I'm going on SuicideGirls radio this Sunday at 11 pm.

They ran a story about the show but forgot to mention I was on it.

I got a best-selling book out there.

Does anyone read?

SAKSATOON

On my way to start a week's residency in the Great White North city of Saskatoon.

Here are the main events:

• May 5, 2009 (Tues) 7:30pm: Public talk at the Frances Morrison Branch of the Saskatoon Public Library (main branch at 23rd and 4th) (http://www.saskatoonlibrary.ca/)
• May 6, 2009 (Wed) 6:00-8:00 book signing at Indigo Books on 8th street (http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/home/storeLocator/storeDetails/406)
• May 7, 2009 (Thurs) 7:30-9:30 Book reading and book signing at McNally Robinson Booksellers (http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/event-8459/Brad-Warner)
OTHER INFO IS ON BRAD'S SASKATOON TRIP IS ON THIS FACEBOOK PAGE: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=149729470653

Is anyone up there reading this.....?

MONTREAL!!!

I just got to Montreal. I have two live gigs here and several radio shows. The live gigs are:

•April 27, 2009 (Mon) 12 Noon Dawson College, Dawson College 4001 DeMaisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3Z 3G4 (at Conrod's near main student entrance)
•April 28, 2009 (Tues) 7 pm, Casa Del Popolo 4873 St Laurent, Montréal, QC H2T 1R6, Canada

I know I'll be on CBC radio this weekend. I think the host is Dimitri Katadotis. Maybe. Also tonight at Midnight (or 12:30? I'm kinda vague on this) I'll be on CJAD with Piers Anthony Holder. I'll be on WorldMojo.com in a video interview, but I'm not sure when. And I also have a one hour interview with Alan Johnson for CBC radio on Tuesday at 1 pm.

I know there are lots of SG folks out here. Please say "hi." I'm here all weekend, so please write me and tell me what fun stuff there is to do.

Thanks!!

HEY SG MEMBERS!! I'm on tour throughout the USA and I have only seen ONE (1) SG person in the 3 weeks I've been out. So I'm gonna start posting updates here more regularly. Here are the date and places coming up next (after this I'll be in Montreal, Detroit and Saskatoon, I'll post those later):

TENNESSEE
• April 10 - 12, 2009 (Fri-Sun) 3 Day Zazen Retreat (registration required) Penuel Ridge Retreat Center, for more info write to info@nashvillezencenter.org
• April 13, 2009 (Mon) 7 pm, Davis-Kidd bookstore 2121 Green Hills Village Dr., Nashville, TN 37215

TEXAS
•April 17, 2009 (Fri), 6 pm Zazen, 7 pm Talk (come to both or either) Austin Zen Center 3014 Washington Sq., Austin, Texas 78705 info03@austinzencenter.org
•April 18, 2009 (Sat), 8:45am Zazen, 10am Talk, 11am Book Signing (come to all or any) San Antonio Zen Center, 1442 W Woodlawn Ave. San Antonio, TX 78201
•April 18, 2009 (Sat), 3 pm Book People 603 N. Lamar, Austin, Texas 78703
•April 19, 2009 (Sun), 8:20 am zazen, 9:45 am Dhrama Talk followed by book signing supported by Brazos Bookstore (both open to public, OK to attend just the talk) at Houston Zen Center 1605 Heights Blvd., Houston, TX 77008
•April 21, 2009 (Tues), 7:30 pm Legacy Books 7300 Dallas Parkway, Plano, Texas 75024

Please stop by and say "Hi!"

Hey I made it into Violet Blue's sex column in the San Francisco Chronicle!

Here's the link!

Here's something I put up on my regular blog on Veteran's Day. Maybe people here will enjoy it. Or hate it. Or whatever...

An interesting confluence of things came my way recently. Over the past couple of weeks I received three or four e-mails from people in the military saying how much they'd enjoyed my books. One was reading Hardcore Zen while stationed in Iraq. At just around the same time I received some other e-mails expressing concern over people in the military who practiced Buddhism. These other e-mailers seemed convinced that anyone in the military who got into Buddhist practice and philosophy would immediately be forced to go AWOL and quit the armed services. And here it is, Veteran's Day, the perfect day to post a piece about the subject.

I feel very honored that people in the armed services are reading my stuff. I sometimes wonder how many other Buddhist authors have fans in the military. I'm sure some do. But a lot of Buddhist writers are so vehemently politicized I'd imagine they turn anyone involved in that line of work away from Buddhism. That's a shame.

The title of this piece is a play on a bumper sticker you often see in the US that says, "Like your freedom? Thank a veteran!" Buddhism is a practical philosophy and practice for the real world, the one we actually live in, and not an idealistic religion that envisions the fantastic world we wish we lived in. I think we Buddhists ought to thank our veterans too.

You probably wish we lived in a world where our freedom to practice Buddhism was not underwritten by military power. I know I certainly do. But if wishes were tobacco-burst '57 Gibson Les Paul guitars with coffee and cream PAF pick-ups I'd have a dozen of 'em. The fact is Buddhism has only ever thrived in nations where the citizens' right to practice it was guaranteed by a powerful military. The sad examples of Afghanistan and Tibet spring to mind.

I already wrote about this in a Suicide Girls piece called Buddhism Through Violence, so I don't want to rehash all that here. But I do want to stress again, as I did in that article, that I'm not happy about the fact that our ability to practice Buddhism needs to be protected by violence, or at least the threat of violence. But whether I'm happy with it or not doesn't change the fact. We can only make a difference in the world after we first come to terms with what kind of world we actually live in.

As for whether a person can continue to serve in the military after she or he starts practicing Buddhism, I don't see why not. The job these people are doing is a necessary one. As long as the military continues to be necessary I want there to be a military. If military people practice zazen they'll bring their own individual bodies and minds more into balance and they will do their jobs with greater efficiency and care. The outlook that develops as their practice grows will allow them to use the power we've given them in ways that will be more beneficial to everyone involved. They'll be more interested in maintaining peace wherever they are and less interested in kicking butt. There will be less random violence, less drug and alcohol abuse and more individual stability in our armed services. This is a great thing.

Is there a chance that military people who practice Buddhism will be moved by its teachings of non-violence to leave the service? Some might. Some might not. But I don't think it's the place of those who think they know what Buddhism is all about to say that anyone who truly understands the philosophy of non-violence would certainly leave the military. That is a matter for each individual to decide for themselves. It ain't up to you, no matter how well you think you understand this Buddhist stuff.

So on Veteran's Day I'd like to extend my thanks to those who serve in our armed forces.

Here it is. The best how-to-do-zazen thing ever on the web, featuring SG's own LizaRose!

Here is the video from CNN:

I will be on CNN Newsroom Sunday on Sunday August 24, 2008 during their Faces of Faith segment at 7AM. I don't imagine they're gonna do the whole show just on me. So I'll be on sometime around 7-ish. I also don't know if that's 7AM throughout the country or just 7AM Eastern Standard Time, which'd make it 6 Central, 5 Mountain and 4 over here on the West Coast. Maybe they have some system in place so that it runs at 7 across the country. Check your local listings as they say. I don't have cable TV so I won't see this myself. If anyone can tape it for me that'd be really sweet.

The show tapes at 9AM on Saturday, which means I'll be late for zazen at Hill Street Center. But I got people taking care of that and I will be there after the interview is done. Oh! And pleeeease don't just show up for zazen tomorrow without notifying us first (see link to your left). Drop ins are fine at the normal Saturday morning zazen things. But once a month we do an all-day thing with an oryoki meal. If you just drop in on those days we can't guarantee you'll get fed.

I have no idea what the CNN people ask or what I'll say. I'm hoping it isn't the same old thing as always. But given that this will be an introduction for most viewers, I imagine I'll end up doing the usual, "I was into punk and then I found out Zen was more punk than punk" thing.

Maybe I can get a plug in for my third book which, I've just been told, will hit the shelves of a bookstore near you in February, 2009. New World Library is, once again, my publisher. It'll be called Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate. It's a chronicle of the year 2007 in which my mom died, my grandma died, I lost my job, my wife decided she didn't wanna be my wife anymore, I did a million talks about Zen all over the country, sat a bunch of sesshins, smoked pot for the first time in twenty-odd years (and hated it), got attacked in public by some of my so-called "Dharma Brothers," plus did a couple other naughty things I'm not even gonna go into here. The moral of the story? Well, you'll just have to get the book to find out. I'm just writing this to whet your appetite. Like I told you, I won't whore out Zen but I'll whore out myself as a writer like nobody's business. Anyway, I just figured if someone was gonna write a Shoes Outside the Door about me, it was damn well going to be me. Not you.

I've read all those books too, y'know. Even Natalie Goldberg's The Great Failure: My Unexpected Path to Truth. Katagiri Roshi had sex!! Oh. My. God. The Dharma is ruined! Ugh! I agree it's high time we thoroughly trashed the image of the Eastern holy person. In case you don't think anybody buys that shit anymore here's a link to a story you should read. The easiest way to trash the idea of the infallible incarnation of God on Earth was to trash myself. If you can read this book and still believe Brad's a guru there's no hope for you. I hope that a few readers will draw the inference that it's not just me I'm talking about and that maybe there are no spiritual supermen at all and never ever were. Never. Nobody. But I'm guessing the majority will just think it's all about how I, personally, am not The Guy and won't give up their quest for the ever and always elusive True Holy Man with divine light shining out his lotus asshole. Good luck.

Speaking of which, I got an e-mail just the other day asking me:

This is a reference to some stuff I wrote in my first book, Hardcore Zen. I get asked about this a lot. But the answer is stated in the question: it doesn't matter.

Look. Anyone can tell you a pretty story and say they had Enlightenment. Anyone. Even me. Stories are just stories. Story-tellers are just story-tellers. J.R.R. Tolkien could make you believe in Middle Earth. Doesn't mean you can go there. And you can't go any of the places your favorite "spiritual" authors describe to you either. If you do, it only proves you've entered their imaginations. So what? A journey to the Fourth Level of the Bardo (or whatever) that sounds just like the one in the Tibetan Book of the Dead is no more real than a journey to Middle Earth for a chat with Bilbo Baggins.

Don't believe what you read. I try to write as honestly as I possibly can. But the act of describing something is always the act of lying about it. Can't be any other way.

As for "what IS it," it's a story in a book. Both of them. That's all.

P.S. So are all the stories in all the other books.

Rock on.

Recently Dusti posted a set in which she posed with Noah Levine's book "Dharma Punx." Now, according to Noah's own website, Noah was offered the job of being Suicide Girls' official Buddhist blogger but turned it down saying that he did not want to be associated with such stuff. I don't know the man personally. Nor has he told me this himself. I only know what I read. So I ain't sayin' nuthin'. In any case, when the job was offered to me, I said "yes" in a flash. No regrets.

So this got me thinking about my own idea for a photo shoot. There would be two models, each reading one of my books (Hardcore Zen and Sit Down And Shut Up). They're sitting side-by-side on the beach. They notice each other. Immediately they start making out furiously. Then they use my books on each other as sex toys (rolled up or something, I don't know, they'd work it out). After they're done they cast the books aside and walk off hand-in-hand. In the final shots I come by and find the books there all messed up. I pick them up and look kind of puzzled. Then I sniff the books and smile knowingly.

Just a thought...