Heaven´s on fire

 

Brad Warner is an American Zen Buddhist practitioner with his own YouTube channel. He rants a lot, but some of his rants are quite interesting. Like his discussions on Japanese pop culture, which I linked to previously (Mr Warner actually worked for the Ultraman franchise in Tokyo). 

In the clip above, he warns people to stay away from "charismatic teachers", since their charisma isn´t really spiritual. The examples given include a certain Hare Krishna guru and "the hugging saint" Amma. He also retells a meeting with KISS singer Gene Simmons! 

Maybe somebody out there needs to hear this...but surely, charisma can be "spiritual" in some sense? 

Dark diamond

 

American Zen practitioner Brad Warner (who also stints as a rock singer and Ultraman fanboy) criticizes the Dalai Lama in these two clips. 

In the first, Brad completely disses the Tibetan leader, saying that he can´t know much about Buddhism (?!). The second clip deals with the Dalai Lama´s contacts with Aum Shinrikyo, the Japanese cult which carried out a terrorist attack in the Tokyo metro system in 1995. Brad was living and working in Japan at the time. In fact, he was traveling with the Tokyo metro on the day of the attack...

Brad also claims that the Dalai Lama de facto endorsed another weird cult, this time in the US, known as NXIVM. 

It seems that the meek and mild lama is really a very dark diamond. 

Never mind the meditation

 

Brad Warner discusses the apparently still ongoing mindfulness fad. The short form is that mindfulness can´t be divorced from its religious Buddhist context, and that meditation sooner or later leads to scary experiences! Something the multi-billion dollar meditation industry probably won´t tell you about...

Oh, shut up

 

Basic bitch prophecies (attributed to Nostradamus and one Baba Vanga) about climate change, AI, terrorism, the return of Donald Trump and increased tensions with China are spiced with less believable stuff about Prince Harry becoming King of England after some kind of coup in the UK. Or is it AI taking over the globe? Yeah, whatever. Note also that there are no prophecies about Russia and Ukraine?!

Still, quite funny that this particular peddler of bad news sounds *quite* realistic, LOL.     

A god named zilla

 

An extremely interesting YouTube clip on Japanese pop culture, specifically the Christian influence on same. 

I had no idea that Eiji Tsuburaya, the man behind "Godzilla" and "Ultraman", was a Catholic. Which apparently explains some weird anomalies in "Ultraman", such as one of the monsters being named after Barabbas, or Ultraman being crucified. In one episode, the heroes visit a planet named "Golgada" (Golgotha). And yes, they are crucified?!

The narrator, Brad, is a White American Zen Buddhist who used to work for the Ultraman franchise in Japan. That is, he worked for Japanese Christians... 

Beyond Nichiren´s thunderdome

 

Our man Brad reflects on Tina Turner´s Buddhism. In September 2022, I actually linked to some content dealing with the same topic. Purely by coincidence, I researched it on the same day as a Tina Turner death hoax was spreading like wildfire on the web. Tina Turner did pass away eventually, but in May 2023.

I don´t claim to know the details of the pop icon´s connections to Nichiren Buddhism or the Soka Gakkai, but she did have an interest in it, at least for some time. Nor was she alone on the African-American music scene to adopt Nichiren chanting. Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock are two other examples. 

I admit I had no idea! Interesting.

A funeral for monsters

 

Soto Zen aficionado and kaiju fanboy Brad Warner talks about a strange episode of the Japanese TV series "Ultraman", in which the heroes (who are monster hunters) decide to hold a Buddhist funeral ceremony for the monsters they killed?! 

Brad claims that the Buddhist priests - who are presumably real - chant the Heart Sutra, but a commentator points out that it´s actually a short stanza from the Longer Sukhavatiyuha Sutra. It´s used by Pure Land Buddhists to save even the least enlightened beings which can´t understand the Dharma. And yes, if kaiju monsters were real, they would presumably be in need of such a funeral chant.

Weird...and intriguing. The compassion of Amida (Amitabha Buddha) is so great, that he even saves Godzilla, Mothra or Cthulhu?!  

Samsara is nirvana

 

Brad Warner is a Soto Zen teacher, musician and super-nerd, who apparently used to work in Japan for the Ultraman franchise. Here, he discusses the Mahayana concept of "samsara is nirvana", but without actually mentioning it. 

Maybe the supernatural is *here*, in our world? We just can´t perceive it, just as we can´t understand, say, dolphin communication. Unless we adjust our very way of seeing, that is. And if we do, maybe samsara suddenly looks like a mansion of mirth...

Not sure if I buy that perspective, but there you go.  

Early retirement

 

This guy always threatens to resign and stop teaching. My guess is that he will be back again in two weeks or so...

Also, read his angry responses to the comments.   

2024 Mindset?

 

Current mood.