BG 023: Feeding the Beast

Brad Warner is a Zen Buddhist priest, ordained in the Soto school by Gudo Wafu Nishijima. He is also a published author, musician, film maker, and blogger. He began practicing Zen under Ohio-based teacher Tim McCarthy in the early 1980s while also playing bass guitar for the hardcore punk band 0DFx (also known as Zero Defex), and by the time he moved to Tokyo in 1994 to work for Tsuburaya Productions, he had released five albums on the Midnight Records label as "Dimentia 13". He views his Zen practice as a natural extension of his earlier experiences with the punk rock movement, and wrote about this and other things in HARDCORE ZEN: Punk Rock, Monster Movies & The Truth About Reality [link]. His second book, Sit Down and Shut Up [link] is his reflections on both the 13th century Zen masterpiece Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye and the reunion of 0DFx. He currently writes a weekly column for "Suicide Girls," an alternaporn website. He recently completed "Cleveland's Screaming!", a documentary about the Akron and Cleveland, Ohio hardcore punk scene of the early 1980s. Brad also oversees zazen classes and short retreats in Santa Monica, California.

Website: HardcoreZen.blogspot.com