Dead Drunk

This memoir is told in a chronological way—beginning with Garrigan’s childhood and homelife. He relates how alcohol always had always held an attraction for him, especially as a socially awkward child. He continued to have this positive association with alcohol, observing how adults became more lively and fun when drinking, and this led to some early experimentation. When his parents got divorced he became a hardcore drinker and soon an alcoholic. There were many moments where Garrigan lets himself imagine a different past for himself where if he had gone down a different path, or some outside circumstances would have changed, he wouldn’t have become an alcoholic. But he always admits in the end he should not make excuses for himself and it was his own making.

Paul Garrigan was able to remain sober for over two years in his early twenties through AA. But in the end he decided that although he is grateful to AA for all their help, the program could not help him to fully quit his addiction. He reasons that with the AA program he is always thinking about alcohol—either consuming it or not consuming it. He decides that he would like to stop thinking about alcohol altogether—to end the suffering of his relationship with alcohol. But instead of ending the suffering, he stops going to AA and becomes an alcoholic again. He convinces himself that he should enjoy his life and his youth and be a hedonist.

He decides to travel and winds up to Thailand— still binging on alcohol. At this point he wants to quit and knows that his addiction is making a mess of his life. A highlight of the book is his time at Wat Rampoeng’s Northern Insight Meditation Center in Chiangmai. He completes the basic course there and is able to find some freedom from his addiction but once back in the world he easily gives in to temptation. It is only when he hits rock bottom that he takes quitting seriously. He is living with his Thai girlfriend in Central Thailand, drinking from morning until night, not able to digest food without severe abdominal pain, when he finds out about the detox program at Wat Thamkrabok.

Garrigan knows this is his last chance. On the way to the temple Garrigan is constantly worried that he will go on an alcoholic binge and not ever arrive. He even wants to have one last beer but his stomach pain from decades of alcohol abuse, does not let him. Wat Thamkrabok is not a meditation course, but a detox program involving a morning ritual of public vomiting. Besides this humbling ritual done for five days in a row and chores in the early morning, there is not much of a routine for the participants. But as Garrigan makes friends he starts to think about his life and hopes he can stay away from alcohol after his ten days here.

By the end of the book Garrigan has remained sober for over a year. He continues to maintain a website about mindfulness and addiction recovery in Thailand. His memoir highlights a significant program in Thailand that may not be well-known but can help many travelers to the country. This is an informative and interesting read for alcoholics or loved ones of alcoholics looking for alternative methods of recovery, or Thailand enthusiasts interested in finding out all of the many ways Thai Buddhism is being used and applied to help modern lives.

The differences and changes he finds between the Japanese-American and Zen convert temples are illuminating as ways to ‘ethnicize’ Western Buddhist communities. Wilson demonstrates how American culture is forming a hybrid with Buddhist concepts to create new forms of Buddhist practice. Through investigating how Zen convert communities adapt the mizuko kuyo ritual, Wilson shows how the particular characteristics of Western Buddhist communities such as focusing on meditation, downgrading prayer, group discussion, productivity and emotional catharsis (91). For example in this ritual in America, a portion of the ceremony is dedicated to sharing one’s feelings in a circle, which is not found in the Japanese version.

Another example is that in the American ritual, the participants chant the Heart Sutra together in English for all to understand. But in Japan the Heart Sutra is not chanted in modern Japanese, so the focus is on the words which are thought to have power. So the text changes for this ritual in America from something meritorious or magical to performing a teaching role. In Zen convert communities therapy is also involved. The participants express feelings and reasons for joining the ritual. Many people cry and weep while sharing their stories. In Japan it is not common to cry or express feelings to strangers.

In the American Zen performance of the mizuko kuyo the lay person is as important in the ritual as the priest. In Japan the priest is necessary but the lay person is not—as it is believed that priests have the training to perform the ritual. In American Zen the ritual is performed as an emotional catharsis for those who have lost a small child while in Japan the ritual is used to pacify the spirits of the recently deceased. Therefore in America the point of the ritual is spiritual health of mother—not placating an angered spirit. These changes in the ritual have opened up the reasons to participate to include not just aborted fetuses, but also mourning miscarriages, stillborn births, death of an infant or adult child among other reasons (102). In the American ritual Wilson finds the ritual is more a “series of psychotherapeutic exercises performed in a religious arena—similar to group therapy” (103).

The mixture of American cultural ideas of psychotherapy, self-help groups, rationalism and skepticism show that converts don’t simply divorce Buddhism from Asian culture as is often stated but instead add their own. Through the lens of the mizuko kuyo ritual Wilson illustrates clearly the reinterpretations that occur within the American Buddhist context. He shows the hybrid formations of American Buddhism which mix common cultural ideas with Buddhist practices.

The editor, Barry Boyce, attributes this secularity to the well-known author and scientist, Jon Kabat-Zinn. The introduction to The Mindfulness Revolution also details the scientific studies related to the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) techniques of Kabat-Zinn. The reason mindfulness meditation is accepted as beneficial without religious training is because it has been proved effective by scientific studies (xiv). Health studies as well as neuroscience discoveries have created the popularity in mindfulness techniques in secular areas.

Most of The Mindfulness Revolution however consists of an anthology of writings on mindfulness from Shambhala Magazine, as well as excerpts from books by Wisdom and other publishers, and some original material. These excerpts are divided into four parts: How to Practice Mindfulness, Mindfulness in Daily Life, Mindfulness, Health and Healing and Interpersonal Mindfulness. These different sections discuss basics on how to practice, ways to practice in daily life such as gardening and other hobbies and at work, the benefits of mindfulness practice with a focus on well-being both physically and emotionally, and how to use mindfulness in relationships such as between parent and child.

This book describes techniques for using mindfulness for accepting life and its uncertainties, helping with pain and addiction, illness, and anxiety. Therefore the benefits of mindfulness listed in this book are far-reaching, both for general health and happiness and toward specific applications. Jan Chozen Bays in her article “What is Mindfulness” writes of the importance of mindfulness for all humanity: “When we allow the mind to rest in the present, full of what is actually happening right now, redirecting it away from repeated fruitless excursions into the past or future or fantasy realms, we are doing something very important: conserving the energy of the mind. It remains fresh and open, ready to respond to whatever appears before it” (5). The general effects of mindfulness listed in this volume are to be more fully present, move out of the disconnection of life caused by living on automatic pilot, help to maximize life’s experiences, and lessen reactivity to the stimuli of the world. Specific uses of mindfulness have their place in this volume also in chapters about digital mindfulness, mindfulness for parenting and for children, mindful consumerism, music and mindfulness, mindfulness and cooking, using mindfulness to help with chronic pain, trauma, addiction, shyness, and mindful eating.

The final essay of part four is written by the editor, Barry Boyce, and is called “Creating a Mindful Society.” This part introduces the reader to the large community of mindfulness practitioners. Boyce describes the people who have built and maintain institutions for mindful study and practices. This essay summarizes the many stories from the department called ‘Mindful Society’ in Shambhala Sun magazine. Boyce here argues that mindfulness is not only for the individual but that it affects society, and can in fact change the world. It constitutes a revolution as all the people and groups practicing mindfulness, Boyce believes, can transform the world. Boyce writes that mindfulness “usually causes us to look outward more often” and “causes some people to say that mindfulness blossoms into ‘heartfulness’” (263). Boyce outlines the people, institutes, and initiatives that study and promote mindfulness for children and parenting, for elementary education, university education, inner-city youth, music students, cancer patients, corporate offices, lawyers, soldiers, and the dying.

Boyce states that in order to develop a mindful society we do not need to create more meditation centers but to find all the ways possible to be fully present in the moment. He finds that practitioners want to see the peace they have cultivated inward in the outer society. The last words in the book emphasize this: “Mindfulness is not a me thing. It’s a we thing” (264). This rhetoric dispels any lingering ideas that Buddhism and seeking Enlightenment is a selfish activity. By taking the practice out of its Buddhist context and into daily life, it becomes not a practice to be done sitting alone, but in society, while engaged with people.

The Mindfulness Revolution does not end with the book, but has much more information on the website called Mindful: Living with Awareness and Compassion. This website is a one-stop spot for all of the recent news, resources, books, and information on the practice of mindfulness. This website continues to emphasize mindfulness as a secular aspect, saving more Buddhist content for their magazines, Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma.

This is a more traditional memoir, which is structured chronologically, as the reader learns in detail about the author’s early life and travels before becoming a Tibetan Buddhist monk in Switzerland. He first travels from England and eventually to Dharamsala where the Buddhist part of this memoir really begins. In India he also finds his way to Mt. Kopan and the retreat center of the famous Lama Yeshe.

After this initial contact, Schettini must return home due to lack of travel funds. But he soon finds a growing community of Western Tibetan monks in Switzerland under Geshe Rabten. Through a stroke of good luck or karma, he is able to find a sponsor so he can undertake this endeavor. This part reads like a who’s who of early Western Buddhism as Schettini’s colleagues in this early Western monk community are Steven Batchelor and Alan Wallace.

But like many of the memoirs I have investigated this one also expresses doubt in the tradition as well as concern about the cultural exchange between Eastern teachers with Western students. He writes “Western Buddhism would sooner or later have to develop its own feet, and it was beginning to look like the sooner the better” (305), in reaction to the lay and monastic community that he believes are too excited by the exoticism of the guru and tradition that they cannot use their own critical judgment. He finds that trying to think for oneself makes one a persona non grata. He also realizes that language and culture are a barrier to understanding Buddhism through his Tibetan teachers. Schettini writes “I’d already seen that we should dig into our own culture for a vernacular to express the purpose of Buddhism. Now I realized that we’d have to explain our own truths . . . We were climbing the distant mountain of Tibetan language only to gaze back, fascinated, at our own valley” (240).

Schettini tests his growing doubt further by next delving into Tibetan culture by staying at Sera monastery in the south of India. Here he finds the debate and rote memorization an affront to critical thinking, although his Tibetan does improve, as he had hoped. A highlight of this second trip to India is his meeting with the Dalai Lama and running into now well-known professor Robert Thurman. But back in Switzerland with Geshe Rabten it is inevitable that he will disrobe. He writes of himself throughout these monastic experiences as too questioning of the tradition and the hierarchical structure and this is even more apparent in contrast to the new Western monks he encounters who are uncritically devoted to their teacher.

The end of the book leaves one unsatisfied with Schettini’s journey. He was looking to find answers in Buddhism but found he could not find them in the religious structure he had ordained into. But he doesn’t find the answer anywhere else either—he is left in a similar situation as he was before he found Buddhism and meditation. He is still confused about life and relationships, although of course, has gained helpful tools through meditation practice and study of Buddhism. Only in the epilogue does the reader get a sense that he has learned how to be happy, and he does this through becoming part of a family and writing this book, The Novice.

Practicing the Jhanas

Stephen and Tina start off by explaining the importance of the jhanas in the Buddha’s life story, as well as the importance of jhanas before the Buddha’s time. For those modern Buddhists who want to follow the Buddha’s teachings and his path of practice, they argue, jhana plays an essential role. They recount the Buddha’s experience with jhana as a young boy, as an ascetic, and before his death.

After recognizing the significance of jhana and samatha practices, Practicing the Jhanas becomes a handbook for understanding and cultivating these deep absorption states. From the beginning of basic anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing) practices to access concentration and the jhana states this is a complete look at the path of practice of the samatha meditator. They outline how to get into a jhana state while acknowledging the main purpose is always to purify the mind before undertaking vipassana (insight) meditation practices. The beginning chapters outline the foundational understandings of samatha and jhana practice within the larger milieu of Buddhist meditation

After the foundational understandings and the basics of developing the first jhana state, the book progresses further to show how to cultivate further jhanas states from second jhana through until the eighth jhana. These are difficult concepts and experiences to put into language. Tina and Stephen manage to do this in an accessible way through relating it directly to their experiences. The reader is often told directly that Tina found entering a jhana one way to be effective while Stephen used a different method. They give the reader confidence, through their obvious knowledge and experience, that it is possible to sit in a jhana state for 3 hours and to attain mastery of the state by being able to enter it at will.

This is both a book that draws on traditional and pre-Buddhist teachings and one that is particular to the method of the current teacher Pa Auk Sayadaw. For this particular teaching, he requires meditators to master each jhana before being able to move onto the next one. This is done for all eight jhanas including additional practices all before vipassana meditation. This is an incredible amount of samatha but Tina and Stephen show the reader how these deep concentration states are important and vital for purifying the mind before vipassana. Pa Auk Sayadaw also states that cultivating all eight jhanas gives one a stable base for a thorough vipassana practice.

With the popularity of the Mahasi Sayadaw method in Burma and abroad, as well as the Ajahn Tong method where I live in Chiangmai, which both use the vipassana-only techniques, Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw’s focus on samatha is refreshing and provides a balance. Stephen and Tina’s presentation of this path of samatha before vipassana is a needed and welcome addition to meditation guidebooks.

The list of contributors includes female monastics, lay meditation teachers, and women who have incorporated Buddhist principles into their work. More well-known names such as Jacqueline Mandell, Ayya Khema, and Karma Lekshe Tsomo, have full-length pieces. The book contains excerpts from a retreat for women at St. Mary’s Seminary in California in 1989. The purpose of the retreat was to discuss issues for American Buddhist women in all the many Buddhist traditions. Karma Lekshe Tsomo finds that although American Buddhist women have not been practicing for very long as they are almost all ‘new Buddhists,’ their words and perspectives may be more fresh and dynamic (157).

Topics in the essays in this volume include those that focus not on the practice of sitting meditation, and in fact, formal meditation is downgraded in order to highlight the applicability of Buddhist principles in daily life. Essays discuss parenting, understanding dying and grief, abortion, alcoholism, addiction, relationships, helping mothers and pregnant women, and others. One of the most successful pieces is Chapter 12 “The Monastic Experience,” which discusses female monasticism from many different perspectives: Shingon in Japan, Zen in America, FoGuang Shan in America, vipassana meditation in Burma, and Tibetan Buddhism. Here each person describes her unique experiences in each tradition and yet the similarities of being a female Buddhist monastic are still apparent.

These works show what women can offer the emerging Buddhist communities in English-speaking countries— a Buddhism that is more integrated into daily life applying Buddhism to difficult real-life situations.

The Seven Practices of a Healthy Mind focuses on happiness and how to be happy through looking at one’s own mind. Ajahn Gavesako promises that a well-trained mind is the one thing that will bring true happiness. Besides this benefit Ajahn Gavesako lists other major benefits such as increased mental health, learning about life, and heedfulness. Ajahn Gavesako teaches the method of anapanasati following the stages of the Anapanasati Sutta but also mixes in forest master techniques such as repeating ‘Buddho,’ and incorporating mindfulness into daily life. He includes success stories of both Thai and Japanese people who have come to his temple to practice, and how his seven steps have benefitted their lives. He also points to medical studies and research to show the power of meditation for health benefits. Another main focus of his is anger management, as he offers a number of techniques on how to subdue anger. The seven practices are not just for a healthy mind but within these practices are more lists, which contribute to self-development and being a better person for society.

In the Fragrance of Dhamma series Ajahn Gavesako’s dhamma talks are autobiographical teachings that discuss anger, wrong thinking, patience, and maintaining virtuous hearts and minds. He also continues in the tradition of Ajahn Chah’s disciples by writing about Ajhan Chah’s teachings and his relationship with him. He tells stories of his temple in Thailand and his trips to Japan, and how his teaching has affected his followers to understand the Buddhist truths of life. His teachings are also conveyed through stories about daily life in Northeast Thailand seen through the laity at Wat Nong Pah Pong, as well as stories from the time of the Buddha, and true stories from people he has met in Thailand and Japan. These stories teach the reader about kamma and the unpleasantness of anger.

Phra Ajahn’s dhamma talks are recommended for their practical advice and teaching stories. He offers many lists to incorporate into one’s behavior for improved self-development. Often there are medical studies and psychological findings incorporated into his work to show the concrete benefits of meditation. He finds that science helps to back up the claims of meditation but that it does not help one find happiness, like Buddhism and its teachings do.

This book investigates how Buddhist and American ways of life have influenced one another, and the impact of Buddhist culture, ideas, values, and images on the American population. Each chapter is meant to be accessible to the educated reader rather than written only for scholars of Buddhist studies, which is evidenced by the fact that only four of the eleven contributors are Buddhist studies scholars. The result is many readable accounts on Buddhist lives, Buddhist ethics and modern problems, and living a Buddhist life socially and in community. Gary Storhoff and John Whalen-Bridge have organized this edited volume into the Buddhist concept of the Three Jewels or Refuges: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.

The section titled “Buddha” consists of three chapters concerning two key teachers for Buddhism in America: Alan Watts and D. T. Suzuki. The essay on Alan Watts is an excellent and readable account of his life and work that captures Watts’s particular style of understanding and his dissemination of Buddhist ideas. The author aims to outline Watts’s life and career and to summarize the central themes of his thought by drawing attention to his intellectual coherence, a topic which has been debated in scholarly circles. The next two chapters on D.T. Suzuki— one scholarly presentation of his career and presentation of Zen to Americans and one an account of a meeting with D.T. Suzuki’s long-time secretary— paint a full picture of the man who popularized Zen in America.

The second part that consists of Buddhist teachings or “Dharma” is concerned with Buddhist ethics and concepts that can be related to social problems today. Topics covered include bioethics, abortion, engaged Buddhism, and Buddhism and postmodern American culture. In his essay “What Can Buddhist No-Self Contribute to North American Bioethics?” Michael C. Brannigan provides an interesting discussion around this question of what the concept of no-self can contribute to “a field that presumes the existence of an independent, unique and private individual?” (69). In the next essay Rita Gross delves deeper into Buddhist concepts with a discussion of Buddhist ethics and abortion by describing North American and Buddhist positions on abortion. Judy Whipps contributes a useful essay comparing American pragmatism with engaged Buddhism. In an essay detailing Lacanian psychoanalysis and the ideas of Zizek, John Kitterman asks if Buddhism is a “religion that by its nature can adapt to postmodern American culture . . . ?” (126)

The final section on “Sangha” discusses Buddhist living in relation to society and relationships, with chapters on family life, generational shifts, Asian American communities, and Buddhist artistic practices. Charles Prebish provides an overview of materials about Buddhism and the family. He finds that much of the scholarship on Buddhism in America and American Buddhist centers have not addressed this issue. Second generation Japanese-American Buddhist communities in Hawaii are discussed in an important history by Lori Pierce called “Buddha Loves Me This I Know: Nisei Buddhists in Christian America, 1889-1942.” She discusses the challenge this community faced to maintain their identity in Christian America. Roger Corless, in one of his final essays, discusses the disjunction between theory and practice comparing Buddhist and Christian worldviews in a highly philosophical piece. Finally, Jeff Wilson describes the history and transformations of a Japanese Zen Garden in Rochester, NY, to illuminate the phenomenon of mutual influence and contact between America and Japan.

Even though this book contains many essays by scholars outside of Buddhist studies, it is still a useful contribution to the field. Especially the ‘Buddha’ section contributed to the history of Buddhism in America and how the teachings were adapted for this audience. For those interested in Buddhist ethics, the ‘Dharma’ section is useful and the ‘Sangha’ section contains interesting discussions on American Buddhist communities.

Through the words of the Buddha familiar concepts to many like the eightfold path, the four noble truths, karma, and more complicated ideas such as the five khandhas and dependent co-origination are not only explained in detail but related to modern living. Because the book focuses on the Buddha’s first sermon it is intended for the novice to Buddhism and also contains the foundation of Buddhist thought and practice.

Ajahn Sucitto translates this sutta and then offers a line-by-line commentary so that it is easily accessible. He writes that this discourse “is still relevant because it focuses on a common feature of human life—the experience of trouble and stress and the search to get free of it” (1). He hopes to relay this message of the Buddha by translating it into English and presenting it in informal language while referring to his own experience of Buddhist practice to illustrate its relevance. Sucitto demonstrates that this is a guide that outlines the Buddhist path so it must be lived. Although Ajahn Sucitto asserts that this discourse contains universal truth and is relevant today he also acknowledges that the Buddha and his teachings emerge out of a specific time and place so he offers background on Indian social history.

After the full translation of the text, each chapter explicates in detail a small portion of the sutta in order. He begins by explaining the people involved in this discourse, the place, and their relationships. Interspersed throughout the book are narratives of Ajahn Sucitto’s personal motivations for joining the Buddhist monastic order and his experiences with Buddhist practice. Indeed, the highlights of the book include moments when Ajahn Sucitto addresses the average Western reader. In contemplating the middle way Sucitto writes “The relevance of reflecting on self-denial to an average Westerner who is not interested in hair shirts, may seem slight” (23). And he goes on to explain about the extremes of asceticism and pleasure that may not be so obvious to those who have not studied the Buddha’s life story. Sucitto also notes distinct approaches between Buddhism and Western religions that may be different from what Westerners are used to. He states that the Buddha is not formulating a particular set of beliefs that one must make a part of their core value system but something to be tested and understood first. He also emphasizes the Buddha’s ‘whole life’ approach to the path, rather than following one particular practice. Ajahn Sucitto cautions that this “teaching is like a toolbox that is offered to someone who wants to do the job and considers it worthwhile. It’s not a teaching that everyone finds immediately inspirational” (77).

But Ajahn Sucitto also has to explain some of the cosmological aspects of Buddhism to Westerners. He describes Mara, who in this sutta is depicted as a physical demon as a force “that identifies us with the changing conditions of body and mind” (152). Mara comes in many voices such as doubt, delusion, criticism. Ajahn Sucitto also admits that the devas and other nonhuman beings referred to in the text may also seem strange, or fantastic, especially compared to the insights into the human mind. Sucitto offers that nonhuman beings were part of the worldview of the pre-modern era. Instead of answering if these beings are real he suggests that we decide if belief in these ideas affects our lives in a positive way; because if so, we can use that idea to develop awareness. He also believes we can have a scientific worldview but also acknowledge that another way of seeing the world has value too. So Sucitto not only explains the meaning of the cosmological aspects of Buddhism but gives reasons for trying to understand them and how they can be part of a modern worldview. He relates the new perspective on the world that meditators begin to sense to the cosmology the Buddha presents.

Therefore Ajahn Sucitto has created an accessible introduction to basic Buddhist concepts by detailing the Buddha’s own words. He introduces readers to a primary text of Buddhism as part of the Western monks of the forest tradition’s larger project of presenting a complete Buddhist path to Western practitioners. This book is useful for those interested in learning about Buddhism as well as those who follow the Ajahn Chah forest lineage teachings and its global developments.

Warner’s main point is, being a Christian country, and having Puritanical roots, Americans are prone to equate sex with sin. The book repeats often that Christianity does not have the same ideology as Buddhism, so we should not expect the same kind of morality and tension surrounding sex. This was one of the main reasons he wrote this book: to disentangle Puritanical leanings and expectations of the Buddhist tradition and Buddhist teachers from actual Buddhist practice and teachings. He reminds us that in America, because of the Puritan and Christian roots, we “take for granted that sexual desire is a terrible thing” (73). But Warner points out that other cultures, such as Buddhist ones in Japan, do not view sex and desire this way.

One of the other main points of the book is to talk about the way Buddhism is presented in the West, and again, the framework of sex, is a way to discuss this. Warner writes:

“I’ve long felt that the reason Buddhism has been relegated to the junk heap of hippi-philosophies-that-didn’t-work-in-the-sixties-so-why-both-with-them-now is that its been presented so exceedingly poorly, mainly by people who don’t have a clue what it is anyway. Its not about some kind of mystical serenity available only to those rare beings among us who have freed themselves from their base desires. Buddhism is for everyone. Its for what you are and who you are right now, warts and tattoos and naked pictures saved on your hard drive for those lonely nights and all” (75).

He feels that Buddhism is a kind of art, or attitude that offers a way of approaching life. Warner also explores the nature of American Buddhism and finds that there are two groups: one that actually practices and the other who do not but still insist on what Buddhism is or ought to be. He discusses this in terms of Right Livelihood and the ways both groups try to decide what professions this would include and exclude. Warner finds that most American Buddhists are too rigid and spend useless energy on this. He wants American Buddhists to lighten up and not apply the same Puritanical standards to Buddhism that they do to other religious traditions. He believes that for Buddhism the issue isn’t right livelihood vs. evil livelihood but more like right action or livelihood and not so right action. Its more about how you do your job and actions rather than a disapproved way of living in general.

Therefore, Warner is another teacher, having spent time in Asia, who is critical of Western Buddhist circles. He is mostly critical, as mentioned, about the way it is presented and the impressions people get about Buddhist teachings through this. He writes: “One of the things that often surprise people when they first enter a Buddhist organization, or sangha, is that a lot of the people there often have some really deep and troubling issues. I guess they’ve seen too many bad TV shows and expect everyone who follows the path of Buddhism to be wise, well-adjusted, and happy” (204). Warner critiques what people think Buddhists or people who meditate should be like when he notes that it makes sense for the people with the most suffering, that are actually the least well-adjusted, to do the hard work of meditation practice. Thus Warner discusses the problems in translation of Buddhism to America in poignant ways.

But besides these larger issues of Buddhism in America, Warner, of course, also addresses sex. With topics tackled such as masturbation, pornography, and celibacy, as well as sex and Buddhist concepts like sex and suffering, sex and mindfulness, sex and emptiness, sex and karma, and even sex and Enlightenment, Warner exhausts the various ways to view sex and Zen together. But he doesn’t so much provide definitive answers as a series of interesting discussions around these topics.

No review of a Brad Warner book would be complete without commenting on his writing style. While reading the book it is as if Warner is winking at you. His style of humor is to write a kind of pun or something tongue-in-cheek, and then insert a footnote that reads ‘Heh heh.’ His obvious seeking out of laughter comes across as charming, as does his self-effacing tone. But the most interesting part of this book for me was learning about this teacher and popular figure and his ideas about reframing American perceptions of Buddhism.