Hardcore Zen<\/a>. Brad Warner is probably Western Zen\u2019s premier bad boy. (Well, maybe not. But of those who put themselves out in front of the world, he is\u2026) He curses in print. He appears to write whatever off the top of his head. And, it is obvious from what he says he has a faulty internal governor. He claims he\u2019s not like this in real life. And I bet that\u2019s true; otherwise he wouldn\u2019t have very many friends.<\/p>\nHe occasionally says unkind things about my flavor of Zen. But that\u2019s hardly a novelty at his site. He says unkind things about his flavor of Zen, too. And, lots and lots of other things.<\/p>\n
And, he says things that are worth hearing. More often than not, in my estimation.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s just fired off a post ostensibly critical of institutional Zen. Actually, by my read, he\u2019s criticising the inclination many spiritual practitioners have to pass on the nitty-gritty of one\u2019s actual life in order to play at something spiritual and otherly\u2026<\/p>\n
He picks a sad example that I\u2019ve observed on more than one occasion and runs with it\u2026<\/p>\n
Warning: It contains both curse words and crudities:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/hardcorezen.blogspot.com\/2008\/05\/fuck-institutionalized-zen.html<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Okay, okay, you can usually tell I\u2019m writing a sermon by how many postings I make to this blog in a single day\u2026 Anything to avoid the actual work, it appears. I\u2019ve even cooked up a rationale for this, explaining that this is how it works: A burst of energy! I write a while, fingers dancing across the key board. My brain freezes. I step away for a cuppa or perhaps to surf a bit among my favorite blogs and sites, maybe throw up a random firing of the synapses on my blog, then back to pound out another sentence, two or three on the sermon; before the brain freezes again\u2026<\/p>\n