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Your role is to do and say the things that need to be done and said from your unique perspective.

Brad Warner

The state of ambiguity – that messy, greasy, mixed-up, confused, and awful situation you’re living through right now – is enlightenment itself.
BRAD WARNER

Awful Confused Enlightenment
I really thought Reagan was going to push the button and blow us all up. It was scary. So when they did the 1998 American Godzilla film, Hollywood didn’t understand what Godzilla was.
BRAD WARNER

Blow Buttons Scary
Truly compassionate action arises spontaneously without thought and is carried out in real action with no anticipation of reward and, indeed, no concept of a doer of that action.
BRAD WARNER

Doers Real Rewards
Suffering occurs when your ideas about how things ought to be don’t match how they really are.
BRAD WARNER

Ideas Ought Suffering
Just know that your expectations are only thoughts in your head, and keep on doing what you do.
BRAD WARNER

Expectations Head Knows Thoughts
I mean, I can do that all day long. I can tell you the Vulcan’s are not actually devoid of emotion. That they work hard to suppress their emotions. And of course, there actually are no real Vulcan’s, though I know the ins and outs of them as fictional characters.
BRAD WARNER

Character Mean Real
Faith keeps you going, but doubt keeps you from going off the deep end.
BRAD WARNER

Doubt Ends Faith Keps
You can always improve your situation. But you do so by facing it, not by running away.
BRAD WARNER

Always Away Running Situation
Much of the hatred and fear of sexuality found in religions stems from the idea that sex is a thing of the body and that the body must be denied so that the spirit may be elevated. In Buddhism there is no notion that the body is made of inferior matter while the spirit flies free within.
BRAD WARNER

Buddhism Ideas Sex
How many Zen masters does it take to screw in a light bulb? The plum tree in the garden!
BRAD WARNER

Garden Light Tree
I remember writing the post but not what I said specifically, so I’ll either repeat myself or say something completely different and baffle everybody.
BRAD WARNER

Different Remember Writing
The trick to not thinking is not adding energy to the equation in an effort to forcibly stop thinking from happening. It’s more a matter of subtracting energy from the equation in order not to barf the thoughts up and start chewing them over again.
BRAD WARNER

Effort Order Thinking
Reality’s all you’ve got. But here’s the real secret, the real miracle: it’s enough.
BRAD WARNER

Miracle Real Secret
You won’t understand life and death until you’re ready to set aside any hope of understanding life and death and just live your life until you die.
BRAD WARNER

Death Life Live Understanding
What attracted me to Zen was my first teacher, Tim McCarthy. He was extremely genuine. It wasn’t even really a Zen thing, that sort of came along later.
BRAD WARNER

Firsts Genuine Teacher
The real goal of Zen is to find a way of life that’s easy and undramatic. Strong attachments lead to upset and drama.
BRAD WARNER

Drama Real Strong
I was very attracted to the way that Zen did not go into the imagination land. And now I’ve forgotten what your first question was and how we were going to tie this together.
BRAD WARNER

Imagination Land Ties
As for enlightenment, that’s just for people who can’t face reality.
BRAD WARNER

Enlightenment People Reality
Leaving home’ to me means adopting the attitude that the pursuit of the truth is more vital than the pursuit of what society – your home – tells you is important.
BRAD WARNER

Attitude Mean Truth
A lot of seriously insane people have managed to acquire huge followings based on the idea that their insanity is a kind of enlightenment. An obvious example would be Charles Manson or Shoko Asahara who is the person responsible for the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway.
BRAD WARNER

Ideas Insanity People
I mean Godzilla is eternally pissed off at everything but of course he’s gonna be because every time he pops out of the water for a look around somebody is firing a missile at him. Buddha would probably have to act as a mediator between the people and Godzilla.
BRAD WARNER

Mean People Water
So he [Shoko Asahara] was insane but managed to convince a couple thousand people that he was enlightened. Western culture, which Japan is now definitely a part of, doesn’t have an understanding of what Enlightenment is.
BRAD WARNER

Country Couple People World
We always imagine that there’s got to be somewhere else better than where we are right now; this is the Great Somewhere Else we all carry around in our heads.
BRAD WARNER

Believe Choices Else Somewhere
The thinking brain influences the body’s responses and it makes a neat little loop.
BRAD WARNER

Body Brain Thinking
So I was first exposed to this guy Tim McCarthy, and he’s talking about Zen, but deeper than that he was a genuine person. I thought maybe he’s someone I can trust and follow this thing he’s talking about all the time.
BRAD WARNER

Genuine Guy Person Talking
Your role is to do and say the things that need to be done and said from your unique perspective.
BRAD WARNER

Needs Perspective Unique
Do what you do as well as you possibly can. That’s Buddhist morality.
BRAD WARNER

Buddhist Morality Wells

Your role is to do and say the things that need to be done and said from your unique perspective.

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Your role is to do and say the things that need to be done and said from your unique perspective.

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