SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION

Introduction
The 1960s in America were an era of new ideas such as new religious movements,
spiritual awakening and freedom from conformity. Hippies began to rebel against
established traditions such as their parents' religion and cultural expectations. This was
a time of freedom, peace and love beyond comprehension. During this period, many
new "gurus" (teachers) came to the United States to spread their teachings. Hippie
culture encouraged exploring these new paths, leading many hippies to embrace
unconventional beliefs such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Native American mysticism.
Many hippies sought to expand the horizons of their minds, gaining new experiences
and fresh perspectives on the world. In many cases, this led hippies to experiment with
drugs, especially psychedelics such as LSD, as a form of spiritual exploration. Hippies
believed that using psychedelic drugs would allow them to transcend the external world
and discover the true nature of existence. Although some hippies were profoundly
transformed by their drug experiences, many more were damaged, and the cultural
impact was mixed at best.

Buddhism

In the beginning of the hippie era there was significant interest in Buddhism,
especially Zen Buddhism. According to a 1970 article in Time magazine, "Of the many
forms of Buddhism, the one best known in the West is Zen. Its guiding principles of
inward meditation versus doctrine, of emphasis on the visceral and spontaneous as
against the cerebral and structured, of inspiration rather than linear 'logic,' were seized
on by the early beatniks, taken up by many of the young today, and were incorporated
into the mystique of America's counterculture" (1). As explained above, Zen is a type of
personal meditation that focused more on being than thinking, and was free of the
dogma associated with more traditional Western religions. During this period, authors
such as Daisetz T. Suzuki and Allan Watts gained wide popularity for their books on
Zen. Other significant cultural figures such as the beat writers Allen Ginsberg and Gary
Snyder publicly embraced Zen, giving Buddhism an additional degree of popular
legitimacy and support.

Many hippies explored Buddhism as part of a broader spiritual exploration. For

others, their interest in Buddhism developed as a result of the war in Vietnam. Many
American soldiers gained their first exposure to Buddhism while stationed in Southeast
 PERSONAL COMMENT:
The article explains how hippies rebellion spirit also affected religion. They seek for
new ways of spirituality, as a way to have access to new experiences. Among the
religions they began to join were Buddhism, Hinduism and the Native American
religion. When he has established that, the articles starts to describe in detail every one
of these movements.

Zen Buddhism was one of the main religious new choices for the hippies. Its success it
is may due to the fact that the Zen has not a dogma, but it claims that we should learn
through experience. This connected to the hippie philosophy: there is not a hierarchy,
and we should learn from straight for our experience and not through the old-fashioned
ways of society. The article mentions the fact that many hippies got in contact with Zen
Buddhism thanks to the Vietnam War: after a troubled experienced, they found in the
religion of the locals a way to seek for peace.

Concerning Hinduism, the author finds one of the main reasons of his success in the
arrival of many gurus to America. These gurus were not only spiritual leaders, but they
also end up becoming media stars. In this particular case, the author does not explain
why it was connected to hippie’s mentality. He does mention the new ways of
practicing Hinduism, which include the use of drugs to get closer to enlightenment and
to look for new realities and experiences. It also brings out the “secular” influence of
Hinduism in the US that started with the hippies: using incense, wearing Indian clothes,
practicing yoga…

To explain the interest in Native American religion, the author exposes two of its
principles. At first, the communal living that it involves, that make the idea of “owning
the land” simply absurd for the Indians. Much before of the hippies, they already had
these communal societies. On the other hand, they had a sacred respect for Mother
Earth, that was the god they praised to. This fact connected with the envioromental
concerns of the hippies, and the reject to contemporary modern world, apart from
nature.

This article summarizes the main religious tendencies among the hippies, even if
maybe it missed the New Jesus movement. I found it interesting because it stops to
analyze which particular traits of these religions have a correlate in hippie philosophy.
Even if it does not do a deep analysis (maybe because it is just 4 pages long), it avoids
the simplicity of many other articles on the subject, that just point out that the hippies
joined this religions because there were different from their parents, or because they
were seeking for new realities.