Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate
I'd stumbled across Brad Warner's blog a few times before, even left a short comment once, but hadn't read any of his books. I'm not really the target reader as they are aimed at a much younger audience. However, a week or so ago I came across his latest, 'Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate', and must admit I wasn't very comfortable with it.
Warner calls himself a "real Zen master - as opposed" he says "to the cartoonlike figure invented by pop culture", and he describes what happened when his marriage was having problems and a woman he liked invited him to a party. After wondering if he ought to go along, he writes, "Ha! You better fucking believe I went. I woulda followed that little piece of tail anywhere."
Unlike many of Warner's young counter-culture readers who may be impressed by such stuff, I know a few Zen monks, and not one of them, even in private conversation, talks like this. Even if sexual relationships are permitted for monks in Warner's lineage, I wonder if his attitude and disgusting language is truly necessary and if it properly represents Zen practice and aspirations.
I'm happy to say that Warner has a lot of interesting and useful things to say about meditation, but I fear this is undermined not only by his language, but also the disrespect he shows for the tradition into which he ordained. In one chapter he describes how he arrived to lead a retreat dressed in a cult-movie T-shirt. He didn't put on robes until asked to by another monk the next day.
Even then he only put on the outer layers, saying "there was no way anybody was gonna get me into all that stuff". Warner describes fluffing his way through Zen ceremonies because he never took the time to learn how to perform them properly, and later, when administering precepts, he had to fight down a bout of childish giggles. "I could barely get through them" he says.
Being immature is no crime of course, but while Warner delights in permitting himself to disregard outer forms of Zen practice, he responds to a young man's request to meditate in a different sitting position by saying he'd prefer it if he didn't. Bad luck if you have a weak back, joint problems, or a lack of flexibility - it's lotus posture or you're out according to Zen Master Warner.
Of course we all make mistakes, and some of us take longer to grow up than others, but Warner is more than an individual practitioner, he chose to become a Monk. And that surely means acting with a certain amount of maturity. Warner later describes how he had sex while at a temple. Again, perfectly fine in his lineage, but I do wonder how the other people there felt about it.
It couldn't have been comfortable, attending the New Year Eve ceremonies that year with a monk who wasn't able to carry out his duties, didn't wear robes, and spent most of his time engaged in sex with a student. Warner, writing about it afterwards, glories in his activities: "friends, believe me, we misused sex in about a thousand new and exciting ways that week!"
Perhaps his foul-mouthed confessional really does help to reveal the life of a "real-life Zen Master" and so help make Buddhism more accessible to a different audience. But don't most people, even without the aid of Zen practice, stop boasting about their sexual achievements by the time they hit Warner's age? He is, after all, in his mid-forties.
Whilst I admire aspects of his openness and his teachings on meditation, especially his summary of the benefits of practice, "a bit of zazan in the morning and a bit in the evening radiates throughout the rest of the day and night and makes everything better", I wonder if Warner is doing more harm than good when he wraps it in constant bad language and dips it in disrespect.
Warner calls himself a "real Zen master - as opposed" he says "to the cartoonlike figure invented by pop culture", and he describes what happened when his marriage was having problems and a woman he liked invited him to a party. After wondering if he ought to go along, he writes, "Ha! You better fucking believe I went. I woulda followed that little piece of tail anywhere."
Unlike many of Warner's young counter-culture readers who may be impressed by such stuff, I know a few Zen monks, and not one of them, even in private conversation, talks like this. Even if sexual relationships are permitted for monks in Warner's lineage, I wonder if his attitude and disgusting language is truly necessary and if it properly represents Zen practice and aspirations.
I'm happy to say that Warner has a lot of interesting and useful things to say about meditation, but I fear this is undermined not only by his language, but also the disrespect he shows for the tradition into which he ordained. In one chapter he describes how he arrived to lead a retreat dressed in a cult-movie T-shirt. He didn't put on robes until asked to by another monk the next day.
Even then he only put on the outer layers, saying "there was no way anybody was gonna get me into all that stuff". Warner describes fluffing his way through Zen ceremonies because he never took the time to learn how to perform them properly, and later, when administering precepts, he had to fight down a bout of childish giggles. "I could barely get through them" he says.
Being immature is no crime of course, but while Warner delights in permitting himself to disregard outer forms of Zen practice, he responds to a young man's request to meditate in a different sitting position by saying he'd prefer it if he didn't. Bad luck if you have a weak back, joint problems, or a lack of flexibility - it's lotus posture or you're out according to Zen Master Warner.
Of course we all make mistakes, and some of us take longer to grow up than others, but Warner is more than an individual practitioner, he chose to become a Monk. And that surely means acting with a certain amount of maturity. Warner later describes how he had sex while at a temple. Again, perfectly fine in his lineage, but I do wonder how the other people there felt about it.
It couldn't have been comfortable, attending the New Year Eve ceremonies that year with a monk who wasn't able to carry out his duties, didn't wear robes, and spent most of his time engaged in sex with a student. Warner, writing about it afterwards, glories in his activities: "friends, believe me, we misused sex in about a thousand new and exciting ways that week!"
Perhaps his foul-mouthed confessional really does help to reveal the life of a "real-life Zen Master" and so help make Buddhism more accessible to a different audience. But don't most people, even without the aid of Zen practice, stop boasting about their sexual achievements by the time they hit Warner's age? He is, after all, in his mid-forties.
Whilst I admire aspects of his openness and his teachings on meditation, especially his summary of the benefits of practice, "a bit of zazan in the morning and a bit in the evening radiates throughout the rest of the day and night and makes everything better", I wonder if Warner is doing more harm than good when he wraps it in constant bad language and dips it in disrespect.
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