Gary Gach | Buddhism & Capitalism

March 7, 2008

Interview with Gary Gach: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We had a great chat with Gary Gach, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Buddhism, and he enlightened us with tales of Buddhism and authordom. He talked about being both Jewish and Buddhist, and about the similarities between Buddhism and Capitalism, among many other things! For more about Gary Gach, visit his website: http://levity.com/interbeing/ Gary Gach also has a great Wikipedia biography. The following is from Wikipedia:

Gary G. Gach (b. November 30, 1947) is a Californian author, editor, teacher, and occasional actor.

LifeGach was born in Los Angeles. He was student body president of John Burroughs Junior High School, about whose milieu James Ellroy has written in Let’s Twist Again [published in Crime Wave].Following graduation from Fairfax High, he spent a summer in New York City, during which time he shared a desk with poet Ted Berrigan at ESP Disk‘.Following his return to California, he moved to San Francisco, where he’s been based ever since.He facilitates mindfulness meditation at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples (America’s first interracial, interfaith church) and serves on the International Advisory Panel of The Buddhist Channel (the world’s first global Buddhist media).

Periodicals+175 appearances, including: Alcatraz, American Cinematographer, American Poetry Review, AsianWeek, Beatitude, Big Bridge, Brick, BuddhaDharma, Calque, CommonGround, Evergreen Review, Drunken Boat, European Judaism, Grist, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Hambone, Heaven Bone, Invisible City, Lilipoh – The Spirit in Life, Manōa, Mantis, Mindfulness Bell, The Nation, New American Writing, New Asia Review, The New Yorker, Rif/t, San Francisco Chronicle, Shambhala Sun, Telephone, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Two Lines, Turning Wheel, Urthona, Wch Way, Whole Earth Review, World Literature Today, Yoga Journal, andZyzzyva.

AnthologiesA Book of Luminous Things (Czeslaw Milosz, editor); A Brotherhood in Song (Stephen Soong, editor); Code of Signals (Michael Palmer, editor); Exiled in the Word (Jerome Rothenberg, editor); Language for a New Century; Poems for the Millennium (Jerome Rothenberg, editor); Sparks of Fire: Blake in a New Age (James Bogan, editor); Technicians of the Sacred (Jerome Rothenberg, editor); Translations (Jan Greenberg, editor); Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace (Maxine Hong Kingston, editor); Visions (National Geographic, editor); World Poetry (Clifton Fadiman, editor); and others.[edit]BooksPreparing the Ground : Poems 1960-1970 (Heirs, International; San Francisco)The Pocket Guide to the Internet (Pocket Books; New York)Writers.net: Every Writer’s Essential Guide to Online Resources and Opportunities (Prima Publishing; Rocklin, NY)[as editor] What Book!? : Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop [Editor] (Parallax Press; Albany, CA) Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Buddhism [second edition] (Alpha Books, NY)[as co-translator] Ten Thousand Lives by Ko Un (introduction by Robert Hass) (Green Integer: Los Angeles)[as co-translator] Flowers of a Moment 185 brief poems by Ko Un (BOA Editions, Ltd.; Rochester, NY)[as co-translator] Songs for Tomorrow: A Collection of Poems 1960-2001 by Ko Un (Green Integer; Los Angeles)

AwardsHe is a recipient of a Shirle E. Robbins Award and an American Book Award (for What Book!?). He is recipient of a Northern California Book Award in translation (2007) for his work on Flowers of a Moment and shortlisted by them (2006) for Ten Thousand Lives, both by Ko Un. He is an honorary member of The Academy of American Poets. He is recipient of translation grants from the Korea Literary Translation Institute and the Lannan Foundation. Poets & Writers, Inc. has readings of his through their funding initiative.