Zen

Reading Brad Warner's book Letters To A Dead Friend About Zen has gotten me to look up a lot of things. He started Dogen Sangha Los Angeles. I haven't seen the movie Brad Warner's Hardcore Zen. This current book is autobiographical, and also instructs about the Zen style he sees as useful to him, that he hopes is useful for you. He's led a fairly interesting life, spending 4 years in Nirobi during his childhood, and spending time in Japan. He tours with a punk band, in which he plays bass.

Warner's teacher was Gudō Wafu Nishijima. Wikipedia writes that he said, "Nishijima stated that "Buddhism is just Humanism" and he explains Dogen's teaching on zazen in terms of balancing the autonomic nervous system."


There's a documentary about a Chan monastery in China called Amongst White Clouds. It's beautiful and interesting to watch if you have 90 minutes.


Fukan Zazengi (Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen) This is short instructions by Dogen on doing Zazen. I've always wanted to go to Eihei-ji, which Dogen founded, after I read Sleep, Eat, Sit.


I've got 2 Zen books on the way: The Circle of the Way, which is a new history of Zen, and Entering the Mind of Buddha, which is about the 6 paramitas, which I'm always interested in reading.

Here's a photo of a section of Brad Warner's book p. 83: