A group sits on zafus facing the wall, silence settles within the room. A copper bell is struck three times with a wooden mallet to mark the beginning of the first of two seated sets of zazen.
Zazen is the silent sitting meditation practice that is the practical application of Zen Buddhist philosophy. Zen monk Brad Warner teaches a weekly zazen practice at the Hill Street Center in Santa Monica and within the center’s quiet environs, Brad also facilitates monthly one-day zazen retreats. On his blog he announces, “Prepare to be bored.” Warner describes his retreats with a wry smile, commenting that people don’t come for the practice, but for the lunches his wife Yuka prepares.
Students feel otherwise; on a Saturday morning, people trickle in, arrange their zafu and prepare to be bored. Brad greets the group of regulars; they’re young and clad in jeans and t-shirts.
People latch onto the over-
intellectualized view of Zen or see it as spiritual and mystical,” says Warner. “Zazen is an ordinary thing you do everyday.
Warner the monk is mild-mannered and surprisingly ordinary-looking for someone with his resume. He is slender, with shaggy hair and glasses, a musician who’s been a bassist in hardcore punk bands, films documentaries, writes a Buddhist blog for the Suicide Girls website, penned two books titled Hardcore Zen and Sit Down and Shut Up and currently works for Tsuburaya Productions. Tsuburaya is the Japanese film company known for creating Godzilla and Ultraman, Japanese superhero and Asian phenomenon. Warner unlaces black boots to step foot in the meditation room, commenting that while living in Japan, he had to change his footwear from Doc Martens to something easier to slip on and off to enter houses and temples.
In his teaching and prolific writing of books and blogs, Warner emphasizes the ordinariness of Zen philosophy and practice. “People latch onto the over-intellectualized view of Zen or see it as spiritual and mystical,” he says. “Zazen is an ordinary thing you do every day.”
Warner’s own introduction to Zen was also ordinary, in a classroom at Kent State University in Ohio. Not looking to become a monk, or a master, Warner was a punk rock musician doing what many college students do, looking for classes that fit into their schedules. He signed up for Zen Buddhism. On the first day the teacher lectured on the Heart Sutra. Warner said it rocked his world and was struck by the line “That which is form is emptiness; that which is emptiness is form.”
In Zen, it is the sitting, the practice, from which understanding of such concepts emerges. “Zazen…is action reduced to its barest essentials, the action of simply sitting there and paying attention,” Warner says in Sit Down and Shut Up. Zazen is sitting in emptiness and that is not always fun. Warner struggled with the practice at first, and even now, there are days when folding his legs and hands into position comes only with effort. Part of his effectiveness as a teacher is that he is conversant with the struggles on the path.
Buddhism is a philosophy about just doing things bit by bit until the work is done.
In 1991, Zen led him to Japan where he lived for 11 years. While there, he pursued his dream job, fueled by a lifelong interest in Japanese films, Godzilla movies and Ultraman. Warner wrote a letter to Noboru Tsuburaya, the chairman of Tsuburaya Productions, the company producing Warner’s hero Ultraman. Warner insisted he was the man help realize Tsuburaya’s stated dreams of “making Ultraman fly over America.” Tsuburaya himself called Warner for an interview; Warner was outfitted for an Ultraman costume and works for the company today.
While in Tokyo with Ultraman, Warner sought out Zen lectures in English, which were taught by Gudo Wafu Nishijima of the Soto Sect. Initially, Warner was put off by what he saw as his teacher’s arrogance but later came to respect and revere him, becoming ordained as a monk by Nishijima.
Although Warner is a monk, he’s a monk with a day job, who emphasizes the relevance of zazen practice to everyday life by enhancing the ability to pay attention and calm the mind, on or off the zafu. While engaging in zazen may seem overwhelming at first, Warner states: “Buddhism is a philosophy about just doing things bit by bit until the work is done.”
Brad Warner (hardcorezen.blogspot.com), Zen monk and the author of Hardcore Zen and Sit Down and Shut Up leads a zazen practice Saturday mornings at the Hill Street Center in Santa Monica (hillstreet.org).
Photo: Adam Latham, angeladam.com
