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Brad Warner

Brad Warner Quotes

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Brad Warner, born on March 5, 1964, is an American author known for his works that blend Buddhist philosophy, life wisdom, and humor. Warner combines Buddhist thought with modern life in a unique way, offering readers a distinctive reading experience.

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Famous Brad Warner Quotes

“Those who hope for purity and righteousness always try and destroy that which disturbs them. They think the disturbance comes from outside themselves. This is a serious problem. Wars, suicide bombings, and all sorts of other nasty things start from the premise that we can destroy 'evil' outside ourselves without dealing with the evil within.”

Thinking Trying War Problem Evil Hope Serious Suicide Purity Righteousness Nasty Premises Bombing Disturbance Evil Within

Book:Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate: A Trip through Death, Sex, Divorce, and Spiritual Celebrity in Search of the True Dharma

Source: Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate: A Trip through Death, Sex, Divorce, and Spiritual Celebrity in Search of the True Dharma

“Since then, my approach to all things spiritual is rather cynical you could say. When somebody present something to me as spiritual, my first instinct is to be cynical and think, "oh yeah, one of those again." You see so much of it see in "spiritual culture" and people get very excited about it. It's all very "hoo haw."”

People Thinking Firsts Spiritual Culture Approach All Things Yeah Instinct Excited Cynical

Author:Brad Warner

“There's fantasies about what heaven is like and who Satan is and why you shouldn't masturbate or why you should vote Republican. It's funny because it's an election year and their news broadcasts are constantly talking about "Vote Republican". I think that they think they're being subtle about it, but that's definitely not the case. So I'm like, "What does this have anything to do with the nice advice you were giving about how to live your life, how to get along with your spouse etc?"”

Thinking Giving Should Years Doe Heaven Talking Cases Fantasy Nice Advice Republican News Vote Election Satan Etc Subtle Live Your Life Spouse Election Years

Author:Brad Warner

“But people do the same thing with the Bible. They memorize all the fictional characters, the parameters and the rules of the game and think it's important, but I can't get excited about that myself.”

People Thinking I Can Important Character Games Excited Parameters Fictional Character Rules Of The Game

Author:Brad Warner

“Sanity and enlightenment...I've been reading a new book Dogen's Genjo Koan: Three Commentaries, and it contains a commentary on Genjo Koan by Shunryu Suzuki, the author who wrote Zen Mind, Beginners Mind. He doesn't mention sanity at all but I think that one possible definition of enlightenment would be a kind of profound sanity, where being insane is no longer an option.”

Thinking Mind Kind Book Would Be Three Reading Enlightenment Profound Definitions Insane Sanity Commentary Beginners New Books

Author:Brad Warner

“There's also something that is often mistaken for enlightenment which is a kind of insanity. Often, people will have some kind of weird experience which is quite abnormal and think, "Oh my God, that's it, I understand everything" because they start seeing things in a very weird way and think that's how enlightened people see things as well.”

People Thinking Way Wells Kind Seeing Enlightenment Insanity Enlightened Mistaken Abnormal

Author:Brad Warner

“I'm not sure that Eastern culture does either, but I've never lived in India etc so I couldn't tell you. I can say we definitely don't. So people will sometimes come in contact with something strange and think, "Oh, it must be like this" and have a lot of fantasies about it, and somebody who sort of looks like our fantasy version of what enlightenment is can be very convincing in seeming like they've got something and then play that role.”

People Thinking Looks Doe I Can Sometimes Play Culture Roles Fantasy Strange Enlightenment India Versions Contact Not Sure Etc Eastern Convincing Seeming

Author:Brad Warner

“I think real enlightenment is total sanity, a kind of acceptance of what actually is. It does involve a kind of different way of looking at things. As I've done this Zen practice for years and years, I've acquired what I realize is an almost upside down view of life compared to what most people think, which is just what I used to think it was too. It's not really an insane view, at least I hope it's not.”

People Thinking Way Years Kind Doe Different Real Done Used Realizing Views Practice Acceptance Enlightenment Insane Different Ways Sanity Upside Down

Author:Brad Warner

“Sometimes people pick up pet worries that they'll entertain themselves with and that was my big one. So as far as thinking about what that means, one of the definitions of insanity is that you lose your ability to communicate to anybody because your frames of reference have become so different from the rest of the world that you can't communicate anymore.”

People Thinking World Mean Different Sometimes Bigs Loses Ability Worry Picks Definitions Communicate Insanity Pet Frame Of Reference Ability To Communicate Definition Of Insanity

Author:Brad Warner

“I think the understanding of oneness and interconnectivity of the whole Universe is something we have innately, something we're born with. We are however very skillful at ignoring and pretending we don't have or know it.”

Thinking Knows Whole Universe Understanding Born Oneness Pretending Skillful

Author:Brad Warner

“So when we come across somebody who does understand this and makes an effort to try and explain it to us, some people freak out and turn that person into either an object of worship or, some people freak out and want to kill that person. I think it's because they know what's true but they don't want to know, they don't want to face up to what that actually means. So they're going to kill the messenger and hope that by doing so they'll destroy the message so they can go back to living their ordinary life again.”

People Thinking Knows Want Trying Mean Persons Doe Faces Turns Effort Objects Worship Messages Ordinary Freak Messengers Ordinary Life

Author:Brad Warner

“So it's a dangerous thing and conversely, the other thing I mentioned in that post was that people see guys who are kind of in touch with that and become famous for it and then think maybe they can get in on it. Maybe they're not quite as cynical as that and there's some sincerity about them, but they don't really get it so they just imitate what they've seen from people who've done it before and of course you can make big money that way.”

People Thinking Way Kind Done Bigs Guy Courses Dangerous Posts Sincerity Cynical Dangerous Things

Author:Brad Warner

“People will come and give you sandwiches every six hours but you're really of no use. A lot of people get excited about guys like that but I can't get too excited about it because I think he's sorta useless. He's just sitting there in India under a blanket looking beautiful, so what.”

People Thinking Giving I Can Use Beautiful Guy Hours Six Sitting India Excited Useless Sandwiches Blanket Looking Beautiful

Author:Brad Warner

“It's interesting to see what's going on with physics these days because they're starting to come out with stuff that sounds remarkably like Buddhism and even more specifically like the ancient Hindu Vedas. Physics isn't necessarily saying the exact same thing but I think eventually it will merge.”

Thinking Stuff Sound Interesting Buddhism Starting Ancient Physics These Days Vedas

Author:Brad Warner

“I think it's part of my personality, to find sex really interesting. Not just in the puerile way of, "Oh I want to go and have some sex". It's fascinating, there's an entire realm of human activity that's important and literally vital to our survival and yet we've vilified it. That's one of the reasons that religious station is so fascinating to me.”

Thinking Way Want Humans Important Reason Sex Religious Interesting Personality Activity Survival Realms Fascinating Stations Really Interesting Human Activity

Author:Brad Warner

“One of the things I regret about not putting in that book or I think it's there but I didn't really elaborate on it, is contraception. I came across someone who articulated very clearly that one of the things which makes our approach to Buddhist practice in regards to sex different these days than it was in Buddhist times, is the simple existence of reliable contraception, which is a no brainer but I missed really addressing it in the book.”

Thinking Book Different Sex Simple Existence Practice Regret Approach Regard Buddhist These Days I Regret Contraception No Brainer

Author:Brad Warner

“I never really got around to discussing that specific topic which I think it crucially important to understand. If you were a monk in Buddhist time and you had sex, there was a good chance a child would be conceived.”

Ifs Thinking Children Important Would Be Sex Chance Buddhist Topics Monk Discussing Good Chance

Author:Brad Warner

“Now however, we have contraception and it's mostly reliable so you can have sex without that happening. So then you start vilifying the act of sex itself. I don't think Buddhism has ever done that necessarily, or at least I'm not aware of Buddhism taking the stance that Christianity often has which says that sex itself is a kind of evil act, which is a really weird idea.”

Thinking Kind Ideas Done Evil Sex Christianity Buddhism Happenings Stance Really Weird Contraception

Author:Brad Warner

“I think a lot of people trying to follow Buddhism these days are getting confused about sex and they don't understand what's going on. They've been exposed to a contemporary Christian idea that sex itself is evil and bad, which I'm not so sure was Jesus' idea. For me, the Buddhist approach isn't that sex itself is evil or bad but that sex is neutral. It's the way you do it that can problematic.”

People Thinking Way Trying Ideas Christian Evil Jesus Sex Buddhism Approach Contemporary Buddhist These Days Confused Exposed Contemporary Christian

Author:Brad Warner

“When I first started watching Godzilla, I was a kid and a big dinosaur freak and was like, "Oh my gosh, there's a big dinosaur." So I immediately got into Godzilla. What I like about it are some of the things people often think are negative aspects.”

People Thinking Firsts Bigs Kids Negative Aspect Freak Dinosaurs Oh My Gosh Godzilla

Author:Brad Warner

“The thinking brain influences the body’s responses and it makes a neat little loop.”

Thinking Littles Body Brain Influence Response Neat Loops

Author:Brad Warner

“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.”

Thinking Matter Order Energy Effort Happenings Tricks Equations Chewing

Book:Sit Down and Shut Up: Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death, and Dogen's Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye

Source: Sit Down and Shut Up: Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death, and Dogen's Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye