Philip Glenn Whalen (October 20, 1923 – June 26, 2002) was an American poet, Zen

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

, and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance and close to the

Beat generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...

Biography

Born in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, Whalen grew up in The Dalles from age four until he returned to Portland in 1941. He served in the

US Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He attended Reed College on the

GI Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

. There, he met

Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate of ...

and Lew Welch, and graduated with a BA in 1951. He read at the famous Six Gallery reading in 1955 that marked the launch of the West Coast Beats into the public eye. He appears, in barely fictionalized form, as the character "Warren Coughlin" in

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...

's '' The Dharma Bums'', which includes an account of that reading. In ''

Big Sur Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big Sur ha ...

'' he is called "Ben Fagan". Whalen's poetry was featured in Donald Allen's anthology '' The New American Poetry 1945-1960''. Whalen's first interest in Eastern religions centered on

Vedanta ''Vedanta'' (; sa, वेदान्त, ), also ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six (''āstika'') schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning "end of the Vedas", Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, t ...

. 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 Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

also attracted him, but he found it "unnecessarily complicated." In 1952, Gary Snyder lent him books on Zen by D. T. Suzuki. With Snyder, Whalen attended a study group at the Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist Church in Berkeley. Ultimately, Zen became his chosen path.Suiter 2002, pp. 68-70 Whalen spent 1966 and 1967 in Kyoto, Japan, assisted by a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a job teaching English. There, he practiced

zazen ''Zazen'' (literally " seated meditation"; ja, 座禅; , pronounced ) is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition. However, the term is a general one not unique to Zen, and thus technicall ...

daily, and wrote some forty poems and a second novel.Suiter 2002, pg. 251-4 He moved into the

San Francisco Zen Center San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC), is a network of affiliated Sōtō Zen practice and retreat centers in the San Francisco Bay area, comprising City Center or Beginner's Mind Temple, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and Green Gulch Farm Zen Center. Th ...

and became a student of Zentatsu Richard Baker in 1972. The following year, he became a monk. He became head monk of Dharma Sangha, in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...

in 1984. In 1987, he received transmission from Baker, and in 1991, he returned to San Francisco to lead the

Hartford Street Zen Center The Hartford Street Zen Center, temple name Issan-ji (literally 'One Mountain Temple'), is a Soto Zen practice-center located in the Castro district of San Francisco. History Issan Dorsey (a former drug-addict and drag queen) brought the center f ...

until ill health forced him to retire.

Poetry

* ''The Calendar, a Book of Poems.'' Reed College, thesis (B.A.), Portland, Ore. 1951. * ''Self Portrait from Another Direction.'' (Broadside), Auerhahn Press, San Francisco 1959. * ''Memoirs of an Interglacial Age.'' Auerhahn Press, San Francisco 1960. * ''Like I Say.'' Totem Press/Corinth Books, New York 1960 * ''Monday in the Evening, 21:VII:61.'' Pezzoli, Milan 1964 * ''Every Day.'' Coyote's Journal, Eugene, Oregon 1965 * ''Highgrade: Doodles, Poems.'' Coyote's Journal, San Francisco 1966 * ''On Bear's Head.'' Harcourt, Brace & World/Coyote, New York 1969 * ''Scenes of Life at the Capital.'' Maya, San Francisco 1970 * ''Enough Said: Fluctuat Nec Mergitur: Poems 1974-1979.'' Grey Fox Press, San Francisco 1980. * ''Heavy Breathing: Poems 1967-1980.'' Grey Fox Press, San Francisco 1983 * ''Canoeing up Cabarga Creek: Buddhist Poems 1955-1986.'' Parallax Press, Berkeley 1996. * ''Overtime: Selected Poems by Philip Whalen.'' Penguin, New York 1999. * ''The Collected Poems of Philip Whalen.'' Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Connecticut 2007. Both the Collected and Selected Poems were edited by

Michael Rothenberg Michael Rothenberg (1951 – 2022) was an American poet, songwriter, editor, artist, and environmentalist. Born in Miami Beach, Florida, Rothenberg received his Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. H ...

Prose

* ''You Didn't Even Try.'' Coyote, San Francisco 1967. (novel) * ''Imaginary Speeches for a Brazen Head.'' Black Sparrow Press, Los Angeles 1972. (novel) * ''Off the Wall: Interviews with Philip Whalen.'' Donald Allen, editor. Grey Fox Press, Bolinas, California 1978. * ''The Diamond Noodle.'' Poltroon Press, Berkeley 1980. (memoirs) * ''Winning His Way, or, the Rise of William Johnson: a diverting history for the instruction & improvement of the breed.'' Free Print Shop, San Francisco, California, 1983. * ''Two Novels.'' Zephyr Press, Somerville, Mass. 1985. * ''Goof Book (for Jack Kerouac).'' Big Bridge Press, Guerneville, Calif. 2001. (journal)

Notes

References

* *Charters, Ann (ed.). ''The Portable Beat Reader''. Penguin Books. New York. 1992. (hc); (pbk) *Suiter, John. Poets on the Peaks (2002) Counterpoint. ; (pbk)

External links

*
Philip Whalen Papers
at the

Rare Book & Manuscript Library The Rare Book & Manuscript Library is principal repository for special collections of Columbia University. Located in New York City on the university's Morningside Heights campus, its collections span more than 4,000 years, from early Mesopotam ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Whalen homepage at the EPCGuide to the Philip Whalen Papers
at

The Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

Transcription of extensive biographical interview with Phillip Whalen by David Meltzer, Jacket MagazineRecords of Philip Whalen are held by Simon Fraser University's Special Collections and Rare Books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whalen, Philip American Zen Buddhists Poets from Oregon Beat Generation writers Converts to Buddhism Writers from Portland, Oregon Writers from Santa Fe, New Mexico People from The Dalles, Oregon Reed College alumni San Francisco Zen Center Zen Buddhist monks 1923 births 2002 deaths 20th-century American poets Religious leaders from the San Francisco Bay Area Writers from San Francisco American Book Award winners United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II 20th-century Buddhist monks