The Buddhist practice of "just sitting" while in meditation also emerges in Ginsberg's poem when he writes, "I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet."

The narrator also likens himself to Buddha by saying, "You made me want to be a saint." The Buddha abnegated his wealth to pursue a path of total transcendence. Dissatisfied with asceticism, however, the Buddha pursued a middle path. The narrator in Ginsberg's "America" admits "I smoke marijuana every chance I get." Antithetical to formal Buddhism, which denounces mind-altering substances, the assertion nevertheless echoes the idea that total abstinence is not the spiritual goal. Honesty and respect for human life, on the other hand, are the goals of spiritual practice.

Thus, Buddhism is like communism in their mutually egalitarian philosophies. Both Buddhism and Buddhism affirm similar social values. "No political system, no matter how ideal it...
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