Zen Wrapped In Karma Dipped In Chocolate: A Trip Through Death, Sex, Divorce, And Spiritual Celebrity In Search Of The True Dharma (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
Brad's specialty is providing a very real perspective on Zen Buddhism, a topic often covered from a spiritual or philosophical point of view. Zen Wrapped In Karma asks (and answers) a lot of questions that his first two books don't. Brad walks us through an immensely shitty year and explains how his zen practice influenced how he coped with death, a failing marriage and job loss while still providing insight on many core Zen concepts.Minus a star ONLY because his excessive, mostly unnecessary use of footnotes is a little annoying. "As for enlightenment, that's just for people who can't face reality."In his previous 2 books, Brad Warner combined Soto Zen Buddhist teachings with sometimes only vaguely relevant biographical anecdotes. Zen Wrapped In Karma is more of a straight biography, illustrating that Zazen is a philosophy of action by showing the effect it has had on his life. It covers how meditation helped him cope with the death of two family members, divorce & dealing with the expectations people have of a well-known Zen teacher.In this book, there is no seperation between Buddhist theory & Brad's life - this illustrates how everyday life IS the practice, rather than the practice being esoteric theory written by a 13th century monk who didn't get out very much. Because the situations Brad outlines are particular to him (we all deal with the death of relatives at some point but each do so under our own unique circumstances) it isn't just saying 'be like Brad' but instead demonstrating that wherever life takes us, meditation will help us through the bad times.Brad Warner is very much the marmite of Zen writers - people tend to either love his stuff or knock everything he does. How you feel about Brad will very much affect your reaction to this book. For instance, he illustrates the point that 'zen masters' are merely human & not pure superbeings who levitate during meditation by outlining the circumstances under which he slept with one of his students. He does this fully knowing that certain people will use this information as a weapon to discredit him, while other readers (eg. me) will appreciate the tragedy of Soto Zen organisations being as riddled with gossip, back-biting & power struggles as any other. This point is a crucial one - Buddhism is about accepting whatever we confront with equanimity, not blindly conforming to a dogma laid down by someone from an entirely different culture.I have read both of Brad's previous books & while I enjoyed this one as well, I felt that if I hadn't read the others first, I wouldn't have warmed to the narrator as much & wouldn't have been able to relate to it at all. For this reason, I would recommend people who haven't read his stuff before to start of with either 'Hardcore Zen' or 'Sit Down & Shut Up'. I'd also recommend them because while 'Zen Wrapped' is a page-turner which makes it point well (meditation helps you through the bad times, treat others with respect but don't worry about pleasing everyone) because it only has a few points to make, I'm less likely to take take it back off the shelf than his other two.
What do You think about Zen Wrapped In Karma Dipped In Chocolate: A Trip Through Death, Sex, Divorce, And Spiritual Celebrity In Search Of The True Dharma (2009)?
Disappointing self-absorbed treatise, but two stars for the enticing title.
—vali
A fun read about applying zen principles to real life messes.
—Iceo
