Introduction

Priceless Wisdom from a Modern Tao Te Ching Odyssey

“...this book will completely absorb your attention from the beginning...” —Emanuele Pettener, PhD, assistant professor of Italian and writer in residence at Florida Atlantic University

#1 New Release in Chinese Poetry, Asian Poetry, and Tao Te Ching

A literary memoir like no other, Monk of Park Avenue recounts novelist and martial master Monk Yon Rou’s spiritual journey of self-discovery. Learn from Yon Rou as he tackles tragedy and redemption on an unforgettable soul-searching odyssey.

A spiritual journey with extraordinary encounters. Yon Rou’s memoir is a kaleidoscopic ride through the upper echelons of New York Society and the nature-worshipping, sword-wielding world of East Asian religious and martial arts. Monk of Park Avenue divulges a privileged childhood in Manhattan, followed by the bitter rigors of kung fu in China and meditations in Daoist temples. Join Yon Rou’s adventure as he encounters kings, Nobel laureates, and the Mob. Witness this martial master’s incarceration in a high-mountain Ecuadorian hellhole and fight for survival in Paraguay’s brutal thorn jungle.

Meet celebrities along the way. A story of love, loss, persistence, triumph, and mastery, The Monk of Park Avenue is peopled with the likes of Milos Forman, Richard Holbrooke, Paul McCartney, Warren Beatty and now-infamous opioid purveyors, the Sackler Family. Yun Rou’s memoir is no mere celebrity tell-all, but a novelist and martial master’s path to self-discovery.

The Monk of Park Avenue offers you:

Paths for personal and spiritual growth
Anecdotal stories of self-discovery and insights into how to live
An eloquent, candid exploration of spiritual transformation

If you loved Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, To Shake the Sleeping Self, or Lao Tzu by Ursula K. Le Guin, you’ll love The Monk of Park Avenue. Also, be sure to read Monk Yon Rou’s Mad Monk Manifesto, winner of both the Gold & Silver 2018 Nautilus Book Award.

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Excerpt

Chapter 1

My birth name is Arthur Rosenfeld, and the year is 1959. I’m two years old, and I spike such a fever that my father is convinced I’m going to die of spinal meningitis. Other children with such symptoms are given sponge baths and Tylenol—now known to kill the liver in even modest doses—but because my father is a soon-to-be world-famous cardiologist, I’m rushed to the hospital and laid out, naked and face down, on a metal table. My bare chest, belly, and thighs pucker against the cold surface and my budding manhood shrinks. I cry and scream and soon discover what all fighting arts teach, namely that I’m stronger contracting than expanding. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

From the author:

1. The book reveals that the Author is a Daoist monk. What is Daoism?
2. Many “celebrities” show up in the first couple of chapters. How do you believe this affected Monk Yun Rou at an early age?
3. What do you believe is the connection between martial arts and spirituality?
4. The Monk of Park Avenue chronicles tousles with the Mob, enduring both mortal illness and family tragedy, adventures in Hollywood, and experiences in Chinese temples. What lessons might readers take from what Monk Yun Rou has been through?
5. Monk Yunrou is more than a little hard on the way we treat each other, other sentient beings, and the planet. Where does this harsh view come from and what specific changes must we make in order to stop the terrible spiral in which we find ourselves as a species?

Weblinks

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