Hmm.

Alright, so I was listening to the NPR station out of D.C. and I ran across a show called interfaith voices. This is an awesome show. It's not all sitting around and having diluted discussions about one person's religious beliefs. This is really interesting stuff. You can learn more about the show and listen to today's show if you go Here.

For me, personaly, this was a very interesting introduction to this program. Not because of the main points of the show but, rather, because of the guy that they interviewed in the very last segment. His name is Brad Warner. He spoke to Interfaith voices about one of his books called Sit Down and Shut Up (which I haven't read) and his other book Hardcore Zen (which I have read). He has an interesting way of talking about Buddhism. I guess it would be very near accurate to say that he came into Buddhism through being a punk rocker, so there's a P.O.V. that you wouldn't typically here from someone who practices Buddhism.

I loved Hardcore Zen. It gave me a link to Buddhism that I couldn't seem to gain before. It came from someone that I shared a cultural background with and that made a big difference in the way the material was presented to me, a difference that made it seem a lot less daunting and bookish. His writing was able to turn Buddhism into something recognizable for me.

During my brief stint in Virginia, the woan that I was living with was taking a class on Buddhism in college and Hardcore Zen was one of the required texts for the course. My theory on reading is that if there is a book near me I will red it. And so it came to pass that I read this book.

Being with this person while they were in this class was a very interesting thing. I was learning a lot just through helping her study for the tests and discussing her class periods with her. It was wonderful. During one of these discussion she passed along a joke that they had been told during class. It is an attempt (and I pretty good one it seems, with as little as I know about it) to sum up the philosophy behind Zen Buddhism. The joke went like this.

Now, like I said, I know very little about Zen Buddhism as compared to some but from what I learned, vicariously through living with a person who was studying it at the time, it's dead on.

What I heard is that Buddhism is something you do. The entire philosophy behind it is based on action. Antoher important aspect, and what this joke portrays, is that Zen Buddhism isn't about the outcome of a situation, it's about the situation itself. Pretty nifty. I like this philosophy.

Ok, now I don't really have anything left to write so humor me, go read the book.