Brad Warner

[[Syl]]

Obligatory wiki link. Obligatory blog link. I'd link his column at Suicide Girls, but I refuse to pay for porn of any stripe, no matter how tempting.

So, I went to a book signing on Monday at the Regulator Bookstore (great name and a nice little bookstore. Wish I lived closer to Durham). I got my copies of Hardcore Zen, Sit Down and Shut Up, and Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate signed. If anyone's curious, the inscriptions are "Rinzai sucks," "Worship Satan," and "Soto Rules," respectively, referencing a question I asked of him earlier about the differences between Soto and Rinzai (the Satan bit being unrelated).

Anyway, I linked Hardcore Zen in the 'what philosophy books are you reading' thread, so I suppose I should expound upon it a bit. I was killing some time at B&N and stumbled upon the book. A couple chapters into it, and I was hooked. I picked it up at my local library and read it in about a day, maybe two. They didn't have any of his other books, so I ordered all three off amazon. Once they arrived, I pretty much finished the other two in about the same time. I mention this because although I've read a lot of Zen books in my time, I haven't read through a lot of Zen books. These books just spoke to me.

I started getting into Zen my last couple years of high school. I was losing my ability to believe in God and was looking for other answers. Plus, the Zen stuff just sounded cool; I really liked the koans (not that I understood any of it). Then a couple years later while studying at the Defense Language Institute, I had an enlightenment experience (described more in the 'what do you believe' thread). It changed my life dramatically, but eventually it faded away. Often I found myself questioning if it was really enlightenment, like I was so sure of at the time, or something else, like an 'awakening.' It didn't make any sense to supposedly find the pinnacle of understanding, existence, what have you only to later find yourself so bogged down in ordinary life and feeling detached from that experience. And then there was the fact that Buddhism itself just sounded damn silly at times.

Strangely, for someone who's read as much about Zen, it took Brad's book to make me realize that Zen was a reformation movement of Buddhism, discarding all the silly aspects of Buddhism that always mystified me. And while I knew of the Soto sect of Zen Buddhism, I didn't understand it, thinking it was a more ascetic or ceremonial school (the brand of Zen brought to the America and most of the West by D. T. Suzuki is Rinzai, so perhaps that isn't very surprising after all). Come to find out, Soto espouses that enlightenment isn't all that. It stresses the importance of zazen. And while I haven't much relished the practice of sitting and staring at a wall, I have to say it is more rewarding than just thinking I've found 'it' and everything is ok.

Even if you're not all that into Zen, the books are a good read (though you might want to skip Sit Down and Shut Up, as it's pretty much all about Dogen's Shobogenzo). Brad's an interesting guy. He's definitely not what you'd expect of a zen master, and possibly not what you'd expect of a former hardcore punk bassist.

Here's a pic of me and Brad at the signing.

Oh yeah, and like SRD, he also spent his early years living in Africa and went to Kent State.

[danlo]

Funny, I just recommended Prisig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to my sister in law, who's planning to retire to Bozeman Montana.

I'll look into his stuff. Aside from one incident of 'astral traveling' in '76 (and no I was not on drugs) and the strange case of the disappearing taillights at 3 AM on the freeway in Oklahoma in '84 (there was a second witness) the most amazing phenomenon I've ever seen was during an introductory course in Zen Buddhism. Heck, I can't even remember what they called their building (ashram?), anyway the history, koans and walking meditation were fascinating but what appeared to me during deep (zazen) meditation had me thinking that I was already on the path to enlightenment. After what seemed to be a half hour I saw an almost invisible faucet with running water standing in midair. I could see the other 'students' meditating right though it. It was absolutely amazing. Then the instructor tapped me on the shoulder and told me to wake up and begin again.

[aliantha]

One of the most interesting things I took away from reading "Emotional Intelligence" a few months ago was something the Dalai Lama said: that there's more involved in meditation than just sitting and turning off all your thoughts. The monks also do mental exercises designed to cultivate compassion and all the other good things they're after.

[danlo]

My best friend Rodney is a follower of the Dalai Lama and after I visited him in New Jersey a few years ago (after Washington-fest) he drove me back to New York. For some reason we made a mistake and took an off road near the Meadowlands. Let me tell you you (and Jimmy Hoffa) don't want to get stuck in the Meadowlands . We drove past a car that was broken down and suddenly Rodney put on the brakes and drove back. I said, "Come on we got to find the way back to the highway." and he said that "The Dalia Lama teaches us to always help those in need.". I'm thinking 'oh shit they could be gangbangers with guns'. Turns out they were a very nice older Indian couple who were too frail to change their flat tire. As we changed the tire we found out that they were heading for NYC and took the wrong turn as well. There were Buddhist pamphlets on their dashboard, they too were followers of the Dalai Lama and were almost late for a seminar, but thanks to our help they thought they could make it on time.

[matrixman]

That's a great story, danlo!

These books sound very interesting. I've never affiliated myself with any religion or spiritual movement, but hypothetically if I were to join one, then Buddhism (or some variant of it) would most likely be my choice.

(Oh, and an excellent avatar, Syl! I've spotlighted it.)

[danlo]

(btw...if you've read Motorcycle Maint. you get the Montana reference)

[Avatar]

Never really liked Pirsig's book...just reread it recently in fact to make sure and I still didn't. *shrug*

Anyway, they sound interesting...if I ever come across one, I'll check it out.

Oh...maybe "enlightenment" and "awakening" are the same thing. And who says there can be only one?

--A

[danlo]