Don't Be a Jerk: And Other Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan's Greatest Zen Master

by Brad Warner

A Radical but Reverent Paraphrasing of Dogen’s Treasury of the True Dharma Eye

“Even if the whole universe is nothing but a bunch of jerks doing all kinds of jerk-type things, there is still liberation in simply not being a jerk.” — Eihei Dogen (1200–1253 CE)

The Shobogenzo (The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye) is a revered eight-hundred-year-old Zen Buddhism classic written by the Japanese monk Eihei Dogen. Despite the timeless wisdom of his teachings, many consider the book difficult to understand and daunting to read. In Don’t Be a Jerk, Zen priest and bestselling author Brad Warner, through accessible paraphrasing and incisive commentary, applies Dogen’s teachings to modern times. While entertaining and sometimes irreverent, Warner is also an astute scholar who sees in Dogen very modern psychological concepts, as well as insights on such topics as feminism and reincarnation. Warner even shows that Dogen offered a “Middle Way” in the currently raging debate between science and religion. For curious readers worried that Dogen’s teachings are too philosophically opaque, Don’t Be a Jerk is hilarious, understandable, and wise.

Genres: Buddhism, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Zen, Religion, Spirituality, Self Help

336 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2016

About the author

Brad Warner is an ordained Zen Master (though he hates that term) in the Soto lineage founded in Japan by Master Dogen Zenji in the 13th century. He's the bass player for the hardcore punk rock group 0DFx (aka Zero Defex) and the ex-vice president of the Los Angeles office of the company founded by the man who created Godzilla.

Brad was born in Hamilton, Ohio in 1964. In 1972, his family relocated to Nairobi, Kenya. When Brad returned to Wadsworth three years later, nothing about rural Ohio seemed quite the same anymore.

In 1982 Brad joined 0DFx. 0DFx caught the attention of a number of major bands on the hardcore punk scene. But they soon broke up leaving a single eighteen second burst of noise, titled Drop the A-Bomb On Me, as their only recorded legacy on a compilation album called P.E.A.C.E./War.

In 1993, Brad went to Japan to realize a childhood dream to actually work for the people who made low budget Japanese monster movies. To his own astonishment, he landed himself a job with one of Japan's leading producers of man-in-a-rubber-dinosaur-costume giant monster movies.

Back in the early 80s, while still playing hardcore punk, Brad became involved in Zen Buddhism. The realistic, no bullshit philosophy reminded him of the attitude the punks took towards music. Once he got to Japan, he began studying the philosophy with an iconoclastic rebel Zen Master named Gudo Nishijima. After a few years, Nishijima decided to make Brad his successor as a teacher of Zen.

In 2003 he published his first book, "Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth About Reality." In 2007 he followed that up with "Sit Down and Shut Up," a punk-informed look at 13th century Zen Master Dogen. His third book is "Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate."

Reviews

[Jokoloyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is far more serious than the connotation from the cover illustration art. It is a good introduction if you want to read Shōbōgenzō, the masterpiece of Dōgen Zenji. This book provides the expertise of the author about the subject so if we read the Shōbōgenzō book itself, we already prepared as much as possible for understanding the context, or the variants of each translation of the book.

[Jonna Higgins-Freese · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like all of Warner's other work, this is wonderful. Direct, straightforward, funny, no-nonsense. While it's certainly clear enough to be used as an introduction to Zen (after all, beginner's mind is an important concept; sitting down for the millionth time is essentially the same experience as sitting down for the first), it's particularly useful for those who've been practicing for a while. In my experience, there are lots of guides to beginning meditation, but guides for those who've been doing it for a while quickly become so esoteric and divorced from the practice as to be less than useful. This book, as the title makes clear (Warner is *so good* at titles; they're at least ten percent of the delight of reading him), retains its clarity and relevance while diving deeper into the philosophy.

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those of us who have looked at the precepts of religions from around the world are often intrigued at how similar they can be across religions. There is something ultimately freeing in realizing that the roots of goodness, happiness, and wealth are not based, as is imagined by some unenlightened and unlucky sods, in what we can accumulate but in what we can utilize.

Some things about Buddhism are so attractive in their attention to simplicity that one cannot help but be drawn to understanding a little more. Warner does a wonderful job of sharing his realizations with us, in several steps. He paraphrases the first twenty-one chapters of Shōbōgenzō: The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, written by the Japanese monk Eihei Dōgen, who explains the philosophical basis for one of the largest and influential sects of Zen Buddhism. Warner tells us it’s a classic of philosophical literature, revered the world over, but that few have actually read it due to density, complexity of concepts, language and length.

Warner does not translate the work, but speaks in language common to modern Americans about how he comes to understand the work. In each chapter he gives us a sense of what the chapter header means, then paraphrases generally those pieces of the work that will aid our understanding of the precepts. Finally he gives us once again a few lines in colloquial English which aid absorption of the notions into our daily life.

I skimmed this work, and feel richer for it. Warmer tells us that one of the things about Dōgen’s writing that stumps modern readers is his use of contradictions. He’ll say one thing and a short while later will say an opposite thing. This is explained by Nishijima Roshi, a recognized acolyte of Dōgen, by understanding that Dōgen adopted four points of view when considering any particular subject: Idealism/subjectivism, materialism/objectivism, action, and realism. Depending on the lens one uses to look at something, the object will have a different appearance. Westerners generally are confined to two lenses: idealism/spiritualism and materialism.

One of the first chapters is entitled “How to Sit Down and Shut Up” which tries to explain the concept of zazen. One of the most important takeaways from this chapter is that the practice is as physical as it is mental, a process Dōgen calls “getting the body out.” Warner compares it to one yoga position held for a very long time. Zazen is not meditation or concentration but instead is ‘thinking not-thinking’ with your eyes and mind open, goal-less. Anyone can do this, “it doesn’t matter if you are smart or dumb.” Warner writes: “Since the entire book is ultimately about practicing zazen, you really need to know what he is talking about right from the outset or you’ll be lost later on.”

One of my favorite chapters is “Note to Self: There is No Self.” Warner talks about how we might have a notion of self kind of like a house with things in it. All the things in the house are what we believe, what we've learned and kept. One well-respected Buddhist practitioner, Shunryu Suzuki, who wrote Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, said you should have a general house cleaning of your mind when you study Buddhism. Warner tells us this tradition is like that of osoji, a once-a-year house cleaning during which everything is taken out of the house, cleaned, and considered. If it is not necessary, it does not go back into the house. The notion is terrifying, but if you allow yourself to contemplate it, completely freeing.

There is more. Much more. I like the chapter called “List of Rules.” In it Warner paraphrases the Dōgen

“People who have a will to the truth and who throw away fame and profit may enter the zazen hall. Don’t let insincere people in. If you let somebody in by mistake then, after consideration, kick them out. Nicely.”

The rest of the list of rules teach consideration and concern for one’s cohort. “Work on your behavior as if you were a fish in a stream that was drying out.” That sentence will require some contemplation.

In the chapter “Don’t be A Jerk,” we get the feel of the Netflix series Sense8 and perhaps even an explanation of it. Don’t-be-a-jerk is comparable to do-the-right-thing, which Warner tells us is the universe itself.

“When you yourself are in balance, you know right from wrong absolutely. The state of enlightenment is immense and includes everything…

When jerk-type actions are not done by someone, jerk-type actions do not exist. Even if you live in a place where you could act like a jerk, even if you face circumstances in which you could be a jerk, even if you hang out with nothing but a bunch of jerks, the power of not doing jerk-type things conquers all…

At every moment, no matter what we’re doing, we need to understand that not being a jerk is how someone becomes enlightened. This state has always belonged to us. Cause and effect make us act. By not being a jerk now, you create the cause of not being a jerk in the future. Our action is not predestined, nor does it spontaneously occur…

Doing the right thing isn’t something you can understand intellectually. It’s beyond that. Doing the right thing is beyond existence and nonexistence, beyond form and emptiness. It’s nothing other than doing-the-right-thing being done…

Wherever and whenever doing the right thing happens, it is, without exception, doing the right thing. The actual doing of the right thing is the universe itself. It doesn’t arise or cease. All individual examples of doing the right thing are like this.

When we are actually doing the right thing, the entire universe is involved in doing the right thing. The cause and effect of this right thing is the universe as the realization of doing the right thing.”

And so forth and so on. You just have to go with him on that one.

If you want to know more about the author, David Guy's review here is beautifully written and explains why Brad Warner is such an unusual interpreter of the Dōgen.

[David Guy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brad Warner is that rare thing, a Buddhist teacher who primarily teaches by writing. In fact—though he leads retreats and gives lectures, does podcasts and has even appeared in a movie or two—I would call him a writer first and a teacher second. He’s the author of six books, and writes the most consistently interesting of the Zen blogs. I’ve been reading him for years, ever since his first book came out, and check out his blog every day, just to see what’s up. I’ve read some posts multiple times.

I’ve said that his last book, There Is No God and He Is Always With You was his best, and it’s still my favorite, his most mature and wide-ranging. But I find Don’t Be a Jerk is his most useful book, the one most packed with information. Though he has written about the great Zen Master Eihei Dogen—founder of Japanese Soto Zen—in all his books, in this book he has waded into Dogen’s famously difficult writing itself, and actually made sense of it. I’m grateful for this book. My copy is seriously marked up, and I’ll be coming back to it.

I have to admit somewhat sheepishly that, though I’m a big reader (obviously), and deeply interested in Soto Zen, I’ve never made it through the entirety of Dogen’s Shobogenzo. I’ve tried. I’ve sat down with the two translations Brad most favors, dutifully labored to make my way through, but at some point was passing my eyes over words on the page, not understanding them at all, and I can only do that for so long. Brad admits to the same thing in his earliest reading. But his teacher, Gudo Nishijima, was translating that massive work at the time, with the help of another student, Chodo Cross, and Nishijima was reading from his translations at their weekly sittings.

Brad in the meantime had a long commute to work, an hour each way, and was pouring over Dogen as he did that. (Perhaps long subway rides are a key to understanding this text; another famous Zen teacher had an enlightenment experience while reading it on the subway). He has actually been through the entire Shobogenzo three times. He also speaks fluent Japanese, though I’m not sure how much that helps with Dogen’s arcane 13th century writing. What he has done in Don’t Be a Jerk is to paraphrase the first 21 fascicles—the first volume of Nishijima’s translation—and comment on the text. He shortens things—often drastically—when he finds that appropriate, occasionally combines two talks into one. He has produced a readable text that, to my mind, finally makes sense of some of Dogen’s most difficult writing. I feel empowered to go back and try the more literal translations again. His commentary is especially helpful.

I don’t doubt that this project will be frowned on and even ignored by some people in the Zen establishment. Brad takes liberties with the text—Dogen didn’t literally say Don’t Be a Jerk, and didn’t have a teaching entitled The Beer and Doritos Sutra—and his lighthearted view won’t appeal to the solemn people who inhabit zendos and take themselves (terribly) seriously. Brad has already alienated the old fogie crowd by writing titles like Sex, Sin, and Zen and Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate, and by admitting in the latter book that he had recently broken a number of precepts. He started out as a punk rocker and a punk in general, made his living for years with a company that made Japanese monster movies. He wrote about those pastimes in his first book, Hardcore Zen, and continues to write about them when he feels like it. He also wrote a column for some months for the online porn magazine Suicide Girls—those columns, accessible from his website, include some of his best writing—and one gets the impression that his following is heavily tattooed, body pierced, and spends more time perusing Suicide Girls than reading Dogen.

Nishijima was suspect to the establishment too. He spent most of his life as a businessman, sat on retreats with the famous “homeless” Zen priest Sawaki Kodo, but wasn’t actually ordained in that lineage (which includes the highly respected teachers Kosho Uchiyama and Shohaku Okumura). He became a priest later in life, and even while he was teaching those weekly Zen classes still had a day job. He wasn’t a lifelong priest like Sawaki and Uchiyama and Okumura. He had begun reading Dogen himself when he was a young man and discovered this book which, though it was written in his native language, seemed utterly incomprehensible. Nishijima was widely read in general, had various theories that seem somewhat crackpot; he felt, for instance, that Dogen’s famous phrase “dropping body and mind” refers to a state in which the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system are in balance.[1] He related his Zen teaching to work by such Western writers as Karl Menninger.

But you can hardly fault the man’s dedication to his practice or to Buddhism. While working a day job in Japan, he found time to lead a weekly Zen group and also to translate Dogen (while other Japanese priests were playing Go and following baseball in their spare time). In addition to Brad, he has a number of other students who are dedicated to him and to the teachings he espoused. (Just to mention the ones who are active on the web, there is Jundo Cohen, Gustave Ericsson, and Peter Rocca.) He was a fierce advocate of daily zazen, once a day if not twice, and practiced it all his life. He was a Zen teacher who devoted himself to lay people, not just those who entered a monastery and made a career out of it.

Brad Warner has followed in his teacher’s tradition. I am a certified Old Fart, have zero interest in punk rock and monster movies, but everything Brad says about Zen seems right on the money to me. His teachings have been a great help in my life, his writing has gotten deeper and more mature as he has gotten older, and he has the same dedication to his vocation that Nishijima had. Don’t Be a Jerk is his most helpful book to date, and though I suspect it may not be read as much as some of his other books—even in paraphrase, Dogen’s teachings are rough—it should be. This book is the real thing. It illustrates Brad’s contention that, though he seems to be an arcane thinker, Dogen is “a pretty straightforward, no-nonsense guy.”

I hope to write in the future on some specific teachings in this book. In the meantime, go out and buy it. It’s the most accessible book of Dogen’s teachings I’ve found.

[1] Crackpot idea or not, it makes sense to me. I do think zazen produces a balanced state, though we don’t always notice it.

www.davidguy.org

[Gabrielle (Reading Rampage) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve mentioned it before in reviews of books about Zen: the Shobogenzo intimidates me. It’s a huge book, I am not naturally inclined to trust translations all that much (especially when the original work was written in an archaic form of Japanese!), and it has a reputation for being very dense and hard to grasp because of the complicated abstract and often contradictory writing. So when I saw that my favorite Zen writer Brad Warner had published a book to make the Shobogenzo more accessible, I knew this was a necessary addition to my library.

After a few years of studying and practicing Buddhism, I often feel like the whole philosophy can be boiled down to a very simple sentence: try not to be a c*nt. Warner’s title is a little more politically correct (clearly, I’ve watched too much Jim Jefferies stand-up) but the idea is the same. Whatever situation you are in, watch how you behave and react, and try really, really hard not to be a jerk. And sit zazen, obviously. Now you can spend a lot of time discussing the hows and whys specific to each situation you might possibly encounter, but that’s the basic principle it always seems to come back to. I’m not trying to over-simply Buddhism, I’m just saying that’s kind of important to keep in mind when you want to apply the teachings to your daily life.

Warner’s irreverent and accessible style is as wonderful as always: he is blunt and no-nonsense, and this book might just be his most practical. He brings the teachings of Dogen into (both historical and translation) context, paraphrases them to make them easier to absorb, and comments on them with various anecdotes and pop culture references that will make you laugh, cringe and think. Because for all his bad dad-jokes and potty mouth, Warner knows his stuff. He has clearly studied the Shobogenzo in great depth and with a lot of reverence to be able to interpret it as clearly and as accessibly as he’s done.

I love that he takes time to discuss the history of the Shobogenzo, to put the reader into the context in which the chapters were written, and what kind of audience they were targeting. As he points out, most people interested in Zen today are fairly educated and tend to be older, as where the monks Dogen taught were in their late teens, from peasant families and had very little formal education. Obviously, you wouldn’t use the same pedagogical discourse with those two groups! The fact that Warner also often lists multiple possible translations for certain ideas and phrases is also fascinating and can really help the reader grasp the concepts more easily by giving the opportunity to examine multiple linguistic interpretations.

Fans of Warner’s previous work will get their money’s worth, but “Don’t be a Jerk” might not be the best place to get started if you have never read his stuff before. I recommend checking out “Hardcore Zen” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) and if you like that one, you will love this one too! It's more serious and scholarly, but his voice and style are very clear and strong. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the work of Dogen and not quite ready to get into the big book. I will certainly be re-reading this one, as well as Warner's second tome on the Shobogenzo.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been fascinated with Buddhism since I was a child, and I'm very interested in different religion and sects, so I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to actually read up on buddhism (maybe I didn't want to spoil my positive feelings). A lot of the intro books are either, to me, very practical and more like a self help booklet or very dense and confusing. There have been a few I've liked but overall it always feels like I'm scratching the surface.

This book here has a different approach. It's the attempt to summerize and explain (the first half) of Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō, an important and massive collection of works from a 13th century Japanese Buddhist monk that would have definitely fallen into the category of "dense and confusing" had I attempted to read it myself at this stage. Even this way I found some chapters more confusing then others but I feel like i got a good overview of the content. I felt Warner wrote with respect and a serious attempt to summerize well, but sometimes the very "edgy" style irritated me a little bit. I wasn't offended, it just felt super dated. This was published in 2016 but has a lot of "early 2000 teen slang" vibes. Well, if that doesn't deter you and you're interested in the Shōbōgenzō, I'd recommend this book.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll admit that I'm a fan of Warner's work. I discovered him via his first book, Hardcore Zen, many years ago, and have been hooked ever since. For as long as I can remember, I've had a layman's interest in Zen. Some years it's stronger than others, and I've never actually tried meditation or anything, but it's a philosophy I keep circling around. Brad Warner writes some of the best books on Zen around. He has a straightforward, no bullshit approach that I find refreshing and endlessly readable. This book is, honestly, probably my least favorite of the five of his that I've read, which means it's still pretty darn good. What he's doing here is translating, paraphrasing, and condensing Dogen's Shobogenzo, an 800 year old Zen classic. This is actually the first of two projected volumes, which, considering the original usually runs to four, is pretty good. Each chapter consists of an introduction, a translated/condensed passage, and then commentary on the translation, what got left out, what some of the other English translations say, and so on. Warner himself admits that Dogen can be hard to read, which is one of the reasons he took on this project. He wanted to present, as best he could, the essence of Dogen's ideas, while leaving out as much obfuscatory prose as possible. I'm hardly an expert, but he seems to have done a pretty good job. If you've never read Warner before, I recommend starting with Hardcore Zen instead. If you don't like that one, you're probably not going to like any of his other books either. If you do like it, though, then you're going to want to read all of his books, including this one.

[Malum · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting break-down of some of Dogen's writings. The book gets bogged down, however, in Warner's endless discussion of "this translation says this and that translation says that". I would have rather he just give us what he thinks it means and getting on with it.

[Terry Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book. This book is a simplified explanation of Shobogenzo (Shobogenzo, which is like the Zen equivalent of a bible, written by Dogen who initially brought Zen buddhism to Japan). The author Brad Warner seems like a really cool, chilled guy who is hardcore serious about Zen Buddhism. He writes in a very casual, humorous way but still brings out the deep philosophies contained in Shobogenzo. He makes something really hard and complicated fun to read with references like Starwars, World of Warcraft and Porn (!?)...

Some really great lessons for life in this book, such as: importance of meditation, not being a jerk to people and equality in a fair way. Dogen expresses Zen with texts that contain topics: How to clean your ass after pooping and maintaining your Buddhist robe and the significance. Some parts were really hard to understand, not because of the authors writing but I have a long ways to go before I can understand Zen buddhism and Dogen's words.

All in all, if your interested in Zen, it is a good book to read.

[William Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was quite entertaining. From what I understand, Japanese is difficult to translate fully into English with all of the nuances it contains. Now imagine that the Japanese being translated is about 800 years old and even native speakers have trouble with it. Considering this, I feel that Brad Warner did a very good job of getting the point across.

The book is arranged as follows. Each chapter starts out with Warner talking a bit about the piece he is about to paraphrase. This is followed by the paraphrased text itself. Finally, it has some thoughts and input from Brad Warner himself. This book only has the first 25 chapters of the work being paraphrased, but this is explained by the author.

The work itself was written back in the 1200s in Japan by Dogen. Since he dealt with a lot of rubes and hicks, he had to include stuff that seems a bit odd nowadays. Dogen included chapters on hygiene and how to wear your robes and where to get robes and other such things. A lot of the other stuff he includes is pretty good, though.

[Blade Mullins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look. I subscribe to one of the many schools of Tibetan Buddhism but i enjoy learning and understanding all forms and when I was just learning about Buddhism as a whole One of the first authors I found was Brad Warner. After I read Letters to a Dead Friend About Zen I jumped right to this book. I had no clue who Dogan was but I wanted to learn and the Shobogenzo is way to dense for my blood so I decided to just take Warners Paraphrasing and modernization of Dogen’s teaching and I loved it! Warner comes at this with humor but the humor doesn’t take away at all what the teaching is it merely softens the monotony that is learning philosophy. Im taking a break but as soon as I’m ready to jump back in I am going to read the sequel to this.
You don’t even have to be into zen or Buddhism to like this book if you are a fan of philosophy this book is a must have.

[Jonn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read all of Brad's books except Sex, Sin and Zen, and Hardcore Zen was what got me into Zen practice in the first place. This is his best yet. It combines the more mature tone of his last book There Is No God with the humour of his earlier books in just the right combo, resulting in an excellent modern interpretations of key chapters and messages in Dogen's Shobogenzo for a contemporary audience.

[Mark A Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great edgy explanation and commentary on Dogen

Don't read this for the definitive academic analysis. This is a practitioner's commentary, making Driven relevant to your practice and today. I personally would also have liked some serious analysis...for example, on how to understand Dozens use of Chinese...how he compares to sino Zen writers, etc. But that's not the purpose of this book. And he is funny!

[Chris V. · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the author of "Hardcore Zen", punk rock bassist/zen priest, Brad Warner lays down the teachings of zen master Dogen (founder of the Soto school). Warner's sarcastic sense of humor and frequent use of curse words makes him a rather unique writer in the subject of Buddhism and a funny one at that.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If you define yourself as deluded or imperfect and imagine a state that is perfect and undeluded, you can make an effort to transform this state into that one. But in doing so, you'd miss out on the perfect this-ness of this real state. What we're working on in Zen practice is to notice clearly our own actual condition. In doing so, we subtly transform it. And yet we don't transform anything. As I said, it's impossible to express it without being contradictory. The great perfection we seek is already here. Yet we need to work on it anyway." -- Brad Warner (1964- CE)

This is one of the richest passages in Brad Warner's translation, he calls it a paraphrasing, and commentary of Dōgen's great work, the Shōbōgenzō (The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye). Once you've made it as far as this passage in Warner's book, the paragraph exudes great clarity.

Being very close in age to Warner, he speaks my language (not quite as archaic as Dōgen's). Did Dōgen actually use the disparaging terms doofus, dumbhead, dopes, and dim-witted weenies?

"Even if the whole universe is nothing but a bunch of jerks doing all kinds of jerk-type things, there is still liberation in simply not being a jerk." -- Eihei Dōgen (1200-1253 CE)

Chapter 1, Dōgen's Zen FAQ is a treasure in itself but there is so much more besides the chapter that gives the book its title, Don't Be a Jerk. Of note for all Buddhists, before you get to the more enigmatic parts, Warner presents excellent chapters on the highly controversial topics of reincarnation and feminism.

Even though heads may spin after reading Twirly Flowers Twirl Twirly Flowers, it's best to keep in mind one of the main points of Dōgen's teaching, the practice of zazen (upright sitting meditation) is the authentic form of practice to experience what every Buddhist ancestor has practiced.

After reading the demystifying chapter on zazen, called How to Sit Down and Shut Up, one may begin to investigate why Dōgen says, "The experience of zazen is eternal. It's the same for everyone. We touch the deepest experience of all human beings throughout history when we allow ourselves to be truly quiet." and "If we practice long enough the treasure house will open naturally and we'll be able to use its contents as we like."

[Stan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best summary/translation/elucidation of Dogen that I have ever read. Dogen's Shobogenzo has a well earned reputation for being inpenetrable, but with Brad Warner's guidance, it is possible to get a lot from it.
I started reading this several months ago, and for some reason put it down. But recently, I reviewed what I had already read and pretty much gorged myself on the rest of it.
While he appears (and is) very irreverent and playful to a point of silliness, his credentials to write such a book are clear. he knows his stuff, researched his ass off, and seems to know Japanese well too. There is a method in his madness.
"don't be a jerk" is actually his translation of the most famous summary of Buddhism existent in the Theravada tradition, a four line poem that usually has a very "high church" sounding translation, but in Warner's "don't be a jerk...", he really nails it, while keeping the reader in stitches. While I am nominally an adherent of a different tradition, I am quite convinced that Zazen, specifically shikantaza, is THE meditation of Gautama the Buddha, and an unparalleled way to know oneself better. For anyone interested in this subject, and preferably with a bit of experience, this book is a great help.

[William Berry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this an excellent book. Perhaps it's because much of what Brad Warner wrote I agree with, or believe, or have picked up in other books about Zen. Perhaps some of my fondness for the book comes from his shattering of the Zen Master image (though he would never call himself such…but the back-cover of the next of his books I will read does… Zen koan or publisher choice?). He takes what is reputed as a tough sacred text (Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō) cuts through some of the nonessentials, and presents it in modern language. This makes for a more entertaining (and sometimes awakening) read.

Much of what Warner interprets from Dōgen is what I write (Think Buddha, Be Buddha, You’re Already Enlightened) so the ideas are obviously familiar to me. He works through some much tougher material, often offers others interpretations of vague or ambiguous lines from Dōgen, and gets to the spirit of Zen teaching. I highly recommend the book (or the one I read years ago, “Hardcore Zen”) enthusiastically.

[Caroline Mars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brad Warner has an extremely down-to-earth manner, and manages at once, to be no nonsense and kind of goofy. His books are probably the best introduction to Zen Buddhism for a Westerner. His history as a punk bassist and his work with Tsuburaya Productions (Ultraman) in Japan are entertaining, and make him relatable.

In Don't Be A Jerk, he makes a valiant effort at deciphering Dogen's seminal text, Shobogenzo. Although some of Shobogenzo remains opaque for me, I don't think this is any fault of Warner's. Rather, I blame the sometimes overly paradoxical nature of the text itself. Overall, this book was a welcome and valuable insight into the world of Japanese Zen.

[Zack Becker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brad Warner does what I take for a terrific job of presenting a first volume of Dogen's Shobogenzo in a plain language, modern translation along with no-nonsense commentary. While some might take Warner to be irreverent at times, I find reverence in the fact that he undertook to bring the Shobogenzo to modern readers such as myself who are just barely able to access it even in English. Warner provides a lot of contextualization of his translation by citing frequently to the four major traditional/scholarly translations.

[Tim Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a Brad Warner fan and have read all of this books. I'm also a Dogen fan and have read much, but not all of Shobogenzo. I'm sort of slogging through the Tanahashi translation now and have tried to get through Vol 1 of the Nishijima version too, they aren't easy reads. Warner's version was much easier, put in more modern language with commentary that is humorous, timely and explains things much better than the other books. Hope he keeps going and puts more of Dogen into modern English along with more poop jokes.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few books I want to read again

It's easy to get new-agey when writing this sort of book. The ones that don't tend to require a considerable amount of background to comprehend. Mr. Brad's sense of humor and understanding of the essence of Dogen and Buddha come through clearly. I found myself highlighting and taking notes throughout the book. This book can help you be a Buddha even if you're starting as an ordinary person in American society in the 21st century. It's fresh and accessible. I'm really happy to have encountered it.

[B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favorite of his books so far-maybe this can be attributed to his source material ,Shobogenzo, which he freely admits is a bit of a slog because Dogen gets into nitty gritty stuff like toilet habits, how to dress, etc

Warner does what he always does well-he brings a smartass, , punk rock, American flavor to the Buddhist traditions and I mean that in a good way. I really like warner and love listening to him narrate his own books-he has a wonderful sense of humor and self deprecating style that anyone would enjoy, I just believe the material was kinda boring.

[Rachelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for someone like me: you're not new to Soto Zen and heard of/read of Dogen, but don't know where to start with his writings or are interested by not enough to read his collected works. This is a great introduction to Dogen's works, funny but very smart and well researched, to get a taste and small understand of this renowned Zen master.

[Ed Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this translation and paraphrasing of Dogen. I've always been curious about his dense philosophies, but have found it very hard to consume them. Warner does a great job of unwinding all the complexities in an entertaining and loose way.
Recommended

[Aaron Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a difficult book, which is only to be expected when dealing with the very nature of reality and our experience of life. Warner's approach to the material makes it about as comprehensible as possible but I see myself returning to this book again and again in the future.

[Coe Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent dive into the great master Dogen.

[Ross Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warner might be my favorite writer on Zen. He's clever, contrarian, and thoughtful.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific introduction to Dogen's version of Zen! It was easy to understand and I appreciated the author's very "down to earth" writing style.

[Noma Bruton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a wonderful modern interpretation of Buddhist philosophy; strictly for nerds though.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good. Needs more study.