Home › Magazine › Spring 2001 › Nothing is True: William Burroughs and Buddhism
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Nothing is True: William Burroughs and Buddhism

William Burroughs' companion and collaborator for more than twenty years, explains the Beat patriarch's ambivalent relation to Buddhism.James Grauerholz

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© VisagesWilliam Burroughs was not a Buddhist: he never sought or found a “teacher,” he never took refuge, and he never undertook any bodhisattva vows. He did not consider himself a Buddhist, nor, for that matter, did he ever declare himself a follower of any one faith or practice. But he did have an awareness of the essentials of Buddhism, and in his own way, he was affected by the Buddha-dharma.

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