Literally, have every Zen related book you have written. By far, my favorite is, "Letters to a Dead Friend about Zen" and "Sit Down and Shut Up". I know giving praise isn't your deal and I think that is why the books are so amazing.
"Hardcore Zen" got me going along with "Zen mind, beginners mind" I have managed to read the rest of yours as well as few others. Maybe it's just your writing style but I find I get a lot more out of your stuff than the others. You come across more "regular guy" than "monk in a temple guy" Keep it up.
You should give yourself a break regarding "Hardcore Zen." Despite whatever you think the editor did wrong, that's the book that gave a lot of us the courage to start sitting (in my case in 2005). Here it is more than a decade later and we're still sitting zazen, so the staying power of whatever you said in "Hardcore" has resonated for those years.
I am reading your books,purchased on Amazon;Don't Be a Jerk,and I have ordered the ShoboGenzo,all volumes....Outlaw biker,mechanic,single custodial parent-Soto Zen seemed the logical progression for me....
I have to say I love your books just because of the covers and names. I probably won't buy them as I already have mountains of unread books, but I definetly will try to support you directly. Thanks for the great videos!
Miroslav Novák : I’m pretty bad myself with the reading. The point is that most valuable books in Zen Buddhism can not be read as best sellers. Hardly ever have finished any good book. I know it sounds a contradiction but really best books one has to continuously stop.
Talk abou a scandal Brad, getting a Monty Python's reference wrong on youtube is clearly a pitchfork situation 10:59, which is clearly Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Anyway, thanks for the video, I appreciate it, I still don't know which one to start with lol but I might go with Don't be a Jerk because of the coffee analogy.
I noticed that mistake after I finished recording. Sorry! As far as where to start, I like Letters to a Dead Friend best. The books are not a series like Harry Potter or Game of Thrones, so it doesn't matter where you start.
I got Hardcore Zen as a birthday present on my 17th (18th?) birthday from the guitarist of the band i was in at the time, and it struck a strong chord with me, pun intended. It had the terrible toilet cover. I've since bought all your books as they've come out (except Gil Women) & loved all of them to varying degrees. I bought a new copy of HZ just because the new cover was so much better - I also once found a copy of the toilet cover copy of HZ in the trash in front on a pizza place I used to buy beer. Pulled it out & gifted it to a friend. The newest book is so good I stopped 2 chapters short of finishing because i don't want it to end! I'm glad your whole writing Zen books career has worked out as it has for you because it's also helped me. Thanks!
I really like both: The Cover and Title from your book “Sit Down And Shut Up”. I haven’t read it yet though. But I will and put the cover next to the altar. It’s so artistic!. Thank you!.
Thank you for writing "Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate". I just finished reading it for free with my library Hoopla app. Not too worry there is always Patreon 😉 Brilliant! In your book you exposed your self as just as imperfect as the rest of rest of us. Not sure how many people are up to that grueling task. Must have felt like peeling duck tape of your skin. Lost my mom last June! Thank you for your raw insights. Very helpful I blame you for my deep diving into the internet rabbit hole of the Zen Soto discipline. Checked out the audio book "Zen Mind Beginners Mind" from the digital local library based on your recommendation. Guess you are due a referral fee? 😉 I presently practice Jason Siff's Recollective Awareness discipline. Wondering how it compares to Soto Zen? Thank you again and keep on writing......
Thank you. Yeah, that book was hard to write. I still haven't done an audiobook version. Maybe one day I'll do it. I don't know anything about Jason Siff, I'm afraid.
" I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief." -Franz Kafka Stab me, Brad Warner! Stab me!
I liked HardcoreZen, but absolutely loved your 3rd one (karma...wrapped...chocolate...). Really honest outlook on things. Out of curiosity: How is your current relationship to youf ex wife nowadays? I know divorces are hard, so curios on how it went out. About your 2nd book (sit down and shut up...), I was reluctant cause thought it might be too Zen for me, who actually is more into Theravasa... What do you think about it? Will it conflict too much or still worthwhile to read? Would be definitely interested in it since really like your stuff a lot. Thanks for the interesting video and cheers:)
I haven't seen or heard from my ex-wife in a long time. But not because of any animosity. It just doesn't seem to happen that we have any reason to get together. I don't think reading Sit Down & Shut Up would necessarily conflict with studying Theravada Buddhism. The styles of meditation are different. Zen is much simpler than Theravada styles of meditation.
Damn!!! I still wear Birks... I ran out of Patchouli & incense a while back. Have not been able to get out of town nor have I had the $$$ to do so and to stock up... "Poor poor pitiful me..." I Love Linda Ronstadt PS I did read Zen Mind Beginners Mind... Decades ago
Hey Brad, I've wondered this question for a while... so, apparently there are no levels to enlightenment. Once you realize the no-self, the path is done, the search for this "enlightenment" is gone. However, when you look at, let's say, master Suzuki Roshi and Ramana Maharshi, there seems to be some sort of a difference. I hate to use this term but Ramana seems to be "more enlightened"... I guess what I'm trying to ask is, first of all, what is TRUE enlightenment... are there really no levels to it (is it binary like "ok, you're enlightened" or "nope, you're not")? Cool vid as always , btw
@@matthewbarram I was gonna say something like that. My favorite of Dogen's pieces of writing on that particular subject are The Mountains and Waters Sutra and Inmo (aka "It," aka "Suchness," aka "Thusness"). Shohaku Okumura wrote a whole book about the Mountains and Waters Sutra,
@@HardcoreZen thanks. I have SDASU, I'll look through it again. Also, there was a list I saw once online that went chapter by chapter of SDASU and had a reference to which chapter in Shobogenzo it referred to. Any idea where I saw this?
it always amazes me the very low level of reading comprehension on the web and the extreme aggression used to defend it, just about all the replies to my comments or OP's are people who take two or three keywords out of the comment and build their own little projection around those words it gets weirder, i post on r|poetry and in one of my "conversations" with a moderator it turns out he doesn't like or understand poetry, i would have to say this sort of insanity is more typical than it should be, its sorta a dunning-kruger nightmare, incompetence establishing and dominating territories in areas they are so clueless, they cannot even perceive their incompetence and actually the "spiritual scene" is like this as well if you have a mission to "educate" entitled schizophrenics, then the web is the place to do it civet coffee btw
What gets me are the people out there who have read, say, one Alan Watts book on Zen and suddenly they are experts and are pontificating and arguing on the web as to what Zen is all about. Those type of people drive me crazy and there are a ton of them out there!
@@Octoberfurst the universe is larger than any religion, philosophy, metaphysics, theology or physics, quite a bit larger let them build boxes around themselves, why would you want to stop them anyway ?
Hi Brad, I'm curious how your work life changed post enlightenment. In hardcore zen, You talked about your first awakening experience while walking to work. how you realized oneness with everything and how all your problems just dropped. How did your problems with co-workers, work stress etc. change after that? Thank you
Well... a lot of that is in the books themselves. I think Zen Wrapped in Karma has more of that sort of thing than other books. Plus I talk about it a lot on this RUclips channel and my blog (hardcore zen.info).
Literally, have every Zen related book you have written. By far, my favorite is, "Letters to a Dead Friend about Zen" and "Sit Down and Shut Up". I know giving praise isn't your deal and I think that is why the books are so amazing.
I second this.
Thanks everyone!
"Hardcore Zen" got me going along with "Zen mind, beginners mind" I have managed to read the rest of yours as well as few others. Maybe it's just your writing style but I find I get a lot more out of your stuff than the others. You come across more "regular guy" than "monk in a temple guy" Keep it up.
"Sit Down and Shut Up" is an excellent introduction to Dogen's Shobogenzo.
You should give yourself a break regarding "Hardcore Zen." Despite whatever you think the editor did wrong, that's the book that gave a lot of us the courage to start sitting (in my case in 2005). Here it is more than a decade later and we're still sitting zazen, so the staying power of whatever you said in "Hardcore" has resonated for those years.
I think it's a good book. I had to fight to keep it that way.
I am reading your books,purchased on Amazon;Don't Be a Jerk,and I have ordered the ShoboGenzo,all volumes....Outlaw biker,mechanic,single custodial parent-Soto Zen seemed the logical progression for me....
For what it is worth, I have read and loved all your books.
Thanks!
I have to say I love your books just because of the covers and names. I probably won't buy them as I already have mountains of unread books, but I definetly will try to support you directly. Thanks for the great videos!
Miroslav Novák : I’m pretty bad myself with the reading. The point is that most valuable books in Zen Buddhism can not be read as best sellers. Hardly ever have finished any good book. I know it sounds a contradiction but really best books one has to continuously stop.
Talk abou a scandal Brad, getting a Monty Python's reference wrong on youtube is clearly a pitchfork situation 10:59, which is clearly Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Anyway, thanks for the video, I appreciate it, I still don't know which one to start with lol but I might go with Don't be a Jerk because of the coffee analogy.
I noticed that mistake after I finished recording. Sorry! As far as where to start, I like Letters to a Dead Friend best. The books are not a series like Harry Potter or Game of Thrones, so it doesn't matter where you start.
I got Hardcore Zen as a birthday present on my 17th (18th?) birthday from the guitarist of the band i was in at the time, and it struck a strong chord with me, pun intended. It had the terrible toilet cover. I've since bought all your books as they've come out (except Gil Women) & loved all of them to varying degrees. I bought a new copy of HZ just because the new cover was so much better - I also once found a copy of the toilet cover copy of HZ in the trash in front on a pizza place I used to buy beer. Pulled it out & gifted it to a friend. The newest book is so good I stopped 2 chapters short of finishing because i don't want it to end! I'm glad your whole writing Zen books career has worked out as it has for you because it's also helped me. Thanks!
Thank you!
I really like both: The Cover and Title from your book “Sit Down And Shut Up”. I haven’t read it yet though. But I will and put the cover next to the altar. It’s so artistic!. Thank you!.
There's a shirt with the cover art. His website has a link.
timelessnugget : Thank you!.
Thank you for writing "Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate". I just finished reading it for free with my library Hoopla app. Not too worry there is always Patreon 😉
Brilliant! In your book you exposed your self as just as imperfect as the rest of rest of us. Not sure how many people are up to that grueling task. Must have felt like peeling duck tape of your skin. Lost my mom last June! Thank you for your raw insights. Very helpful
I blame you for my deep diving into the internet rabbit hole of the Zen Soto discipline. Checked out the audio book "Zen Mind Beginners Mind" from the digital local library based on your recommendation. Guess you are due a referral fee? 😉
I presently practice Jason Siff's Recollective Awareness discipline.
Wondering how it compares to Soto Zen?
Thank you again and keep on writing......
Thank you. Yeah, that book was hard to write. I still haven't done an audiobook version. Maybe one day I'll do it.
I don't know anything about Jason Siff, I'm afraid.
Sit Down and Shut Up did it for me, a great read.
" I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief." -Franz Kafka
Stab me, Brad Warner! Stab me!
I'll see what I can do.
I liked HardcoreZen, but absolutely
loved your 3rd one (karma...wrapped...chocolate...).
Really honest outlook on things.
Out of curiosity:
How is your current relationship to youf ex wife nowadays?
I know divorces are hard, so curios
on how it went out.
About your 2nd book (sit down and shut up...), I was reluctant cause thought it might be too Zen for me, who actually is more into Theravasa...
What do you think about it?
Will it conflict too much or still worthwhile to read?
Would be definitely interested in it since really like your stuff a lot.
Thanks for the interesting video and cheers:)
I haven't seen or heard from my ex-wife in a long time. But not because of any animosity. It just doesn't seem to happen that we have any reason to get together. I don't think reading Sit Down & Shut Up would necessarily conflict with studying Theravada Buddhism. The styles of meditation are different. Zen is much simpler than Theravada styles of meditation.
@@HardcoreZen al right, thanks for replying. Gonna get soon your 2nd book:)
Damn!!!
I still wear Birks...
I ran out of Patchouli & incense
a while back.
Have not been able to get out of town nor have I had the $$$ to do so and to stock up...
"Poor poor pitiful me..."
I Love Linda Ronstadt
PS I did read
Zen Mind Beginners Mind...
Decades ago
Hey Brad, I've wondered this question for a while... so, apparently there are no levels to enlightenment. Once you realize the no-self, the path is done, the search for this "enlightenment" is gone. However, when you look at, let's say, master Suzuki Roshi and Ramana Maharshi, there seems to be some sort of a difference. I hate to use this term but Ramana seems to be "more enlightened"... I guess what I'm trying to ask is, first of all, what is TRUE enlightenment... are there really no levels to it (is it binary like "ok, you're enlightened" or "nope, you're not")?
Cool vid as always , btw
Hi Brad, will you produce an audiobook version of "Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate"?
Maybe. It's tough for me to read that book, though.
@@HardcoreZen Thank you for your answer.
I listened to don't be a jerk. It is a great book!!
Happy New Year Dude !
" and I poop it out", sounds like the title of your next book!!! LOL
It might work!
there's a couple on Book Depository
Could you recommend a writing of Dogen's on the "interconnectedness of things"? Thanks
@@matthewbarram I was gonna say something like that. My favorite of Dogen's pieces of writing on that particular subject are The Mountains and Waters Sutra and Inmo (aka "It," aka "Suchness," aka "Thusness"). Shohaku Okumura wrote a whole book about the Mountains and Waters Sutra,
@@matthewbarram I have SDASU, I'll look through it again. Thanks
@@HardcoreZen thanks. I have SDASU, I'll look through it again. Also, there was a list I saw once online that went chapter by chapter of SDASU and had a reference to which chapter in Shobogenzo it referred to. Any idea where I saw this?
@@HardcoreZen just downloaded the podcast "don't argue with an ox". Seems like solid advice.
What's the Hollywood dinosaur book about... your book change my life
It's about dinosuars in movies. I have several books about dinosaurs in movies.
Lol I will look🐒 once started complete the cycle is preferred 😂😉😁
it always amazes me the very low level of reading comprehension on the web and the extreme aggression used to defend it, just about all the replies to my comments or OP's are people who take two or three keywords out of the comment and build their own little projection around those words
it gets weirder, i post on r|poetry and in one of my "conversations" with a moderator it turns out he doesn't like or understand poetry, i would have to say this sort of insanity is more typical than it should be, its sorta a dunning-kruger nightmare, incompetence establishing and dominating territories in areas they are so clueless, they cannot even perceive their incompetence and actually the "spiritual scene" is like this as well
if you have a mission to "educate" entitled schizophrenics, then the web is the place to do it
civet coffee btw
What gets me are the people out there who have read, say, one Alan Watts book on Zen and suddenly they are experts and are pontificating and arguing on the web as to what Zen is all about. Those type of people drive me crazy and there are a ton of them out there!
@@Octoberfurst the universe is larger than any religion, philosophy, metaphysics, theology or physics, quite a bit larger
let them build boxes around themselves, why would you want to stop them anyway ?
i don't even believe in "whole truth", its just more nonsense and another disguised monotheism
@@Teller3448 what does it being true mean ?
@@Teller3448 truth is recursive on falsity
Hi Brad, I'm curious how your work life changed post enlightenment. In hardcore zen, You talked about your first awakening experience while walking to work. how you realized oneness with everything and how all your problems just dropped. How did your problems with co-workers, work stress etc. change after that? Thank you
Well... a lot of that is in the books themselves. I think Zen Wrapped in Karma has more of that sort of thing than other books. Plus I talk about it a lot on this RUclips channel and my blog (hardcore zen.info).
“...But they wanted to have more connection with the punk rock thing id put in my earlier book ...” 😂🤘🏼⚡️
Hi Brad, dont touch my mustache!😁🤙
Domo!
Hardcore Zen Happy New Year Mr Roboto!!!