My name is Brad and I’m a Buddhist. And sometimes I enjoy saying that about as much as any member of a twelve–step program enjoys getting up and admitting his addiction. That’s not because I’m ashamed of Buddhism in any way. Buddhism rules. But often I'm embarrassed to be thought of as what most of the general American public seems to think of as Buddhists. What makes it even worse is that I’m not just a Buddhist, I am, in fact, what the writers of the old Kung Fu TV series used to call a “Zen Master.” For those of you who are into such things, I received my Dharma Transmission from Gudo Nishijima who is of the Soto school of Zen (though he thinks the Soto school itself is “a guild of funeral directors”). I even wrote a book about Zen and I've got another one coming out soon.

In spite of being a “Zen Master,” I have never lived in a monastery high in the Himalayas. I have not practiced severe austerities and esoteric purification rituals. I am not prone to out-of-body experiences, or privy to higher states of awareness. I do not worship a fat Chinese man. And I don’t really care a whole lot one way or the other about what the Dalai Lama may be up to. I’ve put in most of my Buddhist practice in big, ugly, noisy cities — a decade or so in Akron, Ohio, eleven years in Tokyo and now I live in Los Angeles. I’ve been in the film business for most of those years too, and have no intention of getting out anytime soon.

I started practicing Zazen meditation when I was the bass player for a hardcore band called Zero Defects back in the early 80’s. Here’s what we looked like playing our big hit “Drop the A-Bomb On Me!” (I’m on the far right, you see me for about a nano-second at the very end of this clip):



Years later I moved to Japan, got a job at the company founded by the man who invented Godzilla (where I still work) and became a Zen monk. Most ex-rock’n’roll guys who become some sort of religious leader talk about how they turned away from the darkness of the devil’s music and found the light of the Lord. Me, I just got more punkrock the further I got into Buddhism.

Buddhism took what I thought were the truly worthwhile things about the hardcore punk movement to their logical conclusion. The hardcores questioned society’s values, but never really questioned their own. The hardcores knew the straight world was fucked, but didn’t seem to have any idea what to do about that. Buddhism was absolutely free of the kind of bullshit I’d found in every religion I’d looked into. The object of Buddhist worship is this world itself, the reality we are living in right now. No God, no angels, no Heaven or Hell, no Savior except yourself.

A lot of religiously inclined folks want to know what happens after they die. To me, that’s hardly an urgent matter. I’m alive now. Not dead. I want to know what the life I’m living right now really is. I want to know how to live this life in a sane and reasonable way.

Buddha talked about the Middle Way. Buddhist practice isn’t super hard, but it’s not super easy either. One of the worst and most pervasive mistakes I’ve seen with people who are supposedly “into” meditation is that far too many are looking for easy or instant solutions. They want Enlightenment, sure. But they don’t want to put in any time or effort. There’s one supposed “Zen Master” making the spiritual scene these days who plays right into that, offering pricy seminars that are supposed to give you an “Enlightenment experience” in an afternoon. I’ve seen ads for machines that are guaranteed to have you “meditating deeper than a Zen monk” in minutes. And a couple years ago a bunch of useless assholes put out a book claiming that getting fried out of your gourd on some wicked good acid was the same as Buddhist enlightenment. Will the Sixties never die?

All of these swindles are a complete waste of time and money. But Buddha never expected anyone to take his word for it and I don’t either. So go ahead and waste your cash and your time if you wanna. Maybe you'll be the first one in history ever to get something for nothing.

I also never much went in for the old excuses about how Zazen meditation is too difficult for modern people or too demanding for Westerners. If you’re serious about something, you drop the excuses and just do it.

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure what this column’s gonna be about. I'm open to comments, questions, topic ideas, suggestions where I can stuff my Buddhist BS. Whatever.

Aside from being a Buddhist dude, I also made a movie called Cleveland’s Screaming! about the old Akron/Cleveland, Ohio hardcore scene. I’m looking for places to show it and distributors to pick it up (hint). I’ll leave you with a clip from the film you might enjoy. This is about some women in our scene who were sort of like SuicideGirls before most of the SGs were born. Enjoy:



Brad Warner is the author of Hardcore Zen and the forthcoming Sit Down and Shut Up!. He maintains a blog about Buddhist stuff. If you're in Southern California and you want to try some Zazen for yourself, he has a group that meets every Saturday in Santa Monica.