Okay. Hardcore Zen is part memoir, part introduction to Zen Buddhism. The memoir part is only interesting if you like punk music or Japanese monster movies, or if you really like to read memoirs. It's not that that stuff is poorly written; it's that it's merely a vehicle for Warner to discuss Zen Buddhism.
Now the Zen thing: Warner makes a great case for Buddhism as a part of life . . . or not, depending on how you look at it. If you're more comfortable with an outside entity (i.e. God, Karma) pointing your moral compass north, Zen Buddhism is not for you. It requires absolute responsibility for your actions, with the knowledge that there will be no ultimate reward or punishment in the Christian sense. There is no Heaven or Hell. In fact, Warner tells us that it is never possible to reach a utopia-like place. When Gautama Buddha said "existence is suffering," what he meant was that you will NEVER be as happy as you think you could be. As Warner says "Suffering occurs when your ideas about how things ought to be don't match how they really are." Accepting that fact, and learning to live with it, is "enlightenment," as far as that goes.
The book is mostly memoir until about the seventh chapter, in which Warner talks about the Great Heart of Wisdom Sutra. This Sutra is basically the basis for his study of Zen and you can read it at his website here. There's also the ten fundamental precepts, which include specific concepts like "don't kill" and "don't steal." They're not commandments, of course, just guidelines for right action in the current moment. He talks about how to practice zazen, which is basically just sitting and thinking. Which is good for you, I guess.
Some specific things he says, and my thoughts on them:
"The only place other than in the world of superhero shows for kids where you can find powerful beings who help powerless people out and ask for nothing in return is in the sphere of religion."
His point here is that Buddhism is not a religion like Judaism is. I agree that most concepts within organized religions make about as much sense as the origin story of Superman. I do not agree with his assertion that religions ask for nothing in return. Gods ask for a lot from their followers: do this, don't do that, worship in a specific way, interact with specific people a specific way, etc. So I'm going to say that, yes, Buddhism is not a religion the way most people think about religion. It's because gods asks for everything and reward people in return. There is no god to reward or punish people in Buddhism. There is no One asking any person for any thing.
"Compassion is far more important [than love]. Compassion is the ability to see what needs doing right now and the willingness to do it right now. Sometimes compassion may even mean doing nothing at all. Lots of loving people in this world go way out of their way to "try to help" -- but often they do more harm than good. Stupid helpfulness is not compassion either."
Sometimes doing the right thing involves going way out of your way. I'm going to say that the people to travel to Africa with the WHO are doing just as much good as the person ladling soup in their hometown homeless shelter, if not more. And yes, sometimes people do the wrong thing for the right reasons, but I think trying is at least as good as succeeding, in most cases.
"We cling hard to our pain because we mistakenly think that that pain is who we really are. We define ourselves by what we don't like or we define ourselves by what we like. Either way we miss the truth."
Warner insists multiple times that there is no "self." This goes way beyond the interconnectedness of all things. There is no separation between ourselves and our pets, the mailbox and the supernova, etc. I believe that human beings have a responsibility to other beings, and that we should strive to do as little damage as possible.
"When you're so committed to the future, it's real easy to let your life right now turn to shit."
Yes and no. This goes back to the "do the right thing in the current moment" idea, which is a grand one. And dreaming too much can sometimes have the unfortunate effect of letting a person ignore the important things going on in the here and now. But every major and minor achievement has occurred because people were committed to the future.
"If you understand the natural law of cause and effect in your bones you naturally refrain from doing stupid things -- because it all happens to you. You create the cause and you experience the effect."
Again, yes and no. I feel that much of religious and philosophical thought operates in a kind of perfect-condition-bubble, in which concepts can be tested and proven if a person has the right capacity for it. What I mean is this: if a person has brain damage, can they realistically "experience the effect"? For that matter, can a child realistically "accept Christ as his Lord and Savior"? Can a sociopath really know that “There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah"? I've just never been able to reconcile those ideas.
All in all, Buddhism doesn't make me as uncomfortable as most other "religions" or "philosophies," however you want to define it. I still think it's kind of bullshit, for the reason immediately preceding this paragraph, but most Buddhists really don't care what I think, so whatever. I do think it is important to try to do the right thing in the moment. And to remember that this is only a moment we're living through. We might feel worse or better in the next one, but this is the only moment we have. So we might as well live it. Right?
This is Brad Warner's website.
This is Brad Warner's blog.
This is the Wikipedia definition for Zen Buddhism.
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