Customer Reviews

Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate: A Trip Through Death, Sex, Divorce, and Spiritual Celebrity in Search of the True Dharma

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Unlike several of the reviewers here, I came to this book having never heard of the author (sorry Brad.) At first, I was turned off by his criticism of some other Buddhist teachers and schools, and of the confessional nature of the book. In the end though, he won me over, because his explanations of Zen, and particularly of zazen, are clear and accessible. He keeps it real, and that is part of what the confessional aspects of the book are meant to do. He's not out to set himself up as an exalted being - in fact, his goal is to make sure you don't think he, or any other Buddhist teacher, is that. But readers looking for a traditional introduction to Zen Buddhism should understand that this book is more memoir than treatise (which does keep it entertaining.) And I gave it four stars instead of five because I think he could have lightened up a bit on the snarkiness - at least in relation other teachings.

(edited because Amazon apparently doesn't like my potty mouth)

When I read Warner's first book, I was impressed (I gave it a 4 on Amazon before I deleted my old reviews). It skillfully wove together anecdotes about working in monster movies and being a teenage punk rocker with insights into Soto-shu Buddhism, often in a very funny and even poignant way. The author's obsession with celebrity was evident, as was a certain disquieting lionization of his teacher, but neither were overpowering. Sit Down and Shut Up, his second book, was not nearly as interesting, but still not bad as such; the whole punk connection to the Shobogenzo just seemed a bit forced and not wholly relevant, and the understanding of Buddhism seems a bit shallow at times.

Reading this, though, was simply disappointing. Yeah, there's a punk version of Hotei on the front (a recycled idea from the previous volume) and some talk about how spiritually perfect people don't exist, but it's not really about Buddhism in any meaningful way. It's about how Brad Warner had an excruciatingly bad year and how he dealt with it.

I'm sympathetic to some extent; I had an awful, awful 2004 (the same year I read Hardcore Zen, incidentally). We all have our ways of dealing; that being said, I'm not sure a confessional account of that year is the best way to handle it. And when you use that account as an attack on everyone who made you unhappy that year, then I'm reasonably sure it's not.

Reading this, you get the sense that Warner didn't really do anything he regrets this year. No, it was somebody else. He was dogged and good to everyone and unreasonable people treated him like trash because they couldn't handle just how real he is. A couple of his teacher's other students even had the nerve to say that he was putting some bad teachings out there, so he passive-aggressively snipes at them, calling them insulting nicknames. His wife who he couldn't praise enough in earlier volumes is a cold-hearted emasculating ice queen. He hung out with famous metal musicians, and they're better Buddhists than all those eggheads who read books about Buddhism and don't drink. He slept with his students and works in porn, but if you can't see that this is 100% the Zen thing to do, you're just one of those closed minded Buddhists that expect everyone to live up to some ideal of spiritual perfection. Etc etc.

Supposedly the book's message is that there are no spiritual Super-teachers above reproach. This isn't exactly news to most people, in or out of Buddhism, but I suppose it's not a bad message. However, when you spend a lot of energy defending yourself, as Warner does, it sort of undercuts the idea. A book where Warner talks about something truly reprehensible that he did, and the way he approached that, would have been a lot more interesting and relevant to this point. Instead we're treated to some peccadilloes that he nonetheless feels angrily defiant about. When he vows to be an a****** for the rest of his life, and phrases it as being a heroic stance, it felt almost laughable. It's not horribly gripping reading or poignant searching, just one guy saying "forget this whole Zen expectation thing". Which is fine, but it's a theme I've seen done better by David Chadwick and Janwillem van de Wetering. If you don't want expectations, perhaps wearing formal monks robes and calling yourself a monk isn't for you. To some extent, I feel that taking the "monk" mantle as you lead a lay lifestyle is a little silly on its face, but that's neither here nor there.

When all is said and done, this book does have its strong points. Warner is good at crafting a paragraph, often to describe things that are difficult to write about, such as one's mother dying. He's also good at breaking down a complex concept for the uneducated layman, though I sometimes question the grasp he himself has of certain Buddhist ideas. But this is, beneath all its pretensions as a punk-rock approach to spirituality or an iconoclastic deconstruction of our ideas of our teachers, simply an exercise in self-justification and self-promotion. As such I can't really recommend it as autobiography or Buddhist literature. There are too many superior examples of each and of both to spend the time any money required for this book.

INTERESTING SIDE NOTE ON RATINGS FIXINGS: I notice my Amazon comments, helpful/not helpful ratings, etc. You can call me pathetic or whatever, but most people do. Hard to notice when you get more than twice as many in one day as you have in the past six months. Or that suddenly the 'good' reviews have all gotten more and more such ratings. And then you notice over three days lots of brand new five star reviews by people with no other reviews. Is it the author or just his fans? Either way, it's pretty pathetic to try and skew the reviews this way.

i have read all three of brad's books. "zen wrapped..." is much different than the first two. it is an autobiography with small zen messages sporadically dispersed throughout the book. don't buy this expecting it to be a lecture about zen in america.

when i read brad's first book, i thought "this guy is not zen. he is an egomaniacal pretender." after having read all three of his books i am still not convinced that my original impression was wrong. part of me still thinks brad says what he says not because he is a zen priest, but because for some psychological reason he is extremely anti-establishment. i am sure in his personal life he owns a mac and hates bill gates. having said all of this, i think there are great messages in each of his books, this one included. we are all human, even the "enlightened" ones. we all make mistakes and do dumb $h1t sometimes. its ok, just try not to do too much of it and dont hurt others while doing it.

overall i liked this book and if brad writes a fourth (which i am quite certain he will) i will purchase and read it too. i dont agree with everything he says and i think he tries way too hard not to be part of the established zen order (whatever that is, right brad?), but there is still enough of a very good message in his books to keep going down this path with him.

I really enjoyed this book. As a part-time buddhist (meaning I don't sit as much as I'd like to), I am always looking for new ways to understand buddhism. Brad's 3rd book is not Shobogenzo. And the book is not pearls of wisdom dripping from the glowing jowls of the master. It is the chronicling of the author's journey through much of the muck that we all wade through, are tempted by, give in to, etc. Here is a guy who has a pretty good grasp of buddhism. Yet he is human, and here he shows us how a human with buddhist tendencies deals with life when the stinky stuff is hitting the fan. I found that Brad's conversational style and insights were very enlightening. I came away from the book with a different take on Brad, but I also came away with a practical understanding of concepts I assumed were too lofty for me. In other words, his troubles and how he handled them, and the thoughts he thunk aloud (in print) helped me on my journey. And what more can you ask for that that?

Good work, Brad. Get a job.

A sophomore slump personally and in print, even if numbered third of his now four books. This deals with what went down after "Hardcore Zen" (see my review) made his reputation for better or worse. The year 2007 as the subtitle "a trip through death, sex, divorce, and spiritual celebrity in search of the true dharma" says it all, but what may elude a casual reader is the seriousness beneath the Ed Hardy-tattoo like cover and the tone that Warner prefers, to keep it snappy, snide, and snickering as much as profound, philosophical, and even poetic. Both modes alternate and this makes it a book that secular skeptics will welcome perhaps more than "drippy" Buddhist types.

That's his intention: to get a Soto Zen message of facing down reality on the cushion and then getting up to do better than you do habitually. He rejects fantasies and fear, to as "Sit Down and Shut Up" (see my review) used the Soto founder Dogen's precepts to keep a balance and to live life now, in the moment, while admitting that "I Don't Know" can be a fine way to navigate its challenges.

He can write movingly; much of this book concerns his mother's slow death from Huntington's Disease and his fears of inheriting the same when he grew up. This pragmatism made him determined to sort real from false desires, and even if he calls it "a ball of big snarly confessional vomit," he can reach beauty. Considering his grandfather's death, he notes how even if he himself does not believe in reincarnation or an afterlife, he admits how Grandpa's presence remains: "The same thing that stared out of my grandpa's eyes and wondered what he wondered what the f[--]k it was all about stares at the world out of your eyes and out of mine." (191)

This tone reminds you this is not an ordinary Buddhist book; it can be profane as well as pretty. Warner's impatience as a punk-priest with piety and dogma makes this a great recommendation for a more open-minded approach. He tells us how Zen is there so we don't add more garbage to the pile, no more tension than what we're already stuck with. In his own weaknesses as he recounts, he shows how responsibility beyond ourselves is essential for morality.

Narrating how he and his wife became "distantly polite roommates," he anticipates his fourth book, "Sex, Sin, and Zen" (see my review) to show how sexuality and temptation complicate a modern Buddhist's daily challenges. He loses his coveted dream job, he takes on morality as based in reality for all its messiness, and he reflects how even life and death somehow in Dogen's estimation constitute nirvana. This makes sense if you stick with it; as with his other books, Warner wanders around a topic or chapter before wrapping it up neatly.

Of all his books, this one does roam about the most. 2007's difficulties do cause Warner to zig-zag and duck and bob a lot. For good reason he warns how distractions in zazen come like wheels left spinning upside down in a bicycle shop. Such metaphors keep the book quirky and the message accessible to the doubtful. Whlle at first the book may seem too glib for the serious reader, Warner varies his pitch and knows his wider audience demands a repertoire of tunes, as it were, to entertain them as he delivers his message within a deeper, more fragile and sensitive exploration of his own setbacks as his hard-won lessons to share with us in relating his ups and downs to Zen's practical, steady reaction to whatever we face.

He's good at explaining such tricky topics as absolute vs. "relative" reality and how atheism in his mind differs from a non-theistic Buddhism that still expects ritual and devotion for their own sake of respect for each other even if ultimately no god or gods in the conventional sense exist for its practitioners. He even expounds on the problem of evil, and how it starts as does anger and fear from within.

Warner advocates intuition along with action; he compares his musical zone when playing on stage to that of meditation, to "uncover the intuition you already have" to perform well. Zazen or sitting still does not seek any other goal than the reality of the moment, as he concludes: "enlightenment is for those who can't face reality."

Warner presents his book as radical "confessional vomit," full of "scandalous stuff," that will show him as he really is, warts and all, in all his disturbing ugliness, and demolish the myth of the perfect Zen teacher (he takes for granted throughout the book that people out there think he is one such faultless sensei...). However (but not surprisingly), what image of Warner do we have at the end? Well, that of a somewhat nerdy and pretty decent guy, who, among other things, is deeply committed to Zen and discipline, loves his grandma even though she was mean to his dad, had some alcohol and pot on the 4th of July (but does not recommend it, and will never do it again, which is not hard because he does not like it anyway), and endures his wife's coldness and sexual indifference to him for months (she even humiliates him by telling him she no longer sees him "as a man") before having sex with another woman (but only after she actually initiates the act). Oh, and disturbingly... he only wears one layer of underwear under his Zen robes. Man, you certainly wouldn't want to run into this guy in a dark alley... However, there is one aspect of the book that may be construed as truly mean-spirited (and un-zenlike, even by Warner's definitions of Zen): the true villains of the book are his wife Yuka, who comes across as a cold, workaholic woman who cheats on her husband and then gives him the silent treatment, and Zeppo and Gummo, the two power thirsty Zen teachers who hate Warner. Warner knows that those people, including his wife, will read the book, which then becomes his very public special revenge against them. Ch-ching!

I started with Brad Warner's 3rd book, Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate, then later read the first 2 so I went backwards. This book was not only hilarious and a great read for someone who has practiced Buddhism/Zen for close to 10 years. I found it refreshing, even though maybe a bit too in your face for some readers, the human-side, no-holds-barred view of Zen. Although I can't quite view Brad with quite the same respect as some of my other Buddhist/Zen teachers, he does have a special way of showing Zen in a new and refreshing light. His thoughts even challenged my own BS and "beliefs" about Buddhism/Zen/Life, so bravo to you Brad for opening my eyes a little wider, bringing me ever more closer to being fully awake, therefore helping me be more compassionate with myself, others, and reality as it is and not how I think it should be. Thanks, Jeremy W. Tampa, FL

One question I've often wondered about is how someone who deeply practices Zen but doesn't live in a monastery deals with the problems of everyday life. Leaving aside mostly irrelevant questions of whether or not one is "enlightenment" etc., what does it mean to be a Zen practitioner facing with the death of your mother? Or the dissolution of your marriage? What does it mean, really, to be free from attachment while your mother is terminally ill? Can such a thing happen, and are the reactions and emotions of a Zen practitioner in this situation any different from what a non-practitioner feels?

I can't say this book answers those questions - no book can, because every person's experience is different - but this book does delve into these subjects (and others) and gives meaningful insights into what Zen is about in "everyday life" (as if there were a difference between "everyday life" and anything else). Anyone looking for a one-size fits all approach to life, anyone hoping for a list of 10 things to do when your mother is dying should go buy another book.

Some people, including other reviews of this book, like to bash Brad for holding himself out as some kind of spiritual leader, but they miss the point. He is a writer, and supports himself through his writing, which must be promoted. As far as I know, and as he makes explicit, he does not make a dime from his efforts to help others through Zen outside of offsetting any direct costs he incurs through room rentals, etc. He does not tell you what to do with your life, he does not sell you an "Instant Enlightenment Experience" and he does not demand anyone call him Zen Master Mucky-muck.

What he does do is tell you that Zen is not about reading, or about an abstract philosophy, but about the practice of Zazen. Books about Zen can only point you the way and give you the outlines of what Zen is about. He will also freely give his opinions on a number of subjects which you are free to accept or reject. I think a lot of the problem is that we in the US have an image of Zen practitioners based on Kung Fu reruns, and we don't want to hear Master Po saying things like the newest Kiss album kicks ass.

People are always shocked when so-called spiritual leaders fall from grace because they are revealed to be human. That's because we in the public make them spiritual leaders first, human second. Brad tries to be human, above anything else, and if we pick up some spiritual insights from reading his books or practicing with him, so much the better. To me, this is much healthier approach in that it is more likely to lead to insights based on reality rather than insights based on ideas in your head

Brad Warner seems to have a very strong zen practice. That's going to make it hard to write a book about zen. How does a fish write about being wet?

So, if you want a book about zen, you might want to try an author without such a strong practice. Alan Watts has several lovely books about zen. This book is not about zen, it is a book written by someone with a strong zen practice. There's much to learn here, but you won't find a unique slant on zen concepts here. That may disappoint a lot of readers.

But, if you can approach the book for what it is, a memoir of a period of transition in the life of a serious zen practicioner, and let his perspective soak in without being colored by your ideas of what the book should be, you can get a good look at what being an American student of Japanese-centric zen tradition can be like in the early part of the 21st century.

By way of disclosure here, I should say that I also regard myself as an American student of Japanese-centric zen tradition in the early part of the 21st century, though not the same lineage as Brad's. I enjoyed this book like a long catch-up session with a friend. However, I found myself at the end with new insights into myself and my own practice that I derived from reading this book, though I couldn't point to a particular passage and say "this is it." It was more that his own self-regard illuminated my own, this was much more valuable than just a new slant on zen concepts

As an aside, I read it entirely while riding the New York Subway System, commuting to work, and entirely on my iPod Touch using the Kindle application.

Brad Warner isn't perfect, and he's not hiding it. He tells us about a difficult personal year, and how he handled emotionally and through his actions. Most of the Zen books i've read are theory-only books; the author describes how they interpret Zen, and give reasons for it. Warner does some of that in this book. But mostly, he shares how he handled very difficult problems that affected him.
The stories he shares are not what i'd have expected from a 25 year practitioner of meditation and Zen. I'm grateful that he doesn't hide his warts, that he has courage to reveal his less than perfect behavior.
Zen is an interesting approach to giving structure to life. It leaves a lot of room for personal interpretation. Warner isn't replicating someone else's choices; he's creating his own path. I personally wouldn't make his choices, but i realize he wouldn't make my choices. In being so forthright, he displays a lot of courage and integrity, and a strong commitment to truthfulness.

This isn't a book describing Zen practice. This is a book describing how a long time practitioner practiced Zen during a year of difficulties. It's pretty unique.
Here's another book in the same vein: Afterzen: Experiences of a Zen Student Out on His Ear