| Brad Warner is a Zen priest, Japanese monster movie obsessive and former punk rock bassist. In 2003, he blew the top off the Buddhist book world with his irreverent autobiography/manifesto Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, and the Truth About Reality. Now in his second book, Sit Down and Shut Up, Brad tackles one of the great works of Zen literature, the Shobogenzo by thirteenth-century Zen master Dogen. Illuminating Dogen's enigmatic teachings in plain language, Brad intertwines sharp philosophical musings on sex, evil, anger, meditation, enlightenment, death, God, sin, and happiness with an exploration of the power and the pain of the punk rock ethos. With a travelogue of his triumphant return to Ohio for a reunion concert of Akron punk bands, Brad melds the antiauthoritarianism of punk with the antiauthoritarianism of Zen - with a good dose of pop culture thrown in - challenging orthodoxy and questioning everything. For those who have felt drawn to Buddhist teachings, but scared off by its stiff austerity, Brad writes with a sharp smack of truth, the real heart of Zen, in teachings and stories that cut to the heart of reality. |
