Caspar

I took advantage of being back in Atlanta by going over to my friendly neighborhood Soto Zen Center and attending a public talk by iconoclastic Zen teacher Brad Warner.

Brad teaches in Santa Monica but accepted an invitation to come back and re-visit our Center in Atlanta (he spoke here a year or two ago). Brad is the author of Hardcore Zen and Sit Down and Shut Up, and has a reputation for being an irreverent and controversial teacher.

I don't see what all the fuss is about, and I mean that in a good way. Being a former punk rock musician and monster movie devotee, he might have a somewhat more colorful background than many other Zen teachers, but they're all pretty colorful when you get to know them. In any event, he didn't piss on the alter or drop cigarette ashes on the Buddha, but instead spoke patiently and sincerely to the assembly about, among other things, his practice, the role Zen can play in our lives, and the various meanings of the word "god."

I liked him.

There was a good turnout, and Brad encouraged the audience to ask questions and make the talk more of a dialog than a monologue. The only question I could think to ask him (and I waited until after the official talk was over and asked him in private) was who Caspar the Friendly Ghost was before he died. He wasn't sure, but seemed to appreciate the question.

I've carried a link to his blog over there to the right for quite some time now, and on finally meeting him am glad that I do.