Category / Brad Warner

by tmshaffer

Trying to find Enlightenment one book at a time.

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I have a problem. I love books. I have slowly gathered books about one subject or another. For years, I trolled the used and new bookstores picking up one or two here and there, until I had amassed a large amount of reading material. Some lamented and sat untouched.

I realized the other day. Many of these books follow a pattern. They are mainly autobiographical and are usually first person account. Even my collection of Buddhist books seem to be larger than I would like. I often think I need to move to a Sailboat. So I am forced to conserve space and pick just the cream of the crop. But what criteria would I choose. I could get rid of a few if I choose books I have not read. But than does that mean I have stopped trying to learn. Or I could get rid of the books I have already enjoyed, but I would miss some of those books that have changed me.

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by Nate DeMontigny

Anger is just like Smoking?

I was re-reading part of the book “Hardcore Zen” by Brad Warner today when I stumbled on the following…

Reacting to anger is an addiction, pure and simple, just like smoking Marlboros. Objectively it takes more resources to keep smoking than to stop. Yet giving it up seems much harder than continuing because you’re addicted.

I swear it hit me like a ton of bricks, being a smoker it hit even harder because I could really understand the addiction side of it. And lately, I’ve been having some issues letting go of anger and or irritation, especially at work.

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by Nate DeMontigny

Cleaning up a messy unconscious

By DANIEL BURKE, Religion News Service – There aren’t many Zen priests like Brad Warner.

Before turning to Buddhism 25 years ago, the 43-year-old Californian hit the hardcore punk scene in Ohio as bassist for the Akron-based band Zero Defects.

Now a writer as well as a Buddhist priest, Warner, 43, combines his love of punk and Zen to produce straight-talking meditations on sex, death, God and the Buddha. His latest book, Sit Down and Shut Up, centers on “Shobogenzo,” a mysterious 13th-century text.
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