Sangharakshita didn’t really like American Transcendentalist writing, and I can’t blame him. The movement that was born on this date, the first literary movement born on American soil was to counter the strict religious Puritans with a reliance on nature. A Buddhist doesn’t really care about the commitments of Puritans. The Americans were also trying to out Brahmin the American Brahmins, thus the tortured style. Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman were the fruit of the movement, poets who just want to express their inner experience in this young nation.
Yes, over 500 tribes of Native Americans had a vibrant culture before, not literary, and I want to learn more about that. But there sacred images are guarded, and they are rightly reluctant to share their culture. Little spurts and blurts of culture come out. I love the below book, which I treat with reverence.
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