The Excessive But Strangely Saintly Life Of Charles Bukowski
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist & short story writer.
Bukowski’s writing was raw, often full of strong crude language, and was
written in a style without anything added.
He wrote sentences that were clean, spare, and right to the point.
Bukowski wrote about those consider to be the lowest in society, the
drunks, the prostitutes, vagabonds, skid-row bums, beggers, the most
downtrodden & depraved of American society.
Bukowski could write about them because he was one of them.
An alcoholic, often unemployed, or barely making enough money to pay for
the next drink, and moving from one cheap flop house to the next.
Sometimes he was forced to sleep rough on the streets or in parks when he
could not afford a place to stay.
And, through it all he kept writing.
At night, in whatever run-down room, with the radio on, usually to a classical
music channel, typewriter in front of him, and drinking, always drinking, he
would write, sometimes till the sun came up.
That was his practice. His life’s practice. An intense practice. A practice to
which Bukowski gave everything.
His life, his health, his friendships, his girlfriends.
Everything was sacrificed to the fire of his writing practice.
In fact, his writing practice was so intense it verged on being of spiritual
practice.
Bukowski died in 1994.
Just when he was beginning to be recognised as one of the most important
American writers of the 20th century.
#charlesbukowski #buddhism #spirituality #zen #charlesbukowskipoems
Script: Matt Mackane
Edit: Medo
Voiceover: Abhinav Banerjee
Score: Epidemic music x Motion array x original music
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Bukowski didn’t suffer from drinking. He suffered from living a lifestyle that he hated. Working a job is absolutely mind numbing. He drank to cope with mundane existence. After he started living a life of a famous well paid writer, he started drinking less. He didn’t need to escape into the bottle. Making a living from doing what you love is the key to finding contentment.
He drank less after he almost died of a bleeding stomach ulcer
There’s much contentment in not dying.
no, he suffered because of childhood trauma. he suffered because he had to drink to endure his pain because of this. that's why he drank. not because of his lifestyle.
Very well said , agree
@@byronfoppola8676no, he recovered from that and drank just as much after
Thank you for your inspirational legacy, Mr. Bukowski. I was savagely beaten between the ages of 2 and 3. The physical abuse stopped after that, but emotional neglect and abuse continues to this day from my mother. I wanted to be a writer since I was in high school, and I wrote off and on through the next 30 years as I suffered from severe mental illness. Now, in my 50s, with three novels finished but not yet published, I am starting to really get into my writing without trying.
wow!!
You must let everyone read your stories...will be an inspiration and solace to millions out there. May the supreme bless you with unlimited fame and happiness
Interesting perspective .
I've been a writer for nearly 29 years. Freelanced writing magazine and newspaper articles for 22 years then retired from journalism for 6 years. Might go back to freelancing soon.
I was fortunate not to have to suffer through crap jobs like Bukowski. I started writing for a living in my early 20s and never looked back.
I could never work at the post office like Bukowski. I always give other writers like him tremendous credit . Guys like him have to have a will of steel.
Sounds like you are doing the work. Keep writing.
Kudos!
For someone who finds his work so important, if you can find the movie, "Barfly" with Mickey O'Rourke, it is a decent insight.
Bravo Asangoham! This shows you truly have an open mind and a deep understanding of the spiritual.
never thought ill a get Bukowski by Asangoham
same
Same ! I love it when stuff I like overlap !
Sameeee
Nice pfp
Bukowski's philosophy of not trying, for some reason, has always reminded me of what i recall to be a passage from the Rig Veda:
"Two birds of beautiful plumage, dwell in the self same tree. Comrades inseparable. One eats the fruit of pleasure and pain, whilst the other merely looks on."
It surprised me when I saw that it's from Rig Veda which is mostly hymns. I just googled it and it turns out that it is from Mandukya Upanishad.
Mandukya upanishad
Thanks for sharing that line from the Rig Veda, I see the connection.
I think he tried pretty hard most of the time.
I don't try to write. I just type... Was it Yoda who said "Don't try. Do"
The stack of books next to my desk consist of: "The Divine Romance" by Paramahansa Yogananda, "The Gospel Of Ramakrishna", "Karma" by Sadhguru, and "You Get So Alone" by Charles Bukowski. Glad someone else is seeing the spiritual wealth that I've found in Bukowski.
All are trash. Try Karl Marx
Its a real mind blower when you find spiritual wisdom in GG Allin.
Every human has this spiritual wealth. It’s just the price and process of finding it is steep and consumes most who try to find it.
This is an incredible channel! Never would have thought Bukowski and saintly could come in the same sentence - yet here we are!
I love Bukowski. He never sugarcoated anything.
"...shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness."
~ HOLY BIBLE, 2 Timothy 2:16
This is quite literally one of the most important channels on youtube. To the Asangoham team, please i urge you KEEP GOING! This wisdom is incredible! God speaks through your videos. Om Tat Sat.
Poetry had never really appealed to me, tried reading Frost and a few others...nothing. Then one day by chance i heard the poem 'Bluebird' by Bukowski and shed tears, listened to it over and over. Also 'The man with beautiful eyes' and 'The crowd' ...obviously has something to do with my years on the streets and addiction struggles,
Those are some great poems. The Man with the Beautiful Eyes was wonderful to me and should find resonance in any open spirit.
When I found the channel, the professional voice overs had me believing that this channel is a mere commercial endeavour. It is clearly not, thanks a lot Asangoham, I received this video at the perfect time in life.
Wonderfully presented and explained. Thank you very much.🙏🙏🙏
many of the days of my life i felt sad and alone but Bukowski has made it a little more bearable and beautiful.
Thank you very much. I have been a Bukowski fan for some years. I greatly enjoyed your video, especially the connection between Bukowski and Buddhism
My friend, the painter Teddy Haggarty - Alec Baldwin’s standin - was Charles Bukowski’s getaway driver. Bukowski - known to his friends as Hank - hated to talk to people after a formal reading of his poetry. So when he was reading like at City Light Bookstore in North Beach San Francisco, he had Teddy parked in Jack Kerouac Alley out the backdoor of City Lights, with the engine running. When the reading was over, Hank ran out the back of the bookstore, jumped into the car, and Teddy put the pedal to the metal.
One of the conditions to do a reading was to have on stage with him a refrigerator full of beer. During the reading, he would occasionally go over to the fridge and grab a beer…
Teddy used in his painting various icons. One that he stole from Bukowski were his birds, which he copied outright. Teddy Haggarty died in 2017, with a eulogy given by Alec Baldwin…
The early works of Bukowski were lost. He carried them around in a suitcase. One day he got very drunk and lost track of where the suitcase was, never to be seen again. Something similar happened to the early works of Ernest Hemingway, lost by his wife in route to meet with him…
This early period was the subject of the only screenplay that Bukowski wrote, Barfly. The director Barbet Schroeder called Bukowski and asked him to write a screenplay. Bukowski hated movies, and Schroeder to go to hell. Schroeder called again, and received a similar response. He called a third time, and before Bukowski could hang up, Schroeder yelled “$20,000”, and Bukowski asked when he could come over.
Though Bukowski hated movies, he only liked one movie. A roommate got cable TV, and Bukowski was going through the channels, and came upon David Lynch’s first movie, Eraserhead. After the movie was over he searched for something else, but found nothing. Teddy Haggarty was working with Lynch on Lost Highway, by which I gained the opportunity to work a couple of weeks on the movie in my usual job of set lighting technician…
Absolutely beautiful
Bringing best of west to east.
We like your work
Thank you for your kindness to this man. I came across him some time back in reference to something he said about being alone.
Suffering brings wisdom. We will be humble or we will be humiliated. Reflection upon oneself leads to deeper and deeper insight into human nature, and at the core, our divine nature. Charles Bukowski RIP
Amazing and glorious. The human experience has no limits. If your life ends in love, you won.
thank you for this video, I had always wondered where he fit into all this, and this video is a great way to realize he was a Bhoga yogi. Amazing! thanks!
Please keep them coming! love yor channel
What a wonderful life. Thanks to Bukowski and thanks to you for creating this great video 😊
This channel is so damn good! Best channel about spirituality of all time.
Just finished watching everything Asangoham: Spiritual scope of this channel is truly unbelievable!
God bless you, as you have blessed us and as God has blessed us - through you. Thank you 🙏💛🔥
wonderful and beautifully-made video.
I draw a lot of enlightenment inspiration from Bukowski and I learnt a lot I didn’t know about the man here, thank you.
Awesome content thanks from South Africa
Your channel is actually bloody good 👍
Amazing work 🤎
Thank you for turning me toward his writing again. I’m now realizing he’s been foundational - with Camus - in leading me to Zen. He was so authentic. So genuine. He was a great teacher in waking me up.
So enjoyable! Excellent quality! Thank you and bless you beloved! 💖🙏💐
Truth be told, the more shit you drag yourself through the better you’ll get at cleaning yourself up.
it's the first time i hear about this.. man i'm already in the middle of the video clip and i can say i love him already
Thank you what a beautifully, compassionate and deeply understanding video you have given the world. I have read send Charles Bukowski‘s works many years ago I always liked him. I always thought he was clear and had a depth of understanding to life and his group and crime wave living and being . this is encourage me to pick him up again after 35 years or so. 18:02 18:02
This is great. Love this channel! The story of William Burroughs is quite similar.
Wow! A video on Bukowski on this page!
I LOVED this so much! Thank you!
Lovely work. Thanks
Wonderful and very touching!! In my mid 20s I discovered Charles Bukowski and he became a very important person and writer for me during those years (where I also "flirted with suffering"). Now, at age 40, I have discovered a love for buddhism. Seeing these two being tied together really brings a lot of things full circle for me. Tears in my eyes now :) Thank you so much...
Your handle is "lelandbobpalmer"? What are you, a rapist fanboy? Or have you only seen two episodes of TWIN PEAKS?
Thank you.
That is what being enlightened is 😊
Charles Bukowski was just true to himself
his poem "Blue bird" is one of my favorites.
My favourite is Dinosauria
Happy I watched this RIP Charles
Thank-you
The man had Style.
Bukowsky rocks
God bless Charles and Linda.
Que Senscional!!!
Truly amazing ..inspiring - thank you for sharing a remarkable and insightful story 🙏
Thank You 💚
Namaskaram 🙏🏻
Wonderful
excellent
Simpler and more to the point than Buddhist 8-fold path is the way of the Cross. Bukowski’s acceptance of suffering is the embrace of the Cross. Transcendence of suffering and death through submission to death without complaint is the Cross of Christ.
His wife, Linda Lee, used to frequent a pub where I worked back in the 90’s. Very nice lady!
Very interesting life. Thanks very much, as I had never heard of him.
My view on Bukowski changed entirely after watching this video❤
I lived the Skid Row drunken hobo life off and on for about 10 years between marriages. I was turned on to Bukowski by a friend long after I gave up all that debauchery. 😊
My favorite author
Mine too.
This video really glosses over the fact that even towards the end of his life, he could still be a mean, violent drunk. I love a lot of Bukowski's work; and i agree that at his best he was transcendant. But he still checked out of the world an asshole that treated those around him poorly. Can't forget that.
. tru bt in part have to blame th booze drunk fights resentment n abuse as a kid- lol that was literally a large chunk of his life sadly and he ownd that shxt for decades which is pretty insane tbh-
The same saintly comparison to literary work routines and efforts should be drawn on the life of Jack Kerouac. I believe you would do good by such an endeavor.
Enjoying your works and efforts nonetheless. Thank you.
This man was indeed a human manifestation of Saturn 🪐
Can you please cover the story of ug Krishnamurthy. The philosopher. Known as mystique of enlightenment.
please make a video about jiddu krishnamurti he already passed away but had a great and deeper understanding of life, i really wish if more people could know about him thank you
Beautiful ideas are like beautiful women. They don't last. Charles Bukowski.
"Don't try" is very much like the Taoist Wu Wei.... BUT...Going with the flow is a downhill run when yr alcoholic.
Ah.... the many geniuses that go to their graves, without the recognition they deserved, I'll salute you for your worth. 👏👏👏👏
😂 My first guru, Bukowski ❤️🙏
Well said! Ditto.
Nice work
Just remember, the books edited by Martin after Buks death were so heavily changed that it's not really The Voice Of Bukowski at all. Be aware.
I relate to Bukowski, and, write. My books exist.
His personality reminds me of Zorba the Greek
..or Rasputin the Russian.
Bukowski reminds me of Henry Miller, somewhat. Though Miller tended to "gild the Lilly," Bukowski kept it raw. They could have been brothers in excess. Miller was dirt poor for a long time, and his books were banned. Both writers were later adopted by the counter-culture as icons of resistance... and hedonism. Not sure whether Miller was as confirmed an alcoholic as Bukowski. All of this is entering Buddhism through the back door. But, at the end of the day, both Bukowski and Miller are grade "B" writers. Or, perhaps, niche writers. Often good but never better. I suspect that Bukowski sacrificed everything for his writing because he didn't really care about anything or anyone. Writing was his fallback position. His default setting for broader indifference. People try to turn Bukowski into a humanist, of sorts, but it's more likely he was a mean drunk who, rather than punch those around him, punched his typewriter to pretty good effect. This alone makes him unusual, I'll say that for him.
Miller was not an alcoholic
@@aimandurrani2228 Henry Miller's family was alcoholic and Henry himself was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. But Bukowski carried it to a whole different level.
I tried reading miller and I didn't enjoy him much. He has some good lines and concepts bit he has no warmth and humor like bukoski does
@@indepthliterature It's been quite a while since I read either of the two. I recall that Miller hung out with literary types during the early years, while in Paris. He really wanted to be a serious writer and reminds the reader of this a little too often. Miller was a good gateway to other writers like the symbolist poets. Plus he wrote an interesting bio of Arthur Rimbaud. The Rosy Crucifixion (3-vols.) has lots of hilarious stuff in it.
Bukowski is all of us. Just that all of us didn't write books.
Please make a documentary on Rasputin
Should do a video on Jack Kerouac
“For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”
-Hebrews 2:10 KJV ✝️🤍🕊️⛪️
I would not believe Bukowski if he spoke in this voice while he did his poetry readings 📖
The best poet this country will ever produce
I love the fact that upon waking up in a hospital room he swore he would write again, not that he would swear off alcohol. Quitters never prosper. 😅
Lol hardly! Plenty of next-level talent out there, just a matter of whether they have the correct marketing, ultimately. Isn't the student supposed to surpass his master?
@@stefanschleps8758 exactly 💯 it is a path to wisdom. he said something like people think addiction is easy but actually there is no better test of endurance. 73!
That thubnail tho 🔥
His quote
"Ask a Drunkard who is GOD"
To me it seems Bukowski and Charie Chaplin, both have found and expressed in their works latent romance of life that exists even in quite desperate situations in life
Mestre.
Can you please please make a video on *MADAME JEANNE GUYON*
PLEASE 🥺🥺
“Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:”
-Isaiah 2:8 KJV ✝️🤍🕊️⛪️🙌🏻
I know they didn't have cell phones in 1994 and if he wrote all night every night and barely had a place to stay, where'd he keep all those papers he was typing on 😮
I feel like I'm in the same place in this Life, only I'm an artist, not a writer.
Suprised this video didn't mention Meher Baba, Bukowski's wife was a follower and Bukowski would of been quite knowledgeable about him and his teachings, although it is not known what his opinion was about Meher Baba
Fear ran this man.. to the bottom of a bottle
💙💙💙
🖤
The road to excess lead's to the palace of wisdom, is attributed to William Blake not bukowski and I should know because I pitched my tent by the palace of wisdom.
Asangoham 😊
❤
Where’s Matt Wall 👀
I just read post office,
Bukowski is always interesting, the religious and spiritual stuff isn't. I'm pretty sure Buk would have hated this.
Wait, wait, wait, so you're doing a video on Bukowski with all his books and twice name the last ones but forget "Pulp"? How is that even possible?
Old age ain’t for sissies was reported a quote from Bette Davis.
🙏💓
I dunno if he was saintly, he did beat his partner on a video. Displaying signs of physical violence is a sign of a lack of restraint