Don’t be a jerk

Résumé : The Shobogenzo is a revered but seldom-read 800-year-old Zen Buddhism classic. Great books often meet such fates but Brad Warner, a Zen priest who is a tad contrary by nature, has long been drawn to this writing. While Warner is sometimes irreverent and always entertaining he is also an astute scholar who sees very modern psychological concepts in Dogen, as well as wisdom on things like feminism and reincarnation. Finally, and most provocatively, Warner shows Dogen offering a Middle Way between the currently raging debate between science and religion. While Warner s writings reach readers not often prone to such study, Warner s book sales attest to the fact that his thinking is as wise as it is colloquial, as profound as it is practical.