Another question re Jack/St. Therese

by bd23

Posted to WritersAndGenres on 2004-03-08 10:28:00

Okay, I’m not entirely sure how to phrase this, but I’m still trying to find a correlation between Jack Kerouac and St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and I’m thinking it might have to do with Thérèse’s notion of ‘nothingness’. She seemed to want to reduce herself to pure soul, to be one with Christ, to be, in a sense, disembodied—a living breathing earthly soul.

So what I’m wondering is if somebody here could help me understand what Jack’s notion of Buddhism was. Did it have to do with reducing oneself to nothingness? Or am I on the wrong track? And what exactly is Zen Buddhism? Is it different from what is called Buddhism? Was Jack a Zen Buddhist?

As you can see, my ignorance on this subject is appalling and I desperately need somebody to point me in the right direction. I don’t quite know where to begin researching this.

Also I stumbled across an article on a Catholic Web site in which the writer quotes Jack as saying, “I want God to show me His face.” The writer also says that as an adult Jack had a vision of the Virgin Mary, but the writer didn’t mention the source of these quotes. Does anybody here know where I can find out more about this?

I hope it’s okay to ask for so much help here, and if it isn’t, I hope somebody will tell me.

Many thanks,
bd23