help other beings instead.

Bodhisattva Quotes in The Dharma Bums

The The Dharma Bums quotes below are all either spoken by Bodhisattva or refer to Bodhisattva. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Enlightenment and Nature Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

I'm telling you she was actually glad to do all this and told me “You know, I feel like I'm the mother of all things and I have to take care of my little children.”

“You're such a young pretty thing yourself.”

“But I'm the old mother of earth. I'm a Bodhisattva,” She was just a little off her nut but when I heard her say “Bodhisattva” I realized she wanted to be a big Buddhist like Japhy and being a girl the only way she could express it was this way, which had its traditional roots in the yabyum ceremony of Tibetan Buddhism, so everything was fine.

Alvah was immensely pleased and was all for the idea of “every Thursday night” and so was I by now.

“Alvah, Princess says she's a Bodhisattva.”

“Of course she is.”

“She says she's the mother of all of us.”

Related Characters: Ray Smith (speaker), Alvah Goldbrook (speaker), Princess (speaker), Japhy Ryder
Page Number: 30-31
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

There was something inexpressibly broken in my heart as though I'd lived before and walked this trail, under similar circumstances with a fellow Bodhisattva, but maybe on a more important journey, I felt like lying down by the side of the trail and remembering it all. The woods do that to you, they always look familiar, long lost, like the face of a long-dead relative, like an old dream, like a piece of forgotten song drifting across the water, most of all like golden eternities of past childhood or past manhood and all the living and the dying and the heartbreak that went on a million years ago and the clouds as they pass overhead seem to testify (by their own lonesome familiarity) to this feeling.

Related Characters: Ray Smith (speaker)
Page Number: 61-62
Explanation and Analysis:
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Bodhisattva Term Timeline in The Dharma Bums

The timeline below shows where the term Bodhisattva appears in The Dharma Bums. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
Enlightenment and Nature Theme Icon
Later, Japhy calls Ray a Bodhisattva and tells him about all the different schools of Buddhism and their mythologies. Ray is... (full context)
Chapter 5
Enlightenment and Nature Theme Icon
Counterculture and Freedom Theme Icon
Inclusion, Exclusion, and Community Theme Icon
...the group decides to have a yabyum orgy every Thursday night. Princess calls herself a Bodhisattva, and Ray says that this is how she relates to Buddhism as a woman. Japhy... (full context)
Chapter 13
Enlightenment and Nature Theme Icon
Counterculture and Freedom Theme Icon
...the fancy restaurant. Later that evening, Princess pays Ray a visit, and they have wild Bodhisattvic sex. Alvah interrupts them when he gets home, so they go take a bath together,... (full context)
Enlightenment and Nature Theme Icon
Counterculture and Freedom Theme Icon
Friendship Theme Icon
Literature and Authenticity Theme Icon
Inclusion, Exclusion, and Community Theme Icon
...consume.” He imagines a mass movement of “Dharma Bums” rejecting this lifestyle and living like Bodhisattvas, wandering around North America. Along the way, the Dharma Bums would stop at a network... (full context)
Chapter 33
Enlightenment and Nature Theme Icon
Counterculture and Freedom Theme Icon
While meditating one night, Ray has a vision of the compassionate Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, who asks him to remind others of their freedom. Ray yells out into the... (full context)