Brad Warner @BradWarner Twitter profile

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Brad Warner

2 years

On rare occasions I express an opinion here. These are for entertainment only. I do not suggest you adopt my opinions. In fact I caution against it.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

8 years

There are no benefits of Zen and this is one of them.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

Zen is interested in ordinary life, normal things, in experiences that most ppl ignore, like sitting and looking at a blank wall. We examine the mysteries of the universe by looking at non-mysterious things. We discover that ordinary things are actually very mysterious.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

I love you all and wish you well.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

I'm going to open a Zen retreat center in Ojai, California. I don't know how. But I'm going to.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

7 months

@AlastairMcA30 He was right. You are wrong. Very very very wrong.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

2 months

Don’t listen to “Buddhists” like @jhalifax who tell you that Buddhists only vote for certain approved candidates. They have no idea what they’re talking about.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

Life got easier when I realized that not only does no one else care about my opinions about important events, I don’t even care about my opinions about important events.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

3 years

My lovely wife graduated with her Masters Degree today in Frisco, TX. Congratulations!

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

1 month

A zillion people shout about politics every minute of every day. Yet very few talk about the Buddha Way. When those few who should be talking about the Buddha Way throw away that opportunity and join the noisy chorus of those who shout about politics, it’s a damned shame.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

2 months

Famous Christians telling you to vote Republican and famous Buddhists telling you to vote Democrat are exactly the same. They betray Christianity and betray Buddhism.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

3 years

Zazen is safe and effective.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

2 months

American Buddhism may be a lost cause. But I’ll keep fighting anyway. I’m used to losing.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

Ziggy and I do zazen together.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

I don't have very much control over large global happenings. So I just try to do my little bit as well as I can. Shunryu Suzuki called that "shining one corner" of the world, as opposed to trying to fix everything.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

I think Buddhists ought to treat Buddhist philosophy as a theoretical structure rather than a belief system. Most physicists accept much of Einstein's theories about physics. But they understand that these should never become matters of belief. They are working hypotheses.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

Just sit zazen every day. You won't notice any dramatic changes -- probably. OK. Maybe one day you might. But gradual transformation is the only kind of transformation that ever lasts.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

8 years

The KKK took my country away.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

3 years

Sometimes my dog tries to understand what I’m doing or saying. He stares at me intently, tilting his head back & forth. He really wants to figure it out. But he can’t. Because he’s a dog. That’s what humans are like when we try to figure out the ultimate truth intellectually.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

2 months

@jhalifax Why would your being a Buddhist let us know who you are voting for? This is utter nonsense. You should be deeply ashamed. This garbage has nothing to do with Buddhism. You have no clue what Buddhism is.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

2 months

It’s been kind of depressing watching nearly the entire American Zen community become enthusiastic enforcers of the will of governments and corporations.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

To those of you who are behaving like sane human beings, thank you. I appreciate your efforts. The rest of you can bite me.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 months

I've been teaching Buddhism for over 20 years now and not a single person has listened to a word I've said. Ah well. It's kept me off the streets, I suppose.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

My 4 yr old nephew came to me crying & said, “Uncle Brad, ppl who make spurious claims that Dogen taught literal rebirth completely misconstrue the epistemological foundations of his philosophy.”

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

First, learn not to worry about things you can’t do anything about. Second, learn that there’s nothing you can do anything about.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

I rarely look at Twitter. It always makes me sad. But I looked at some of my notifications today & some people said nice things. Thank you!

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

You can’t be anything you want to be. You can’t have it all. It’s important to learn to be ok with that.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

If you say that it's karma when something bad happens to someone you don't like, then what does that mean when a bad thing happens to someone who you believe to be a good person? This is why I avoid crowing about karma when bad things happen to people I dislike.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

I started making a list of good things about quarantine this morning & quickly filled a whole page. It made me feel a lot better. You might want to try it. I'm not finished yet, but I thought I'd share the first page now.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

Zen is all about discovering that you're exactly like everyone else.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

1 year

By not trying to push your meditation practice on others you demonstrate your own faith in the practice. Pushing religious practices on others only demonstrates one's own insecurity about them.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

8 months

In all of the time this Universe and everything in it have existed there has never been another moment like this one. And there has never been another being exactly like you experiencing this moment in just the way you’re experiencing this moment right now.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

Zazen won't fundamentally change what sort of person you are. It just makes you more aware of that. Then you have a choice about how to be the sort of person you are. Do you react to that recurring thought? Do you try to satiate that desire? Do you scratch that itch?

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

Most of what I thought I needed, I never needed at all.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

Drugs will never help you understand Buddhism.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

You’re going to be ok.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

It’s good to help and support people in small ways as often as possible.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

1 year

The future never arrives. Sit quietly and observe the future continuously not arriving, moment by moment. No matter how long you wait it’ll never get here.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

8 months

Only certain kinds of people want to be leaders and most of them are assholes

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

People have to come to Buddhism on their own volition. Otherwise it's not Buddhism. Trying to sell Buddhism or recruit people into it is the antithesis of Buddhism. Making it available, letting folks know what it is & where to find it is fine. But pushing it in any way is not.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

The apocalypse is boring.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

1 year

It’s been difficult learning over the past 3 years that so many institutions & individuals I had trusted were not to be trusted at all, particularly those in the Zen community. Maybe it would be useful for me to try to help & support others who feel the same.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

8 years

If he does build a wall, I think all us Zennies should go down there and sit and stare at it.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

Over the course of 40 yrs I have created the person I wanted to be when I was 15.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

Bodhidharma said: 1) Accept what befalls you without complaining of injustice. 2) Adapt to circumstances and accept that we are ruled by conditions, not by ourselves 3) Practice non-craving and 4) Practice the dharma.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

6 months

Reality show idea: Race To Enlightenment. 10 random ppl enter a zen monastery & the first to get satori wins. The prize is nothing. The winner is proven worthy if s/he can accept that.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

Were we better off before we could know each other’s dumbass opinions about everything?

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

Looking at Twitter is bad for your mental health. Go do something else.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

Writing a book consists mainly of sitting in one spot and not writing a book.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

3 years

The world is better off not knowing my opinions about every damned thing. No one needs to know what I think. No one needs to know what you think either. Not even me. Not even you.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

1 year

Someone should write a book about Vajrayana Buddhism and fatherhood and call it The Tibetan Book of the Dad.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

Stare at the wall until you notice that you’re staring into the eyes of God.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

Is it just me? Or is anyone else just a little bit tired of this whole pandemic thing?

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

2 years

“You lack peace of mind because you’re running after peace of mind. Be attentive to yr mind in each moment, no matter how unpeaceful. Great peace of mind is realized only within this unpeaceful mind. It arises out of the interplay between peaceful & unpeaceful mind.” -Kodo Sawaki

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

Don’t you get it? No one knows what’s going on here. No one! They’re all just making it up as they go along, same as you.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

1 year

If identity is your major concern in life, you’re in for a very big let down. This goes for whatever identity you opt for — even the “normal” ones.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

We assume this world makes sense, remains stable over long periods of time & operates according to unchanging natural laws. But how do we know that’s true? Dreams often seem logical until we wake up & notice that they were not.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

A relative of Zen Master Ryokan asked: “Is there no way to avoid calamities?” Ryokan’s response: “When you are met with a calamity, meet it completely. That is the wondrous Dharma of avoiding calamities.”

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

Twitter is a powerful and dangerous intoxicant. Be careful.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

7 months

To have been born in the human world yet nonetheless wantonly to pursue a political path or a worldly career, idly spending one’s life as the servant of kings and ministers, encircled by dreams and illusions, is extremely stupid. - Dogen

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

3 years

This is the cover to the new Finnish edition of HARDCORE ZEN. Whoa.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

Nishijima Roshi said there are four reliable facts. 1) reason 2) the external world 3) the present moment and 4) reality, which is like God. He always said that reality is like God.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

"Even at this age, I do zazen with a beginner’s mind. If you become accustomed to zazen, it becomes false zazen. Get used to it and it isn’t worth a shit. The most important time is when you awaken that beginner’s mind. Don’t ever think you have mastered zazen." - Kodo Sawaki

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

I was just re-reading a chapter of my book It Came From Beyond Zen. And y'know what? IT IS A DAMNED GOOD BOOK. Should've been a best seller. What is wrong with people?

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

Say something nice to someone.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

From now on when you see something you disagree with in Twitter, reply “Oh you silly goose!”

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

“Even if the whole world is nothing but a bunch of jerks all doing jerk-type things, there is still liberation in simply not being a jerk.” - Eihei Dogen

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

1 year

We call zazen a goalless practice. And it is a useful description. But this does not mean practitioners of zazen should never have goals in other areas of our lives.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

A weekend of sitting zazen and all social media just feels like noise. Like fingernails on a chalkboard. Maybe because it always was.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

1 year

No one has ever been born in the wrong body. That cannot happen.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

Call me old fashioned, but I think it’s possible that people who come to Buddhist centers come because they want to learn about Buddhism.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

If God is infinite then one of the things he also is, is not infinite. That’s where you come into the picture.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

The best thing you can do to feel better right now is to help out someone close to you. It doesn’t have to be much. Do it whenever you’re feeling tense or scared. Do it as often as needed. It makes a huge difference.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

8 years

Do not get involved with zazen. You will notice how deeply stupid you really are.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

9 months

Identity is a fiction. You have no identity.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

It probably sounds arrogant when I say my books on Buddhism are better than 99% of what’s out there. But I’m not proud of this. It makes me sad. I wish other ppl would try a little bit harder.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

Me: Wow! All the time in the world to write a new book! My Brain:

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

1 year

Success may be the deepest and most dangerous delusion.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

"Avoiding thoughts would be concentration, not meditation. Rather, we don’t pay attention to thoughts. They pay attention to you, to make you realize what they are." - Kobun Chino Roshi

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

8 months

Nobody notices when I tweet anymore.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

There is a huge difference between being awakened and being woke.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

1 year

Whether you choose a religious explanation or a scientific one, the fact that there is a universe at all is really weird.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

6 months

Zen Buddhism is great. But organizations claiming to represent Zen Buddhism mostly suck ass.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

When you imagine some external object has given you happiness you are mistaken. What has really happened is that unconsciously the object brought you back for a flash to your true Self. - Ramana Maharshi

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

It’s clear to me that every concept I have about anything is only ever provisionally correct. It’s never completely right. Why would I think that any idea I might have about the ultimate nature of reality would be the single true and correct one?

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

Freedom & responsibility are not separate things. Ppl who think they can have freedom without responsibility are really only engaging in selfish indulgence and are not free at all.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

Listen to people. You don’t have to agree with them. But they might be saying something important, even if they are drawing the wrong conclusions.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

Twitter is bad for you.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 years

@neiltyson We “give a shit” about ants and even microbes. I knew a woman who was studying the sex habits of mollusks. I don’t think it’s egocentric at all to imagine that somebody out there would find us interesting & even devote a lot of effort to studying us. It’s logical.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

4 years

“Even if the whole Universe is nothing but a bunch of jerks doing all kinds of jerk-type things, there is still liberation in simply not being a jerk.” — Dogen Zenji as paraphrased by Brad Warner

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

3 years

“Beings are numberless, I vow to be of benefit to all of them.” - Kosho Uchiyama Roshi

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

5 months

Woke Buddhism Must GO!

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

7 years

I'm starting a religion called Sigh-entology. We're exasperated at everything.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

1 year

@goddeketal @jdouglaslittle That is incredibly nasty and deeply wrong. And it was just as horrifyingly wrong and at the time he said it. There was never any justification for this attitude.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

1 year

I understand old people now. They’re just young people who got old.

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Brad Warner

@BradWarner

3 years

If sitting still for a long time was easy, they wouldn't build giant statues of people whose main accomplishment in life was that they could sit still for a long time.