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Don't Be a Jerk

And Other Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan's Greatest Zen Master

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Don't Be a Jerk

Written by: Brad Warner
Narrated by: Brad Warner
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About this listen

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 800-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. In Don't Be a Jerk, Zen priest and best-selling 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 listeners worried that Dogen's teachings are too philosophically opaque, Don't Be a Jerk is hilarious, understandable, and wise.

©2016 Brad Warner (P)2016 Brad Warner Buddhism Meditation Philosophy Popular Culture Social Sciences Spirituality China
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Was entertaining and fascating, but you need to read the shobogenzo. I don't agree with him regarding quite a few of his interpretations and only after starting the shobogenzo can I get an appreciation of the depth in dogans masterpiece. Its not for me to criticise someone who has done the training and the research, but I just thought a few of his conclusions were drawn rather thinly.

Awesome

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Teaches you not to have a foul mouth but the author has one. Very disapointed

Contradictions

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Why a gay white man thought it was necessary to interpret Dogen's work through his personal lens in beyond me. The book condescendingly sanitizes Dogen's teachings for a western audience, as if the original texts are too mystical and impenetrable for the average non-Asian person to understand. The author also positions himself as the necessary vehicle to communicate Dogen's message, and in doing so shamelessly appropriates Dogen's material as if it were his own while removing the material from its cultural ground. The author also intersperses terrible jokes throughout his narrative that would probably get booed at a comedy open mic for beginners. Terrible book that should never have been written.

Terrible Western Interpretation of Dogen's Work

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