Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, & the Truth about Reality

I browsed through Hardcore Zen by Brad Warner. I was initially drawn to the funky cover and thought "Oh cute... another book on 'Zen For the Western Mind." Nope. This book is much more than a cute punk-themed book cover.

Flipping through the pages, I was amazed to find that this Zen practitioner made references to several major pop-culture icons that I could really relate to. I thought I was the only American from my generation who remembered the episode of Ultraman where a funeral service is held for the scores of space monsters that Ultraman had to kill. Nor did I expect to see a reference to that cringe-inducing 1982 CHIPS episode where evil punk rockers terrorized the Battle of the Bands with their ode "I Dig Pain!"

These references to modern media moguls, from Henry Rollins to Ed Wood to Godzilla, are not just trivial inserts serving as a gimmick for a "Zen Book O' the Week" favorite. Brad Warner applies these references to everyday life as many middle class Americans know it. You can toss your MTV memorabilia and Cristina Aguilera posters away and eat all the tofu you please, but let's not pretend we were never reared on TV, rock music and Sugar Pops, because most of us ---even the ones going to Veganville--- love our pop culture.

If you are searching for a book on Zen that will take your soul flying into the astral plane or seeing rainbow-colored deities, well... this book is not for you. Warner is a Zen priest, coming from the mindset that Zen is reality, Zen is what's here & now. The "here & now" is one of the things that has drawn me to books on Zen, and Warner illustrates this very well. There has been so much written on "embracing the mundane," but this one will make sense to anyone who has grown up in American cities and suburbs. Warner shows reality as both exciting and drab, and expresses the notion of "embracing the mundane" in ways that really hits home.

Warner also addresses the dangers of searching for divine intervention, or states of higher consciousness. Namely, he shows how there are plenty of people out there who pass themselves off as enlightened gurus or prophets of God, and how easily they can exploit and harm insecure people searching for spiritual comfort. Charismatic folks are experts at looking "realized & actualized," often promising you the answers to fulfillment. Religious manipulation is a personal pet peeve of mine, and I was pleased to see it discussed in depth. While I won't thumb my nose at anyone's personal religious faith, I am very leery of organized religion, be it a small church or a city-sized temple, especially when a handful of folks claim to give you all the answers. I was equally refreshed to find no sly mention in the backpages of a "Brad Warner Fulfillment Community" or similar money machine. Warner tells it as he sees it, and moves on.

What else can I say? Well, lots... there are enough kudos to cover five or six more pages, but I will stop here. This book is totally boss! I will likely read it several times over, but right now I'm going to embrace the moment my way, doing my Hindu Squats while watching tapes of All-Japan Womens' Wrestling and Lucha Libre on TV, then winding things up with a protein drink and Conan O'Brien on the tube. Read this book, it is a surprising treat.


Entertaining and insightful, but . . .   October 7, 2005
Poogy
44 out of 47 found this review helpful

Brad Warner deserves credit for writing a book that both is fun to read and does a pretty good job of explaining the most significant philosophical aspects of Zen Buddhism. Many an experienced practitioner has failed to convey as insightfully as Warner what Zen is about, let alone with such a sense of humor. The book does much of what Warner presumably set out to do: introduce Zen to younger folks who know little or nothing about it and might be put off by more traditional works. He does it without much pandering to the typical inclinations of some members of the target audience, such as the hope that drug use presents a viable alternative, or even supplement, to Zen practice. So I recommend it; you'll learn a lot and you won't be bored.

Nonetheless, the book has some significant shortcomings. While Warner does a fine job of presenting the present-centered aspect of Zen, which is critical, he overlooks almost entirely that Zen, like all Buddhism, is also about compassion. Unfortunately, Warner often expresses the opposite. While it's very tempting to ridicule those who don't "get it," and even more, those who imagine wrongly that they do, and while sniping at the supposedly (or actually) ignorant can be very entertaining when done artfully -- and Warner is good at it, and I have little sympathy for his targets -- his disdain for the benighted becomes wearying after a while, and it reveals that, transmission or no transmission, he has a way to go himself before he is able to walk the talk of the bodhisattva ideal. Arrogance is not merely unattractive, it indicates a lack of realization, and this cannot be entirely negated merely by acknowledging it (which Warner never actually does), and continuing to express it in the name of "accepting what one is." Snide may be cool, but it doesn't reflect the awakened state. So, regardless of his personal cultural preferences (his taste in music, or clothing, or whatever), Warner does come off as intellectually sophisticated but emotionally immature.

Second, Warner never actually tells the reader how to practice. Worse, he starts to, describing the traditional posture for zazen (complete with inaccurately labeled diagram), but his implication that merely sitting in this posture and looking at a wall constitutes shikantaza is not merely incomplete, but fundamentally misleading. Being a Soto practitioner and proud of it, Warner also dismisses other zazen methods as for-beginners-only, and therefore doesn't describe them, either. Warner wasn't compelled to explain what it means to actually practice -- there's nothing wrong with a book that focuses on the philosophical side -- but once he started down that road, he really ought to have presented at least a basic, accurate outline. It would be a shame if readers came away from the book imagining that all they have to do is sit in the correct posture and the rest will take care of itself.



Hardcore Fun   September 13, 2004
Gavin Austin (San Francisco, CA United States)
41 out of 46 found this review helpful

Brad Warner's Hardcore Zen is part autobiography, part theology, and 100% fun. With an unlikely mix of irreverence and compassion, Warner explains his interpretation of Zen Buddhism and how it relates to his experiences of creating punk rock and Japanese monster movies.

If you can imagine a drug-addict-free Hunter S. Thompson writing about the nature of reality, well, then you have Warner's writing style:

"Lemme give you my take on these truths. The first noble truth, suffering, represents idealism. When you look at things from an idealistic viewpoint everything sucks, as The Descendants said in the song called 'Everything Sucks' (from the album Everything Sucks). Nothing can possibly live up to the ideals and fantasies you've created. So we suffer because things are not the way we think they ought to be. Rather than face what really is, we prefer to retreat and compare what we're living through with the way we think it oughta be. Suffering comes from the comparison between the two."

But unlike most books about a religion, Warner never claims to have any answers. Instead, he states that the precepts of Buddhism can lead you to something more complex-yourself:

"Buddhism won't give you the answer. Buddhism might help you find your own right question, but you've gotta supply your own answers. Sorry. No one else's answer will ever satisfy you-nor should it. But the real magic is that once you have your own true answer, you'll find that you're not alone. As unique as your own true answer is-the one you find after questioning and questioning and questioning-it will be absolutely in tune with the answer Gautama Buddha found and those centuries ago..."

Hardcore Zen offers a unique voice to the volumes of books on Buddhism. Unlike most authors who focus on religion, Warner makes the subject matter fascinating through humor and reiterating the fact that he knows nothing-you already know everything.



HAS A PUNK THE BUDDHA NATURE?   November 15, 2003
James B. DeKorne (Berkeley, CA)
25 out of 66 found this review helpful

Re:Hardcore Zen --

This book is not entirely without merit, but almost. Classical Zen teachings depend upon shock value, but coy shallowness has no place in them. Up until about half-way I suspected the author to be a sly Zen fox out to push all of our buttons, but after the umpty-umpth name-dropping reference to some long forgotten, no-talent punk musician, I decided that an addiction to loutish music past the age of twenty or so, does not suggest a convincing state of enlightenment in anyone. In other words, the famous phrase "Your everyday mind is the Buddha" does NOT mean: "Your ego-tripping Punk-trivia mind is the Buddha" - not without many DECADES of strenuous introspection at any rate. The final revulsions were his flames of Terence McKenna and Ken Wilbur - anyone who challenges thinkers of their stature needs better intellectual credentials than those offered in this book. Perhaps my biggest concern is that if someone - anyone - like this can receive Dharma Transmission stretching through the Masters all the way back to the Buddha himself, can that individual then open up his own dojo - offering, say, e-mail Dharma Transmission at $49.95 a pop? I'm sure that punk rock and monster movies can be expressive of Zen, but the author does not convince me of it. Read the book anyway to sharpen your discrimination of what Zen is: some of our most profound insights are negative. The fact that I was inspired to write this review (my first ever) tells you that the book moved me more than anything I've read in some time.

KOAN: Has a punk the Buddha nature?
ANSWER: No
KOAN: Can you judge a book by its cover?
ANSWER: Hardcore Zen!

Quotation to meditate upon:
"If God is dead, then everything is permissible." - Dostoyevsky

Final word: I believe the author believes he is sincere. I just wish he had waited thirty years before deciding not to write a book about Zen.


Interesting, but   November 4, 2004
Scratch Megataint (Unicron, OH)
15 out of 26 found this review helpful

The author had several excellent points. And relating his life in Zen to punk rock and monster movies was a good read. However, the one thing that he did really did wrong was to call some people with opposing beliefs "stupid." He did this on several occasions in the text. That goes against Buddhism to the core. Buddhism is compatible with all other religions and can be used in conjunction with other religious practices. To call someone "stupid" because of the way they do or don't believe in reincarnation is unacceptable. He needs to meditate a little more on that topic and maybe do a rewrite.