by JAMES WOODARD
Hokubei Mainichi

This week's "J-C Pop!" is more about our good friend Dogen Zenji and his exhaustive collection called the Shobogenzo.

"Sit Down and Shut Up: Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death, and Dogen's Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye" by Brad Warner is easily as entertaining as his 2003 book, "Hardcore Zen." He continues his Dogen thread by explaining more about the Shobogenzo by relating his own experiences.

Punk-bassist-cum-Zen-priest Warner revisits his old stomping grounds in Akron, Ohio, for a reunion show of his old band, Zero Defex. The band, which has not been playing for the better part of 20 years, only had a couple days to warm up before their reunion gig. Warner equates his zazen experiences with the euphoric "buzz" of playing music again, communicating with the entire band without verbalizing a word to that purpose. His mind, normally chattering away at a million different details, was focused and still, even though the music was incredibly loud.

Warner's approach to Zen is unique in that, instead of offering some light on the path to enlightenment, he is more apt to tell you, "Forget it, buddy. If you don't know you're already there, then you ain't never gonna get there."

Warner's acerbic wit might be a turn-off to some. But by using his own examples to show fallacies in our thinking, he tries to dispel that wall we subconsciously put up between what we call "good" and "evil."

Each story he recounts includes stories of his own life, juxtaposed with stories about Dogen and other Zen masters, told in Warner's unique modern vernacular. He goes into more historical detail than in his previous work, and even includes nifty spellings of Buddhist terms in kanji (for our "Kanji a Day" readers) as well as easy-to-understand terminology for many Buddhist texts.

In his previous work, Warner spent a lot of time coming to grips with reality while working for Tsuburaya Studios, creators of "Ultraman" and a host of other iconic monster movies. In his latest tome, more time is spent on the message Dogen taught. He is clear to point out that just because Dogen had all this cool stuff to say, he was human just like everybody else, and capable of the same urges and desires.

What Warner contends Buddha meant was that even he was fallible and capable of mistakes. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is perfect.

Chapters include "Evil Is Stupid," "Buddha Is Boring," "Enlightenment Is for Sissies," and "Bad Hair Day." But even though the titles sound silly and light, Warner goes much deeper into the meaning of the Shobogenzo, and the importance of zazen, while pointing out the delusion and chaos that is almost constantly a part of our daily existence.

For more about Brad Warner, visit him online at http://home-page.mac.com/doubtboy/. His book is widely available.