I've been doing tons of interviews lately about my new book. Some of them have been really good. But most of the people who interview me don't let me know where I can find the interviews on line. Here are two that did:
Interview on Shambhala Sun Space
Body Mind Spirit by Bob Gregoire
Also, my new column for Suicide Girls' new SFW (safe for work) blog is up here now. You guys have seen this article already. From next time (2 weeks from now) I'm gonna start submitting new stuff.
Here's something interesting a friend of mine sent me:
She told me she thought it was a parody at first. Unfortunately it's real. Is Yoga demonic?
The piece is really amazing in the way it offers a nice capsule view of all that is weird and wonderful in the way certain people on the religious right think of yoga and Buddhism.
You'll see that "Zen Booty-ism" (for that is what it sounds like the woman is saying) is condemned for encouraging people to empty their minds. Instead, we are told, Christianity asks us to "fill our mind with Christ."
I'm kind of curious as to where this notion that the object of Buddhism is to empty the mind actually comes from. Maybe there are Buddhist teachers out there somewhere who really do tell people to empty their minds. But I've never met one. The confusion may come from the use of the word "emptiness" to translate the concept of shunyata. So people know that these weirdos who are so into emptiness also sit silently for long periods of time, therefore they must be emptying their minds. Captain Kirk can tell you how horrifying it is to have your mind emptied.
This notion of filling one's mind with Christ is intriguing. It's hard to imagine what the person who mentions this on the video -- a psychologist no less! -- actually means. I have to guess that it means thinking and thinking and thinking about Christ. Perhaps one is to set up and fix an image of Christ in the mind, to imagine how he would perceive things, what he would do in various situations, his words and deeds as recorded in the Bible. One would then need to constantly compare oneself with this imaginary Christ. And, of course, no one could ever measure up.
Unfortunately, I think this is how some of us Buddhists deal with certain aspects of Buddhism. We agonize over whether we are measuring up to the standards set by the precepts or by the examples of the mythical great teachers of the past. Or we imagine that we ought to have an empty mind like folks in the video think we're trying to achieve and we beat ourselves up for not attaining true emptiness. We think we ought to be more mindful, more compassionate, more present. And damn it! We never quite get there! I know I have done a lot of this myself. It's because I grew up in a culture that held out this way of thinking as ideal.
But Buddhism isn't really demanding that we empty our minds or that we fill our minds with Buddha. It's asking us to honestly acknowledge who and what we actually are. In doing so, we can see clearly what we ought to do and ought not to do. Whether we can acknowledge this is another matter. Practice, practice, practice.
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OK. Some of you have noticed the donation button on the upper left corner of this page. Thanks! As a way of making it feel a bit like readers are getting something for their money, I'm going to start answering more questions sent in from you folks out there. Send your questions to:
askbradwarner@hotmail.com
...and I'll see what I can do.
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Again, a plug for the two events I'm doing in New York next week. The first is a book signing at 7 pm on October 15th at the Iinterdependence Project in the East Village. Be there!
The following two days, October 16th and 17th, we're having a two-day non-residential retreat at the Interdependence Project in the East Village. This is a terrific opportunity for anyone who wants to get a real taste of what zazen is all about. The retreat is open to beginners, no experience necessary. It will be focused on shikantaza style zazen as taught by Dogen Zenji. It's non-residential, which means you get to go out and have a night on the town in Manhattan afterward instead of being cooped up with a bunch of Zen nerds all night.
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By the way, I gotta say some of the comments on the post just below this one are really terrific. For the first time ever I have to actually recommend that folks who don;t normally look at the comments section go take a look at those.
