Philip Glenn Whalen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Title | Poet Zen Buddhist Author |
| Personal life | |
| Born | (1923-10-20)October 20, 1923 Portland, Oregon, US |
| Died | June 26, 2002(2002-06-26) (aged 78) San Francisco, California, US |
| Education | Reed College |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Buddhism |
| School | Sōtō |
| Lineage | Shunryu Suzuki |
Philip Glenn Whalen (October 20, 1923 – June 26, 2002) was an American poet,ZenBuddhist, and a key figure in theSan Francisco Renaissance and close to theBeat generation.[1]
Born inPortland, Oregon, Whalen grew up inThe Dalles from age four until he returned to Portland in 1941.[2] He served in theUS Army Air Forces duringWorld War II. He attendedReed College on theGI Bill. There, he metGary Snyder andLew Welch, and graduated with aBA in 1951. He read at the famousSix Gallery reading in 1955 that marked the launch of the West Coast Beats into the public eye.[3] He appears, in barely fictionalized form, as the character "Warren Coughlin" inJack Kerouac'sThe Dharma Bums, which includes an account of that reading.[4] InBig Sur he is called "Ben Fagan".[4] Whalen's poetry was featured inDonald Allen's anthologyThe New American Poetry 1945-1960.
Whalen's first interest inEastern religions centered onVedanta. Upon release from the army in 1946, he visited the Vedanta Society in Portland, but did not pursue this very far, because of the expense of attending their countryside ashram.Tibetan Buddhism also attracted him, but he found it "unnecessarily complicated." In 1952, Gary Snyder lent him books onZen byD. T. Suzuki. With Snyder, Whalen attended a study group at theJōdo Shinshū Buddhist Church in Berkeley.[5] Ultimately, Zen became his chosen path.[6]
Whalen spent 1966 and 1967 inKyoto, Japan, assisted by a grant fromthe American Academy of Arts and Letters and a job teaching English. There, he practicedzazen daily, and wrote some forty poems and a second novel.[7]
He moved into theSan Francisco Zen Center and became a student ofZentatsu Richard Baker in 1972. The following year, he became a monk. He became head monk of Dharma Sangha, inSanta Fe, New Mexico in 1984. In 1987, he received transmission from Baker, and in 1991, he returned to San Francisco to lead theHartford Street Zen Center until ill health forced him to retire.[7]
Both the Collected and Selected Poems were edited byMichael Rothenberg.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
