Literature in the Gap: The Middle Way in Kipling’s Kim

 “Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding,

the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birdwings.” ~ Rumi

The ancient poet Rumi compares the balance in life to the beautiful, coordinated movement of birds’ wings. It is this expansion and contraction, the give and take, the movement forward and backward that creates the whole of a life. Invisibly interlacing these two supposed opposites is an understanding of their interconnection, a perception that their differences are bound together and that together they are greater than they are separately. This perception of balance is most accurately reflected in the Buddhist tenet of the Middle Way where an individual seeks to balance the impermanence and imperfection of life with human desires for immortality and beauty.[1]

Though concepts like the Middle Way can seem somewhat ethereal, works of literature can be helpful in grounding such notions in the framework of story. Literature such as Kim by Rudyard Kipling provides the framework where readers can explore religious views that may at first seem very different from their own, and as an author, Kipling’s background offers readers a wide swath of religious influences.  Kim presents readers the thought-provoking presence of Buddhist concepts, even incorporating a Tibetan Buddhist monk as a primary character despite Buddhism’s waning influence in India during the cultural setting and time period of the novel.[ii] Kipling did not hold strong religious convictions himself, and he adamantly opposed most traditional forms of Christianity. He respected Islam, but Hinduism “seemed to encourage fatalism, apathy, and escapism,” and Kipling deemed Hinduism responsible for many of the social issues in India.[iii]  The influence of his father who was an expert in Buddhism created a familiarity, and the six weeks Kipling spent as deputy curator of the Lahore Museum in India added to his understanding about Buddhism’s practices and history.[iv] This fostered an appreciation of Buddhism, especially as his father taught him many of the Buddha’s sayings and traditions.  Kipling’s amalgamation of various religious traditions and beliefs also includes Theosophy, Freemasonry, and Spiritualism, and this wide and varied list influences all his writings.[v] Kipling even includes in Kim stanzas from another poem he had written, “Buddha at Kamakura,” and the character of the lama in Kim repeats “the wonderful Buddhist invocation” that comes from the poem’s second stanza.[vi] Kipling’s inclusion of Buddhism as an important component in the story deserves analysis as it helps readers reconcile his obvious imperialism with his deep love for India, and it is critical in resolving the conflicts that seem to exist within the protagonist Kim. By using the Buddhist principles of the Law, the Wheel, and the Way to help the protagonist Kim walk the Middle Way between his life as a Buddhist disciple and a British spy, Kipling reveals the interconnection uniting his own imperialistic attitudes with his love of India, as well as showing readers the Middle Way with those they might consider Other.

First, Kipling has incorporated the Buddhist tenet of the Law into the story of Kim. Though Buddhism does reference the Law of Dharma, this has a range of interpretations from reality as it is to Buddha’s teachings, and it is intrinsically related to the idea of cause and effect as a governing rule of the universe, also known as karma.[vii] Kipling’s interpretation of the Law includes this karmic influence, and this is most likely due to his conservative position in political, moral, and social issues where responsibility and consequences are key.[viii] Practically speaking, Buddhism does reference the Noble Eightfold Path as the practice necessary to achieve the Middle Way, and this includes such practical applications for living as nonviolence toward self and others, awareness of thoughts, and the development of focus through meditation. Many commentators group these tenets of the Noble Eightfold Path into categories, including ethical behavior, self-discipline, and wisdom. Each of these categories can be further broken down into more specific practical applications. For example, the Five Precepts include such rules as avoiding murder, greed, lying, addictive substances, and adultery, and these practical guidelines overlap with Christian and Muslim principles.[ix] Additionally, some prefer to see these negative rules reframed in a positive light, as Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh states, “We are committed to cultivating loving kindness and learning ways to work for the well-being of people, animals, plants, and minerals. We will practice generosity…We will respect the property of others.”[x] Since these precepts and their practical application carry over from religion to religion, Kipling may have been incorporating the label of Law (rather than Dharma) to make the lama’s references to a moral code familiar to his reading audience that was most likely composed of Christians.

This religious hybridity is also illustrated in Kipling’s poem “The Buddha at Kamakura” which makes references that would be familiar to Christian readers, such as “the Narrow Way” and “Judgment Day” in the first stanza. In the second stanza, Kipling invites readers to contrast the Christian view of Law with the Buddhist view of Law. By the end of the poem, after Kipling points out the hypocrisy of some Christians, readers are left to wonder and consider that those “pagan” worshippers at Kamakura may be closer to the Divine than the most devout Christian, most likely due to their nonviolent acceptance and tolerance of others.[xi] Kipling insightfully chooses to create a hybrid religious view which was not uncommon in Victorian Britain, and in doing so, he is able to reach readers of various faiths, perhaps introducing them for the first time to Eastern religious views such as Buddhism’s nonviolence and acceptance of other cultures. This nonjudgmental acceptance of others is evident in the poem “The Buddha at Kamakura,” as well as in the character of Tibetan Buddhist monk Teshoo Lama in the story of Kim.

In Kim, the lama often speaks about “acquiring merit” as part of the Law. “Acquiring merit” means to do good to others as one has opportunity with the understanding that good deeds are eventually repaid by the universe. The lama also believes in letting others acquire merit by the help and care they extend to him. For example, near the beginning of the story, the lama visits the Lahore Museum, called the Wonder House by the natives. The curator there, whose character was most likely based on Kipling’s father Lockwood Kipling, offers the lama a new writing journal with pencils, as well as his own glasses because the lama’s glasses were scratched. The lama graciously accepts these gifts “as a sign of friendship between priest and priest,”[xii] acknowledging the curator as his equal. While some may suggest that the curator’s gift implies Western superiority,[xiii] this is not the only instance where the lama allows another person to acquire merit by giving gifts to him. In another example, the widow from Kulu also provides food and shelter to the lama and Kim, and though she tires him by her constant talking, he “permit[s] her to acquire merit by gifts.”[xiv] This gift-giving is a part of the Law of Dharma, but it also pays homage to the lama as someone who is special and worthy.

As a holy man, the lama himself is also a giver of gifts, as he imparts wisdom to his chela Kim. One way he teaches wisdom to Kim is through his drawing of the Wheel and his explanations about its application, saying that “The Sahibs have not all this world’s wisdom.”[xv] In the most thought-provoking example, the lama speaks of acquiring merit when he provides the money needed for Kim to attend St. Xavier’s school in Lucknow. Interestingly, when the lama has a letter written to accompany the money, the letter writer misinterprets his phrase “to acquire merit” as “an amazing prayer to ‘Almighty God.’”[xvi] The letter writer interprets acquiring merit as a positive action by the Divine, disregarding the human participation, whereas the lama sees acquiring merit as the human choice to do good without any Divine interference. In deconstructing the “acquiring of merit” by the lama’s gift to Kim (which was most likely a gift from someone else to the lama), readers are encouraged to see how each view of acquiring merit can be true at the same time. Acquiring merit may be both the result of a human giver as well as the Divine, and the boundaries that divide are unclear and perhaps unnecessary.

In addition to acquiring merit, Kipling includes the concept of sin which is not part of the Buddhist tenet of the Law but is still included in this religious hybridity. The lama begins his quest to locate the River of the Arrow, created where the Buddha’s arrow landed, with the remarkable ability to wash “away all taint and speck of sin.”[xvii] The concept of sin can be defined differently from the Christian viewpoint than from a Buddhist standpoint, and the result is that the Christian reader views the lama’s words through a culturally prescribed lens:

In the West we are accustomed to thinking of theology in terms of God, revelation, obedience, punishment, and redemption. The themes of creation, worship, judgment, and immortality have been major concerns in the Christian heritage and are virtually inseparable from our concept of religion. Against such a cultural background Western man views Buddhism and in so doing unconsciously projects his own concepts, values and expectations. Erroneously he perceives ceremonies and bowing as examples of worship or even idolatry.[xviii]

Kipling’s inclusion of the idea of sin offers readers the opportunity to deconstruct the metaphysics of presence incorporated into that loaded term. For Western Christians, the term may include a moral failing and even separation from God, but Kipling shows readers throughout the text of Kim that the term sin has wide and varied definitions, and understanding this can help readers in thinking through the application of this term personally.

For example, Kipling uses the Western idea of sin when Kim is trying to explain to Father Victor and Mr. Bennett why the lama wishes to find the River of the Arrow, but when sin is referred to by Creighton, he says to Kim, “There is no sin so great as ignorance. Remember this.”[xix] Readers can note that sin is now based on knowledge, rather than a moral failing. The definition of sin continues to change as one reads through the novel. The lama refers to the “sin of pride” as it relates to the Wheel and the illusion of reality, but Mahbub Ali does not think it a sin to sell oxen at two different prices: one price for the Government, and one price (presumably higher) for himself.[xx] These varying definitions of sin reveal the problem with the word as a signifier, as well as the typical Western response of projecting the Christian definition on others.

Next, the Wheel of Life is a symbolic illustration of dependent origination, a Buddhist principle in Kim that is used to show the “chain of causes and effects that govern all existence.”[xxi] The first line of the Dhammapada, a collection of Gautama Buddha’s teachings, reveals how dependent origination operates: “Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts, suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.”[xxii] It is the undisciplined mind which cannot think through the consequences of choices before making them, thus reaping suffering. To break the cyclical Wheel, one must step outside the vortex of human desires using the self-discipline cultivated through meditation and the keeping of other practical applications of the Law of Dharma. The Wheel of Life (or the Wheel of Becoming) can be compared to a map of life, drawn to provide a visual representation of cause and effect, and Enlightenment, represented by a Buddha figure standing in the upper right corner of such a drawing, shows that a person has chosen to break the cycle.[xxiii]

The value of a map of life and life’s choices is not lost on the lama as he draws the Great Wheel to teach Kim: “In the cleanest, severest outline he had traced the Great Wheel with its six spokes, whose centre is the conjoined Hog, Snake and Dove (Ignorance, Anger, and Lust) and whose compartments are all the Heavens and Hells, and all the chances of human life. Men say that the Bodhisat Himself first drew it with grains of rice upon dust, to teach his disciples the cause of things.”[xxiv] In a compelling example, the lama points out that “by the roadside trundled the very Wheel itself, eating, drinking, trading, marrying, and quarrelling—all warmly alive.”[xxv] By using the living, breathing examples on the Grand Trunk Road, the lama is able to show Kim the karmic consequences of choices made in a vivid, memorable manner. The Wheel of Life models the karmic operation of causes and their effects spurred by human lust, unawareness, and greed,[xxvi] yet this map of life connects with Kim, who has studied mapmaking in his espionage training. In fact, it is an altercation over the lama’s drawing that illustrates clearly how the map of life (the Wheel) works.

This dispute over the lama’s drawing of the Wheel between the lama and a Russian spy who wants to buy the drawing is the best example of dependent origination, and it occurs near the end of Kim. The Russian spy ends up striking the lama, and as a result, he and his cohort are forced to leave by the village people who are appalled that anyone would hit a holy man. Though the villagers are intent on killing the Russian spies, the lama forbids them, saying, “Anger on anger! Evil on evil! There will be no killing. Let the priest-beaters go in bondage to their own acts. Just and sure is the Wheel.”[xxvii] While the lama is certain that the violent men would reap violence, the incident is a sobering one for him in that the lama recognizes that though he is an old man, he still is subject to the Wheel, “the Cause of Things.” The lama tells Kim the next day that the blow created rage and a desire for revenge in him, and he realizes that he is not free of the Wheel. However, by forbidding the village people to kill the spies, the lama knows he has acquired merit.[xxviii] By saving those two lives, the lama has broken the cycle of the Wheel.

The lama is not alone in his struggles with the Wheel. Kim also wrestles with it, but his issue is the resolution of action versus nonaction. At one point in their journey, Kim heals a child, a son of a Hindu Jat, using a remedy that he took himself when facing a bout of malaria. The lama commends him, asserting that he had acquired merit by healing the boy. However, a little later the lama gently chastises Kim for helping to disguise the British agent E23 he meets on the train, implying that the difference between the two actions was their intentions. Kim needs clarification, so he asks the lama, “Then all Doing is evil?” and the lama responds, “To abstain from action is well—except to acquire merit.”[xxix] Kim cannot make sense of the lama’s admonishment as his disguise of E23 saved the agent’s life, and he tells the lama that in school he was taught that sahibs were to act, not to refrain from action. Though the lama may have been unaware of the Great Game going on, he knew the importance of intention and the effects of one’s choices, particularly with the problem of pride and its implications for action/nonaction.

Along with the Law and the Wheel, Kipling uses the Buddhist tenet of the Middle Way to help Kim reconcile the seemingly dichotomous parts of his life. The Middle Way is “the path between any two sides in any dualism,[xxx] and it is the remedy prescribed by the Buddha for human suffering. The Buddha’s experience as an ascetic for six years and then his indulgence in sensuality as a young person helped him to recognize that truth was not to be found in either extreme.[xxxi] Just as the Middle Way aided the Buddha in overcoming human suffering, so the Middle Way also can help readers of Kim recognize that he is both a chela and a spy and that these two roles are not mutually exclusive. In fact, Gautama Buddha has been quoted as saying, “Your work is to discover your world, and with all your heart give yourself to it.”[xxxii] By approaching Kim from a position of nondualism, readers can broaden their understanding of Kim’s character and incorporate both roles he plays, following the example of the lama.

The lama shows readers a good model of nondualistic thinking. As a Buddhist monk, the lama is opposed to killing, but he pays for Kim to go to school at St. Xavier, a school sponsored by the British military. However, he cautions Kim against becoming a soldier as “these men follow desire and come to emptiness.”[xxxiii]  After the lama falls in the River of the Arrow and comes to Enlightenment, he says that Kim will “go forth as a teacher,” and when Mahbub Ali suggests that Kim is needed by the British government as a scribe and mapmaker, the lama says, “Let him be a teacher; let him be a scribe—what matter? He will have attained Freedom at the end. The rest is illusion.”[xxxiv] Franklin asserts that “the point is that it does not matter what Kim does as long as he does not violate the basic moral tenets of Buddhism and strives to act mindfully and compassionately.”[xxxv] Even the term “the Middle Way” can be deconstructed to reveal that the middle does not necessarily exclude either side but can encompass both, as nondualistic thinking requires.

The Middle Way is also useful for readers as they attempt to navigate Kipling’s overt imperialistic attitudes with his deep love for India. On the one hand, Kipling includes statements like “Kim could lie like an Oriental,” which promotes Otherness and perpetuates logocentrism.[xxxvi] In fact, Kipling did argue that “the British imperial cause in India was appropriate…given what he considered the childlike nature of India and its inhabitants.”[xxxvii] However, critic David Scott notes that “we are left with a final paradox that… Kipling was an avowed proponent of British imperial rule in India, but not of Christianity,”[xxxviii] and as a result, he was often critical of the missionary efforts in India. In addition, Kipling uses such inclusive statements as the following from the lama to Kim: “Friend of all the World…To those who are following the Way there is neither black nor white, Hind nor Bhotiyal. We be all souls seeking escape. No matter what thy wisdom learned among Sahibs, when we come to my River thou wilt be freed from all illusion.”[xxxix] Just as Kipling’s conservative, imperialistic view does not negate his love and respect for India, so readers can also understand how Kim can be both the lama’s chela and a mapmaker for the Great Game, despite his struggles to understand himself.

Kipling’s incorporation of the Buddhist tenets of the Law, the Wheel, and the Middle Way helps unite the complexities that make up the character of Kim in the novel. By noting how all these supposedly opposing characteristics are somehow unified within the singular person of Kim, readers can recognize that human beings are complex and full of contradictions. The Western view is a false idea that a person “possesses a self…and that this self is constant, unified, self-determining in its freedom from preexisting conditions,  unitary, and autonomous in its separateness from others.”[xl] This clinging to a singular, unified self is the cause of most human suffering, according to Buddhism,[xli] yet understanding the Law of Dharma and being aware of the Wheel makes the Middle Way more plain, where dichotomies such as those Kim holds can be reconciled. The typical Western paradigm conflicts with this ability to hold tension between two differing parts.

If one assumes this Western paradigm, readers are not surprised when Kim experiences a crisis of identity, as he does in the novel’s end when he sleeps for a day and a half after the physically demanding task of bringing the lama plus the important papers from the Russian spies down the mountain.[xlii] Kim speaks of how “his soul was out of gear with its surroundings—a cog wheel unconnected with any machinery,” but later he experiences renewal by connecting with nature.[xliii] Franklin asserts that “Kim has found the ‘what’ of the ‘who.’ He has realized that it does not matter who he is…He has dissolved the body/soul dualism, seen through it into non-dualistic thinking.”[xliv] His crisis is resolved as Kim recognizes that “there is no substance self there to be realized,”[xlv] thus he is able to resolve the various contradictions that he manifests, knowing that embracing one part of himself does not require the pushing away of another. This, too, is another example of the Middle Way, and it reveals how Kipling has managed to create a character in Kim that is outside the typical Western paradigm by using the Law, the Wheel, and the Middle Way, despite his own imperialistic leanings.

Some have argued that Kipling’s imperialistic worldview perpetuates the logocentrism and racism that promotes separation and Otherness, the type of thinking that asserts “wise Indians must recognize the God-given rightness of British colonial rule.”[xlvi] Literary critic Edward W. Said has stated that Kipling’s Kim is “a master work of imperialism…a rich and absolutely fascinating, but nevertheless profoundly embarrassing novel.”[xlvii] Comments such as this are not unfounded, as a cursory reading of the text shows Kipling’s dismissal of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 as “madness” through the words of an old soldier, and his belief in the duty of the British to colonize reflected in the character of a native woman saying that the British are “the sort to oversee justice. They know the land and the customs of the land.”[xlviii] However, the reason for this criticism is that most critics have been schooled in Western ideology and see the text reflecting the worldview with which they are most familiar. This is an example of the metaphysics of presence as it assumes that no other subjective model can be used to evaluate a particular work.[xlix] Unfortunately, such a discourse, based on a dualistic reading, perpetuates the very attitudes that it seeks to criticize.

In addition, one can argue that Kipling shows an astute observation about the “difficulties of maintaining strict racial, ethnic, and national boundaries. Kipling’s keen awareness of the fragility of the line dividing colonizer from colonized, Anglo-Indian from native, or white from black is complicated…by his political conservatism and …what he understood as imperial duty, or the ‘white man’s burden.”[l] Nevertheless, using a Buddhist lens to view Kim makes another way around the divide that seems to separate. In fact, the same Buddhist perspective offers the possibility of a solution to other issues that face the world today. Mohandas Ghandi, a Buddhist and social activist, recognized that only when people realize their interconnection with others will genuine peace be possible. This thought connects back to the illustration of the Wheel and the concept of dependent origination, where “it is impossible for me to do violence to you without also doing violence to myself.”[li] By looking nondualistically at Kim, readers can recognize imperialistic notions in a nonjudgmental way, yet also see how Kipling has created the opportunity to view the East more generously than a simple dualistic reading would allow. Further, by fostering the practice of nondualism, readers and critics alike may find themselves more willing to accept the interconnection of all by witnessing the commonalities people and cultures share as well as discovering that the differences provide variety and interest that is often lacking in homogeneity.

Kipling’s Kim provides readers the opportunity to practice seeing the text and the modern world with a new perspective, one that can expand and contract like the birds’ wings written about by Rumi. Though those wings may seem to be at odds with their movements up and down, it is the tension and fluid movement of air between that allows the bird to soar. Likewise, the usage of Buddhist principles such as the Law, the Wheel, and the Middle Way assist modern readers to see beyond Kipling’s imperialistic stereotypes to the greater, nondualistic message of interconnectedness and love. More importantly, readers may seek to better understand their own contradictions and complexities as well as those they may view as Other, comprehending that the Middle Way provides a gap wide enough to encompass all.

[1] “The Middle Way.” Zen Buddhism. Accessed July 22, 2016, http://www.zen-buddhism.net/buddhist-principles/middle-way.html.

[ii] Rudyard Kipling. Kim. (Toronto: The MacMillan Company of Canada Limited, 1936).

[iii] Patrick Brantlinger. “Kim.” The Cambridge Companion to Rudyard Kipling, ed. Howard J. Booth. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 134.

[iv] Janice Leoshko. “What Is in Kim? Rudyard Kipling and Tibetan Buddhist Traditions.” South Asia Research 21, no. 1 (2001): 53, doi:10.1177/026272800102100103.

[v] J. Jeffrey Franklin. The Lotus and the Lion. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), 133.

[vi] Janice Leoshko. “What Is in Kim? Rudyard Kipling and Tibetan Buddhist Traditions.” South Asia Research 21, no. 1 (2001): 53, doi:10.1177/026272800102100103.

[vii] J. Jeffrey Franklin. The Lotus and the Lion. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), 148.

[viii] Ibid, 152.

[ix] Ibid, 215-216.

[x] Ibid, 216.

[xi] Rudyard Kipling. “Buddha at Kamakura.” Kipling Society. Last modified January 24, 2008. www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_kamakura1.htm.

[xii] Rudyard Kipling. Kim. (Toronto: The MacMillan Company of Canada Limited, 1936), 16.

[xiii] Janice Leoshko. “What Is in Kim? Rudyard Kipling and Tibetan Buddhist Traditions.” South Asia Research 21, no. 1 (2001): 52, doi:10.1177/026272800102100103

[xiv] Rudyard Kipling. Kim. (Toronto: The MacMillan Company of Canada Limited, 1936), 172.

[xv] Ibid, 274.

[xvi] Ibid, 151.

[xvii]Ibid, 13-14.

[xviii] Douglas M. Burns. “Buddhist Meditation and Depth Psychology.” Access To Insight, 1994. www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/burns/wheel088.html.

[xix] Rudyard Kipling. Kim. (Toronto: The MacMillan Company of Canada Limited, 1936), 169.

[xx] Ibid, 240.

[xxi] J. Jeffrey Franklin. The Lotus and the Lion. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), 218.

[xxii] Gautama Buddha. “Maggavagga: The Path.” The Dhammapada, trans.by Acharya Buddharakkhita. November 13, 2013. Accessed July 22, 2016. www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.20.than.html.

[xxiii] J. Jeffrey Franklin. The Lotus and the Lion. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), 154.

[xxiv] Rudyard Kipling. Kim. (Toronto: The MacMillan Company of Canada Limited, 1936), 274.

[xxv] Ibid, 302.

[xxvi] J. Jeffrey Franklin. The Lotus and the Lion. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), 154.

[xxvii] Rudyard Kipling. Kim. (Toronto: The MacMillan Company of Canada Limited, 1936), 348.

[xxviii] Ibid, 360.

[xxix] Ibid, 303.

[xxx] J. Jeffrey Franklin. The Lotus and the Lion. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), 159.

[xxxi] Ibid.

[xxxii] Kim Cheng Patrick Low. “Three Treasures of Buddhism & Leadership Insights.” Culture & Religion Review Journal 2012, no. 3 (September 2012): 70. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed July 22, 2016).

[xxxiii] Rudyard Kipling. Kim. (Toronto: The MacMillan Company of Canada Limited, 1936), 132.

[xxxiv] Ibid, 407.

[xxxv] J. Jeffrey Franklin. The Lotus and the Lion. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), 159.

[xxxvi] Rudyard Kipling. Kim. (Toronto: The MacMillan Company of Canada Limited, 1936), 33.

[xxxvii] Scott, David. “Kipling, the Orient, and Orientals: “Orientalism” Reoriented?” Journal Of World History 22, no. 2 (June 2011): 308. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed July 22, 2016).

[xxxviii] Ibid, 309.

[xxxix] Rudyard Kipling. Kim. (Toronto: The MacMillan Company of Canada Limited, 1936), 303.

[xl] J. Jeffrey Franklin. The Lotus and the Lion. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), 164.

[xli] “The Middle Way.” Zen Buddhism. Accessed July 22, 2016, http://www.zen-buddhism.net/buddhist-principles/middle-way.html.

[xlii] Rudyard Kipling. Kim. (Toronto: The MacMillan Company of Canada Limited, 1936), 403-404.

[xliii] Ibid, 403.

[xliv] J. Jeffrey Franklin. The Lotus and the Lion. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), 175.

[xlv] Ibid, 169.

[xlvi] Ibid, 128.

[xlvii] Ian Mackean. “Rudyard Kipling: Kim.” The London School of Journalism. Last modified November 2001. http://www.lsj.org/web/literature/kipling.php.

[xlviii] Rudyard Kipling. Kim. (Toronto: The MacMillan Company of Canada Limited, 1936), 107.

[xlix] J. Jeffrey Franklin. The Lotus and the Lion. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), 173.

[l] Tim Christensen. “The Unbearable Whiteness of Being: Misrecognition, Pleasure, and White Identity in Kipling’s Kim.” College Literature 39, no. 2 (Spring 2012 2012): 9. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed July 22, 2016).

[li] J. Jeffrey Franklin. The Lotus and the Lion. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), 173.

Provenance: Double-blind peer-reviewed submission.

Nan Kuhlman is an academic writing instructor for Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California, having recently relocated to Southern California from rural northwest Ohio. She also teaches academic writing online for Northwest State Community College in Archbold, Ohio, as well as Indiana Tech in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Nan has been freelance writing for over twenty years with her most recent publications on the parenting website Parent.com.

Featured Image: “Buddha” by Francis Chung is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Works Cited

Brantlinger, Patrick. “Kim.” The Cambridge Companion to Rudyard Kipling, ed. Howard J. Booth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. PDF e-book.

Buddha, Gautama. “Maggavagga: The Path.” The Dhammapada, trans.by Acharya Buddharakkhita. November 13, 2013. Accessed July 22, 2016. www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.20.than.html.

Burns, Douglas M. “Buddhist Meditation and Depth Psychology.” Access To Insight, 1994. www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/burns/wheel088.html.

Christensen, Tim. “The Unbearable Whiteness of Being: Misrecognition, Pleasure, and White Identity in Kipling’s Kim.” College Literature 39, no. 2 (Spring 2012 2012): 9-30. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed July 22, 2016).

Franklin, J. Jeffrey. The Lotus and the Lion. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008.

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Kipling, Rudyard. Kim. Toronto: The MacMillan Company of Canada Limited, 1936.

Leoshko, Janice. “What Is in Kim? Rudyard Kipling and Tibetan Buddhist Traditions.” South Asia Research 21, no. 1 (2001): 51-75. doi:10.1177/026272800102100103.

Low, Kim Cheng Patrick. “Three Treasures of Buddhism & Leadership Insights.” Culture & Religion Review Journal 2012, no. 3 (September 2012): 66-72. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed July 22, 2016).

Mackean, Ian. “Rudyard Kipling: Kim.” The London School of Journalism. Last modified November 2001. www.lsj.org/web/literature/kipling.php.

“The Middle Way.” Zen Buddhism. Accessed July 22, 2016. www.zen-buddhism.net/buddhist-principles/middle-way.html.

Rumi, Jalal Al-Din. The Essential Rumi, trans. by Coleman Barks. San Francisco: Harper-Collins E-book, 2004. Kindle file.

Scott, David. “Kipling, the Orient, and Orientals: “Orientalism” Reoriented?” Journal Of World History 22, no. 2 (June 2011): 299-328. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed July 22, 2016).

Siegel, Kristi. “Introduction to Modern Literary Theory.” Kristi Siegel. Last modified January 2006. www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm.