Allen Ginsberg: Buddhism and the Beats

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  • Опубліковано 17 сер 2024
  • Allen Ginsberg: Buddhism and the Beats (2015) -- In 1993, Allen Ginsberg spoke to a gathering of students of the Tibetan Buddhist monk, Lobsang Samten, about the impact of Buddhist thought and practice on himself, the Beat writers and American culture at large. Archival documentation produced by Robyn Brentano with students from the NYU Ethnographic Film Program. Sound: Bill Kelly.
    © 2015 Robyn Brentano

КОМЕНТАРІ • 134

  • @dharmaofdog7676
    @dharmaofdog7676 3 роки тому +49

    Alan was truly the sweetest Person I've ever met, for years he cared for his Mother and always spoke about her with such gentleness. If you ever saw him carrying a little string tied pastry box, it was usually a favorite pastry he was bringing home to her . One year in the early 80's, I was asked to accompany & sit with his Mother at a Reading of Howl at Columbia University. When Alan read some of the "juicier" lines, I discreetly side glanced, curious her reaction - assuming discomfort. I couldn't have been more inaccurate as there she sat, smiling and made little nods of approval. It was an small yet extraordinary moment, feeling this Mother's love for her son. Every winter I would run a Children's Event at a Buddhist Center in NYC and one year, invited Alan to come Read a Poem to entertain them. From that point on, for years he would call me in advance of the Event and offer to Read AND sing accompanied by his Concertina (usually Blake) - Alan said he called ahead in case I forgot and to make sure it got on his Schedule. "Haha Alan, forget, really!?" I can't think of any better example that demonstrates Alan's incredible sense of generosity and thoughtful nature. A Brilliant Heart and Mind. Ki Ki So SO!

    • @JSTNtheWZRD
      @JSTNtheWZRD 3 роки тому +3

      Yes, a humble giant of a man that fit into that little body. Great story, yes this is the side of Allen we like to hear about, explains it all.

    • @hurzlknurz122
      @hurzlknurz122 3 роки тому

      Is this about Allen's mother? Didn't she die much earlier?

    • @dharmaofdog7676
      @dharmaofdog7676 2 роки тому +1

      @@hurzlknurz122 - good point! I just googled & you're correct. The Woman I met must have been his "Step-mother"? That wasn't clarified as I was just asked if I would escort Allen's Mother to her Seat & sit with her at Event, think in 83'? Also, to add, Abbie Hoffman came & sat on my left and also leaned over me & said, "Hello, Mother" in greeting.
      Once when I met up with Allen he was carrying a Pastry Box & he told me he was taking it home for his Mother, from a favorite Bakery of theirs. There was definitely a feeling of Mother Love between them.

    • @fintanoclery2698
      @fintanoclery2698 2 роки тому +4

      He always had a penchant for buggary on underage boys and cheerleaded for NAMBLA. You keep cheerleading for him though eh

    • @liamwhitney509
      @liamwhitney509 2 роки тому

      @@fintanoclery2698 smaug

  • @robertemerson6090
    @robertemerson6090 Рік тому +6

    I love Alan and his beatific brethren for their openess with human flaws, their sympathy for the searching mind heart, and finding the right thing to say.

  • @roofdweller
    @roofdweller 5 років тому +49

    I love this man who had a profound impact upon me as a young man and ongoingly, still, now, in almost old age - to hear this discourse in one big long exhale of mind (and the shapeliness thereof of G's mind and expression) endears me to him all the more. I live near where he used to here in the East Village of NYC, I would often see him walking about the neighborhood, sitting on a bench at the end of my street, once on a grave in the old graveyard, at St. Marks Church, and would thrill at the sighting. Too shy to say hello or approach I ghosted around him hoping that some contagion of poetry would catch in me by indirect but close transmission from Allen. This video talk serves as such along with many more films, documentaries, his books and songs. Grateful for him and to him. Truly brilliant mind and man and human, all too human, as are we all. Here's a late poem by Allen written in the East Village:
    Fourth Floor, Dawn, Up All Night Writing Letters
    Pigeons shake their wings on the copper church roof
    out my window across the street, a bird perched on the cross
    surveys the city's blue-grey clouds. Larry Rivers
    'll come at 10 AM and take my picture. I'm taking
    your picture, pigeons. I'm writing you down, Dawn.
    I'm immortalizing your exhaust, Avenue A bus.
    O Thought, now you'll have to think the same thing forever!

    • @suzt1029
      @suzt1029 5 років тому +2

      So now Warren, this old woman loves you too

    • @insight8881
      @insight8881 4 роки тому +2

      wow, that poem sucked. alan would have sexed you up when you were a kid.

    • @JorgeGomez-hx5uu
      @JorgeGomez-hx5uu 3 роки тому +1

      @@dorathee7284 how is he a moron? what hes saying is factual. Its the reason why I will forever hate Allen Ginsberg and his writing. Disgusting pedophile supporter.

    • @jaythered49
      @jaythered49 2 роки тому +1

      well spoken Warren! He is truly a brilliant man! Saw him sing his poetry at UNCA just before he passed away. He would not start until all the people that couldn't get in were seated and the only place left for them was on stage with him! I was so sorry I got there early! His poetry and very being came alive for me once I heard him sing those poems!! Check out his Naropa lectures available online.

  • @lynnnicholas64
    @lynnnicholas64 4 роки тому +6

    I was there that night with Ginsberg and Lobsang on the subway back to Manhattan from Brooklyn. I will never forget that night. How lovely to see Lobsang so young, and Charles ! thank you Robin !

  • @vasiliosbakagias1202
    @vasiliosbakagias1202 4 роки тому +9

    One of the greatest poets of the modern age, and a personal icon for me.

  • @svendbosanvovski4241
    @svendbosanvovski4241 4 роки тому +9

    Thank you for posting this wonderful documentary, Robyn. It has enriched my appreciation of Alan Ginsberg poetry.

  • @howardleekilby7390
    @howardleekilby7390 10 місяців тому

    Thank you Allen Ginsberg for visiting Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas in October 1994 as the Featured Poet of the Arkansas Celebration of the Arts in Poetry. Walking beside you up Bathhouse Row toward the Arlington Hotel where you were holding a poetry recital.
    You chanted the Heart Sutra. It was a technicolor day and I was walking beside you. Thank you for keeping my letters in your papers donated to Stanford. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

  • @babbarr77
    @babbarr77 2 роки тому +3

    This is really great. A wonderful informing story of Allen´s path and America´s path of awakening.

  • @4-dman464
    @4-dman464 3 роки тому +2

    Ginsberg's transcribed lectures on literature delivered at Naropa are so insightful and clear, well worth finding in his nonfiction books. OK?

  • @mwmingram
    @mwmingram 5 років тому +7

    This is really fantastic! A gold mine. Thank you so much for posting.

  • @3340steve
    @3340steve 4 роки тому +4

    Thank you for posting this excellent video. It is an accurate portrait of the complexity of this man. There are some very revealing statements of the poet's mind, unguarded expression about the world, language, and the progress of consciousness.

  • @gracedague9528
    @gracedague9528 6 років тому +12

    Thanks for posting. I'm using this for some research and it is very helpful.

  • @liamwhitney509
    @liamwhitney509 6 років тому +5

    What a gift. Thank you.

  • @parrotsandpelicans
    @parrotsandpelicans Рік тому +1

    Ginsberg mentions Suzuki Roshi several times in this interview, but he's actually talking about DT Suzuki.

  • @benjones4389
    @benjones4389 5 років тому +4

    this is great for my dissertation thank you for posting.

  • @KNOWLEDGEREINGS
    @KNOWLEDGEREINGS Рік тому

    What an amazing language to understand. I am grateful to have English as my mother tongue

  • @rd264
    @rd264 5 років тому +2

    these writers were not trying to escape or 'beat' anything except the waste of time club that is materialism. I grew up in a town next to Paterson NJ, and eventually rode my bike to the top of Garret Mountain overlooking Paterson Falls. I was astonished that such a beautiful sight was right there, next to my home town, yet no one I knew in my town mentioned it. Williams "Paterson" was never mentioned by anyone outside of poetry. No one in my town seemed to know about Williams. I'm so grateful for Allen who appreciates every writer and is the best of his generation. Maybe any generation. I met him in Boulder in 1974 as a student.

    • @stephenhargrave7922
      @stephenhargrave7922 4 роки тому +2

      Buddhism has the same pitfalls as any other religion. As a literary device it is wonderful. As a dogma...meh, I can take it or leave it. Definitely a good remedy in this bygone age long past the apocalypse and the bomb. Passive acceptance. You have to try and imagine the Garantuan strain on the minds of men who watched the world change after the bomb. Those who new the world before imminent doom. Buddhism is a natural conclusion of coming to grips with this new reality. It may be a death trip to practice active resistance but it is admirable and the only way to affect outward change. That's an opinion, but Americans ego in meditation usually leads to inward selfishness. Exactly what the hippies became. Jane Fonda workout vanity just focus on you follow your bliss forget your fellow man

    • @michaelgove9349
      @michaelgove9349 2 роки тому +2

      ​@@stephenhargrave7922 Encountering inward selfishness in meditation is a positive experience. The meditation does not cause the selfishness, it simply reveals it. And since it will not shift until it is revealed, the opportunity to look at it is extremely valuable.
      People who have not allowed themselves to meet the inner selfishness can spend their whole lives projecting it onto others.

  • @mattr2961
    @mattr2961 6 років тому +7

    Marvelous storyteller

  • @middayz
    @middayz 3 роки тому

    Wow how that great poetic voice can
    remember to remember.
    Thank you.

  • @jameshoulahan
    @jameshoulahan 7 років тому +6

    Thank you for posting this. Very interesting!

  • @bettywing52
    @bettywing52 Рік тому

    Excellent source information about Allen Ginsberg's involvement in founding Shambhala with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1970-1987.

  • @stephenhargrave7922
    @stephenhargrave7922 4 роки тому +5

    The beat generations PR man. Affecting the image to suit any era.

  • @bigbeefscorcho
    @bigbeefscorcho 5 років тому +2

    I have a heavy case of Ginsberg resentment, I always have. Thank you for uploading, wonderful stuff

    • @peterbaranyai6057
      @peterbaranyai6057 5 років тому +3

      You either love him or hate him but you can't deny he was on the ball , very sharp mind. I liked him ,his work .

    • @ImbecilicMoron
      @ImbecilicMoron 4 роки тому

      can u elaborate im interested

    • @Len124
      @Len124 3 роки тому

      @@ImbecilicMoron I don't think our friend Beef is coming back, but I'm also interested in what they meant by such a mercurial statement. It's loaded with intent, but I can't parse it. Ginsberg is a controversial figure for sure, but I can't tell whether the comment was praise, scorn, or both. What do you think it meant? I'm interested in your interest.

    • @pearljackson-payen591
      @pearljackson-payen591 3 роки тому +1

      @@Len124 If you watch the whole video you will find the reference.

    • @mikeoglen6848
      @mikeoglen6848 2 роки тому

      @@Len124 As stated, very clearly, he resented Ginsberg for some reason. Why, exactly, he did not say.

  • @adrianoclincho1852
    @adrianoclincho1852 6 років тому +4

    top class thank you.

  • @nicholasdarraugh7626
    @nicholasdarraugh7626 6 років тому +2

    Thank you!

  • @jeffreycabanellas8113
    @jeffreycabanellas8113 Рік тому

    Ran into A.G but never spoke-I suppose what was to be discussed I covered in my reading of his and others of a like mind.Never the less I feel that I understood him and simply had little to discuss. The world could use a few more philosophers and poets of the same caliber as A.G.But I guess we are really on are own and don’t need anyone to explain what should be obvious by now. Knowing this I still miss his voice.

  • @xanadu_syntax
    @xanadu_syntax 6 років тому +1

    Thanks a lot!

  • @luboceric6468
    @luboceric6468 4 роки тому

    I came into contact with the Naropa Institute in 1978. Someone stole the postcard though. Robbers have not left me alone since then. see the talk. I'll vote that I like this film. Hot water system stopped working last night. Had been telling myself that a meditation practice doesn't work won't do it tonight. Is hat poetic justice?

  • @StopFear
    @StopFear 2 роки тому +2

    Much respect to Ginsberg. BUT there is something in this video that reminds me of experience I had with some American students of Buddhism. Some people take Buddhism classes and most likely mean well and have sincere interest in reaching enlightenment. But I think they fundamentally do not get something, OR perhaps fail to honestly identify their own motivations for studying Buddhism. I think they are more interested in the American counter culture that started in the 50s and the American politics as opposed to in the Buddhism itself. I think to them Buddhism and enlightenment is secondary to their political/cultural activism but they are not honest about it. I have no doubt some people understand what I am referring to. It feels wrong and feels like unknowingly they are doing a disservice to other seekers.

    • @andrewroy4093
      @andrewroy4093 2 роки тому

      Seek and ye shall find... Sorry just had to lol

  • @excelsior999
    @excelsior999 2 роки тому

    From "Rumor Has It That ---,"
    (a show of Apocrypha & Hipocrypha"
    Rumor has it that the producers of "Gilligan's Island" originally wanted to have a character on the Island whom the writers named "Wacky Beatnik Poet." Ginsberg tried out for the part but wasn't hired because before each of his lines he would say, "According to The Buddha, ... ."
    Allen then put together his own "Beatnik Poet" act and took it on the road. He opened at the "Gay Paree Cocktail Lounge & 24 Hr. Laundromat," which is about two miles from the Las Vegas Strip.
    His act was a hit, but he was fired because after each show he insisted on giving a lecture on some topic which nobody was interested in, such as "Can You Be Buddhist and Gay?," and a guide for Slackers and Grifters called "Tell Them You're a Poet," which included a list of places where one could purchase a Beatnik costume, complete with a Beret (one size fits most), a paste-on Goatee and a book titled, "The Beginner's Guide to Passing Yourself Offas a Wacky Beatnik Poet."
    TRUE: Since most poets die either broke or in debt, Ginsberg must have been doing something right, since he had $3 million in the bank at the time of his death.

  • @petelarose998
    @petelarose998 3 роки тому +1

    Allen Ginsberg was a great man and a great poet and a very wise man that I wish I could have known him and some of the other be writers especially Jack Kerouac great god and goddess bless all of them.

    • @fintanoclery2698
      @fintanoclery2698 2 роки тому

      He was a kiddly fiddler and the other a violent alcoholic. I hope it's warm where they are.

    • @kaylaclarkhall
      @kaylaclarkhall 2 роки тому

      Allen Ginsberg was also a member of Nambla which is disgusting

  • @descartesdonkey4291
    @descartesdonkey4291 5 років тому +2

    knowing something doesn't necessarily mean you can escape the intellectual spiral of self flagellation

  • @jylyhughes5085
    @jylyhughes5085 3 роки тому

    Oh thank you ...... xxx

  • @adamsaunders3413
    @adamsaunders3413 4 роки тому +6

    People giggle when acid is mentioned, it was a serious business not just getting stoned

  • @michelleleehoward2301
    @michelleleehoward2301 4 роки тому +2

    🖤

  • @liammcooper
    @liammcooper 5 років тому +1

    1:02:00 on how to write a haiku.

  • @maxstirner4197
    @maxstirner4197 2 роки тому +1

    “The web of hypocrisy of today hangs on the frontiers of two domains, between which our time swings back and forth, attaching its fine threads of deception and self-deception. No longer vigorous enough to serve Morality without doubt or weakening, not yet reckless enough to live wholly to egoism, it rembles now towardthe one and now toward the other in the spider-web of hypocrisy, and, crippled by the curself halfness, catches only miserable, stupid flies.”
    - Max Stirner, The Ego and Its Own.”
    “Another [article of] our faith is that the human soul is a colleague of angels, and that when it behaves in accordance with what is written in the Torah, while it i still [alive] in its body,then [after death] it ill return to its place, to be illuminated by the light of life; but if it sins, it will be rebuffed from its place, and unable to reach it until its sins are expiated, and the length of this rebuffed will be in accordance with the severity and amount of the sins- and our sages call this rebuffed “Gehinnom.”...” - Mordecai Ben Nissan
    I think Karaite scholars like this are interesting in reference to our turn to Buddhism; its as if they're looking for a more humane version of Judaism or Catholicism when what we need is an immanent critique of Abrahamaic ways of thinking though and I think the Karaites possess this.

  • @robertlepper5460
    @robertlepper5460 3 роки тому +2

    Showing my age but it is scary to see his legacy being slowly eroded due to his views/actions regarding 'young boys'

    • @fintanoclery2698
      @fintanoclery2698 2 роки тому +2

      So you see no issue with the r ape of a child as long as it's done by a poet you like? Do you understand why your generation is mocked relentlessly? You are sick

    • @amillionlittledingdongs6768
      @amillionlittledingdongs6768 2 роки тому +1

      @@fintanoclery2698 could be a hâšbårà troll. They literally have an army of trolls to protect their own and influence public opinion in the comments 🤷‍♂️

  • @StanKindly
    @StanKindly 2 роки тому +1

    what did he say at 39:40 ?

  • @davidharter8476
    @davidharter8476 3 роки тому

    11:30 Chant

  • @kanchhalama9766
    @kanchhalama9766 5 років тому

    Knowledgeism is narrower or wider in time and space person to person

  • @kaylaclarkhall
    @kaylaclarkhall 2 роки тому

    Lucien Carr brought the gang together and called the Beat Generation Lu was the glue.

  • @lucboyce5950
    @lucboyce5950 5 років тому +1

    1:02:03

  • @JSTNtheWZRD
    @JSTNtheWZRD 3 роки тому

    All is mind

  • @michaelmcgrath2482
    @michaelmcgrath2482 5 років тому

    I'd love to have been there. I would ask about the black crown ceremony with 16 karmapy. Also I'd have to ask about Dylan.

    • @456zounds
      @456zounds 5 років тому

      Dylan Thomas or Bob Dylan?

    • @James_the_Builder
      @James_the_Builder 4 роки тому

      @@456zounds Bob Dylan

    • @superfuzzymomma
      @superfuzzymomma 3 роки тому

      Long friendship indeed, Bob and Allen.. I have fond memories of the Dylan show at Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan on October 19 1994. As the room began emptying after an incredible performance I notice Allen seated at a table with two gorgeous blondes. It was a beautiful evening in so many ways.

  • @Jedlmind
    @Jedlmind 3 роки тому +7

    As a kid, the Beats were my idols. As I mature and learn more of history, philosophy, and politics; the Beats more and more show themselves to have been drug-fueled hedonists with hilariously inflated senses of intellect self-importance....

    • @JSTNtheWZRD
      @JSTNtheWZRD 3 роки тому +1

      Keep reading, do not hault your studies. They were humble geniuses veiled by this idea of abandon. You must ask who would veil them like this? Think about it a bit. Check out Ginsberg India journal - its a second on the road.

    • @danocable
      @danocable 3 роки тому

      Just read Big Sur about jacks alcoholism.

    • @JSTNtheWZRD
      @JSTNtheWZRD 3 роки тому

      @@danocable or Satori in Paris, where he drinks and walks around throughout and bar politics

    • @arikawahime9351
      @arikawahime9351 3 роки тому +2

      This ain't it chief

    • @fintanoclery2698
      @fintanoclery2698 2 роки тому

      @@arikawahime9351 on but it is you petulant child.

  • @davidharter8476
    @davidharter8476 3 роки тому

    18:00

  • @drewcheesman9268
    @drewcheesman9268 9 місяців тому

    🙏☯️👁

  • @MarcoSilesio
    @MarcoSilesio 3 роки тому

    interesting

  • @safetcucaj385
    @safetcucaj385 3 роки тому +1

    Allen Ginsberg is a very intelligent human being. But even at his level he barely scratches one grain of sand out of all the combined sands in the universe. Our mortal 75 years on Earth make going farther an impossible feat. If you are with me so far, you have now arrived at the door step of Everlasting Glory Everlasting praise to God the Father.

    • @rberliner6680
      @rberliner6680 3 роки тому

      Cut the christianity. This is not about Christianity.

    • @sunkintree
      @sunkintree Рік тому

      Some people are so broken they need fairytales, I suppose

  • @nickyzwan2122
    @nickyzwan2122 4 роки тому +4

    NAMBLA advocate Allen Ginsberg

  • @shea086
    @shea086 Рік тому

    Well Mr. Ginsberg, Im not sure if youre still with US but to me this sounds like old stoned stories. I may be wrong but I feel you have made a comfortable living out of name droppin and association with maybe the odd occasional book thrown in here and there. I dont like to be too harsh about it and you were one of the beat crew but name droppin and old stories, while interesting are only a(happened to be there) thing and not an achievement. Yet being there is probably just enough.This is not a hostile comment because even genius needs encouragement, which I beleive you did give. Alot. Alot.

  • @ImbecilicMoron
    @ImbecilicMoron 4 роки тому +2

    did he say g**k ?!

  • @billmartyn-smith1364
    @billmartyn-smith1364 2 роки тому

    I've never understood the attraction

  • @petelarose998
    @petelarose998 3 роки тому +2

    I just wanted to say that the Lord Jesus Christ loves you very much and died on the cross of Calvary for you. You can accept Jesus as your savior anytime you want Paradise the old saying goes he is only a prayer away could Peter the Pumpkin Eater

  • @wallacechristinsen5837
    @wallacechristinsen5837 4 роки тому +5

    JESUS loves you.

    • @JSTNtheWZRD
      @JSTNtheWZRD 3 роки тому +1

      I wish he would love himself

    • @BrObstreperous
      @BrObstreperous 2 роки тому +1

      @@JSTNtheWZRD I wish Ginsberg didn't love little boys so much.

    • @JSTNtheWZRD
      @JSTNtheWZRD 2 роки тому

      @@BrObstreperous young men, the little boy thing may just be gossip, like everything else on the internet. I just saw a video where it said they were all freemasons by their gestures to each other - the world is the world and the others will gossip. So forget all that and stop spreading the bad news. Extract the reality from the man's work - and never meet your heroes.

    • @bernardofitzpatrick5403
      @bernardofitzpatrick5403 2 роки тому

      Wrong forum 😂

    • @bernardofitzpatrick5403
      @bernardofitzpatrick5403 2 роки тому

      @@JSTNtheWZRD 🤣🤣🤣🤣

  • @safetcucaj385
    @safetcucaj385 3 роки тому

    Just Be careful everyone of Allen Ginsberg.
    Please I love each and everyone of you please be very careful of Allen Ginsberg. Yes he is awesome but be careful

    • @JSTNtheWZRD
      @JSTNtheWZRD 3 роки тому

      I don't understand what you mean. The words of sages are as hot coals so don't sit so close for it might burn. Or is it his obsession with death, ah, thats kids stuff. I truly wonder what you meant- please tell me. I will not judge.

    • @amillionlittledingdongs6768
      @amillionlittledingdongs6768 2 роки тому

      @@JSTNtheWZRD he was a very vocal advocate for man-boy secks. He was a NAMBLA member. Nothing to do with him being “too wise” or whatever, he was a danger to children.
      He also wrote poems about moloch-not a good man.

    • @JSTNtheWZRD
      @JSTNtheWZRD 2 роки тому

      @@amillionlittledingdongs6768 we wrote a poem about moloch called the world of men. Innocent blood watering our well manicured lawns

    • @sunkintree
      @sunkintree Рік тому

      @@amillionlittledingdongs6768 Yes his support of NAMBLA is damning, but I really dont think ANYONE who isnt already messed up in the head needs to be warned against it. Like, it's obvious. It's bad. Any talk otherwise is not to be heeded. And as an aside, there's no evidence I know of that he harmed any children. If you know of anything, feel free to enlighten.

  • @xyzllii
    @xyzllii 4 роки тому +2

    Such mumblings...yawn.

    • @bernardofitzpatrick5403
      @bernardofitzpatrick5403 2 роки тому +1

      Wish my mumblings were As erudite and interesting. These dudes were intelligent asf.