There is no god and he is always with you : a search for God in odd places

177 Pages·2013·1.16 MB·English

by  Warner

ALSO BY BRAD WARNER
Hardcore Zen
Sex, Sin, and Zen
Sit Down and Shut Up
Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate

Copyright © 2013 by Brad Warner
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or
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Text design by Tona Pearce Myers Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
First printing, June 2013
ISBN 978-1-60868-183-9
Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper
New World Library is proud to be a Gold Certified Environmentally Responsible Publisher.
Publisher certification awarded by Green Press Initiative. www.greenpressinitiative.org
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CONTENTS
Introduction: The Supreme Truth
1. Death in the Holy City
2. There Is No God
3. …And He Is Always with You
4. Seeing God the Quick, Easy, and Effective Way!
5. My Meeting with God, or Enlightenment Porn
6. Talking to Zen Monks about God
7. Why Call It Buddhism?
8. Meditation Is the Practice of Death
9. The Meaning of Life
10. In Which I Discover the True Meaning of Faith by Going to Finland
11. Is Buddha God?
12. Sam Harris Believes in God
13. Morality and Karma
14. Does God Work Miracles in Brooklyn?
15. God Doesn’t Have to Be Real to Exist
16. Suicide at a Zen Monastery
17. A Buddhist Christmas in Mexico
18. God Holds His Own Hand
19. Northern Ireland and the Buddhist Concept of God
20. Hotline to Heaven
21. What God Wants from You
22. God Is Silence
About the Author
INTRODUCTION
THE SUPREME TRUTH
The word God means different things to different people. I wrote this book to
explain what God means to me. A lot of people expect that as a Zen
Buddhist monk and teacher, I must not believe in God. They’ve read that
Buddhism is a godless religion. And some folks are frightened by this idea. But
many, especially the people I meet in my capacity as a Buddhist teacher, are
elated by it. They love the idea that they can have a religion without a God.
But in my opinion it’s entirely wrong to say that Buddhism is a religion
without a God. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. To me Buddhism is a way to
approach and understand God without dealing with religion.
Right here, at the very beginning of this book, I want to be clear about my
position. Alan Watts, author of a number of books about Zen, once said in a
lecture,
I am not a Zen Buddhist; I’m not advocating Zen Buddhism; I’m not
trying to convert anyone to it. I have nothing to sell: I’m an entertainer.
That is to say in the same sense that when you go to a concert, and you
listen to someone play Mozart, he has nothing to sell except the sound of
the music. He doesn’t want to convert you to anything, he doesn’t want
you to join an organization in favor of Mozart’s music as opposed to, say,
Beethoven’s. And I approach you in the same spirit: as a musician with
his piano or violinist with his violin, I just want you to enjoy a point of
view which I enjoy.
This is pretty much how I feel. Only I did something that Alan Watts was
clever enough not to do. I got ordained a Zen Buddhist monk. What can I say? It
seemed like a good idea at the time. And the system needs someone on the inside
to irritate it a little bit.
I couldn’t care less if you decide to become a Zen Buddhist as a result of
reading this book. In fact, I hope you don’t. That being said, though, the
philosophy and practice associated with Zen Buddhism have been tremendously
useful to me; otherwise I’d never have become a monk. I think it might be useful
to you too.
But categorizing oneself as a “Zen Buddhist” is absolutely contrary to the
spirit of Zen Buddhism. And the organizations claiming to uphold the spirit of
Zen Buddhism can be just as silly, hypocritical, and corrupt as any religious
institution. Still, unlike Alan, I feel I have little choice but to call myself a Zen
Buddhist. I’ll address this topic in detail later. But for now I want to concentrate
on why I, as a Zen Buddhist, believe in God.
By the way, in this book I will occasionally use the words Zen and Buddhism
somewhat interchangeably. This drives some people bananas. Zen Buddhists
often quite arrogantly insist that theirs is the only real kind of Buddhism, while
Buddhists of other types just as often insist that it’s not. But Zen is just the
Japanese pronunciation of the Sanskrit word dhyana, which means “meditation.”
So to me Zen Buddhism means Buddhism that involves meditation. Since
meditation is the main thing that the historical Buddha taught, I think it’s fair to
say that anything that calls itself Buddhism and doesn’t involve some kind of
meditation may not really be Buddhism. So in using the phrase Zen Buddhism
I’m referring not necessarily to that particular sect and lineage labeled by
historians as Zen Buddhism but to all forms of Buddhism that focus on
meditation practice, or zazen.
There are many possible answers to the question of whether it’s possible to
be a Buddhist — Zen or otherwise — and also believe in God. One answer could
be that it depends on what you mean by God. Another could be that it depends
on what you mean by Buddhist. A third could be that it depends on what you
mean by believe. When framing such questions we often take for granted that all
parties use the same definitions of the words we choose. But that’s not always
the case.
I was not raised in a religious family. Oh, I suppose we were nominally
Protestant. My dad has a photo that shows me with a group of kids at a local
Sunday school. But I couldn’t have attended very often since I have no memory
of ever having gone at all. I first started getting interested in God when I was