HARDCORE ZEN. Meet Brad, the bad boy of Zen Buddhism. A shock wave ran through the staid, reverential viharas, gompas and zendos of western Buddhism when he penned a series of articles on the Dalai Lama, in which he admits: “I’ve never read his books or paid much attention to him on TV.” (...)
His latest book, Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate, doesn’t disappoint. It’s subtitled, A trip through death, sex, divorce, and spiritual celebrity in search of the true Dharma. It spares us no details in laying bare his personal life to illustrate the insights which he believes Zen practice has given him in one of the worst years of his life. He suffered bereavement, lost his job, got high, had affairs with students and emerged strengthened from the experience. Brad Warner — Does real Buddhism exist in the West? May 16, 2009 "As Buddhism becomes more widely accepted, guys trying to make a fast buck on people’s misconceptions about it are going to keep crawling out of the manure.
It’s really a buyer-beware situation. If you think enlightenment is something someone can give you in a big hurry for $150, you deserve what you get.