Taiwan
Reuven BenYuhmin
My three most important teachers/influences to date: Suzuki
Roshi, late abbot Tassajara Zen Monastery where I was head
gardener ('69-'71). Roshi taught beginner's mind, a beginning
again & again that never ends. Alan Chadwick, master horticulturist,
threw rocks at us at Green Gulch Farm & asked us to perform impossible
Malarepian tasks. He brought everyone to tears; I smiled he smiled
back. & late master calligrapher, Hsieh Tzung-An, with
whom I studied for twenty years. Reverence & respect, he taught,
induce a stillness of mind & a mind in repose becomes the mirror
of the universe. Calligraphic speciality, the Great Seal Script
found on ancient Chou Dynasty bronzeware. Lectures on aesthetics
& exhibits of my calligraphy in US (1987) sponsored by the Taiwan
government.
Have lived in Taiwan since 1978 & teach contemporary American poetry/poetics at National Central University, Chung-Li.
Ordained Buddhist monk here in Taiwan (1980). Took robes in Burma, ordained
Samiddhi Bhikkhu by Venerable Sayadaw U. Janaka (1995).
Publakaka: Kumarks Dancing With Chitta Before The World: Collected
Poems 1978-1994 (1994); Click The Light Switch (1994);
sTimulate (Aleya Dharma Press, 1994) written
during a 100 day fast; The Green Book (Aleya Dharma
Press, 1994); Mahakasyapa Smiled (1995); Our I Dear
(1996); Mind of The Happy One (1997); Thisembalance
(1998); Evam (2000) 8 years of practice for this & from
which "Born To Be Separated" and "Optics Inclines"
are taken. Pearls In A Pile Of Shit (2000); Pastel Presents
(2000) Out of Order (2001) & more, many many more all unpublished
except where publisher is noted. Picture/poems published in Jack,
Fish Drum, Sugar Mule, Butterfly, Living Nutrition, etc.
Writing
& olives, my last addictions. Yeah, let it all go!
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