Your assignment for today was to read Chapter 21 of The Dharma Bums and summarize it in one sentence. Below is my one-sentence summary -- post yours as a comment. I'd also love to see general comments about the chapter, or questions.
The Dharma Bums Chapter 21 in one sentence:
One day his nephew Lou visits Ray at his new meditation spot under a twisted twin tree by a brook, (Ray calls it "Twin Tree Grove"), Ray spends a lot of days meditating there with the dogs, one day he gets word that he got an assignment for the coming summer as a fire lookout in the High Cascades in Washington State, he gets into an argument with his brother-in-law about meditating as well as unleashing Bob the dog in the woods, Ray gets mad and stomps off to the woods where he decides he'll pack up and leave but changes his mind after meditating on the matter, deciding "I was hurting deep inside from the sad business of trying to deny what was," Ray tries to explain emptiness from a Buddhist perspective to his family but they wish he'd stick to the religion he was born with, Ray returns to the woods and ponders what he will tell Japhy back in California, Ray has a vision and another moment of satori in the woods, then he has a vision that leads to curing his mom's cough (his first and last "miracle" lest he become vain), and on his final night in the woods Ray sees "there was nothing to do because nothing ever happened, nothing ever would happen, all things were empty light," then the next day he packs up and starts hitchhiking back to California.
Your next assignment is to read The Dharma Bums Chapter 22 and post a one-sentence summary.
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