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he
sampled the wares of several "new consciousness" group,
including Synanon where he cracked 600 eggs a day, and Scientology. He
would probably still be with Scientology today if his Great Dane, Flo,
hadn't crapped on the rug.
Early
in 1970 Mateo walked into a hobby store in Los Angeles, in hopes of
learning about jewelry making. Joan Amperon, the proprietor, was quick to
recognize the young seeker, and before the day was over, had set him up,
not as a jeweler, but as head of a pottery department! A production potter
named Benigno Barone taught Mateo the essentials, and later on, a Master
Potter, Michael Frimkiss, started Mateo on the road towards ultimate
pottery. Mateo bought a ton of clay and settled down for a straight month
of pot throwing. He would stay at the wheel for sometimes as long as
seventy-two hours at a stretch. When he was finished, he threw all his
beautiful creations away.
"Michael
taught me how to go through a lot of mistakes," says Mateo, "and
based on traditional forms I began to take on a style of my own." At
one point, he was invited to show his work at the Scripps Invitational in
Los Angeles, but the night before the show, some hoodlums came into the
shop, beat him up, and broke all his pots.
He
moved to New York, studied the work at the Metropolitan Museum, and helped
set up a Ceramics course a Hunters College. Later he moved to Hawaii where
he set up a studio, making pots by day, and studying Chinese painting by
night.
In
1975, while helping his mother establish a restaurant in the Los Angeles
Marina district-he designed and made all the dinnerware himself—he got a
letter from his friend, Morris Kaplan (Kuo Erh), telling of the teachings
going on at Gold Mountain Monastery. Mateo signed up for, and sat through,
a one-week Ch'an meditation session. Later on, he decided to join the
group at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, Talmage, CA.
Right
now, Kuo Tsai is on the teaching staff of Dharma Realm University, and is
presently offering classes in Painting and Pottery. In his own words:
"I see practice as the essence of both religion and art, and here at
the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, for the first time I have really been
able to fuse the two together. In the intense moments of throwing a pot
(some of his pots are five feet tall!) it is possible to observe how the
mind works, to see pure ideas take form, to see the dream as a dream. One
can lose all sense of time. I'm really happy to be here."
INSTILLING
VIRTUE SCHOOL SUMMER SESSIONS AT THE CITY OF TEN THOUSAND BUDDHAS
Organic
gardening--swimming--meditation--t'ai chi ch'uan--hiking-arts and
crafts--Chinese--creative writing—people who care--
For
children ages 8-12. The school will hold its sessions concurrently with
the University sessions (see page 57 this issue). Parents may enroll their
children in the elementary school while they themselves attend the
University sessions. For information about the sessions call (707)
462-0939 or (415) 621-5202.
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