How to Have No Shame, Guilt, or Hate 

Dude, I really love your videos! "That's on my contract with the Zen Mafia" ahahah priceless.

Yes, no shame, guilt, or hatred. Ah, but how do you get there. You can't order yourself to lose those and you can't think your way out of them. The path out of them is the work of a lifetime and takes a tremendous amount of dedication and commitment and you will never lose them completely. As Joko Beck once put it, you can get to the point where they don't drag you around like a great Dane, but become more like a yapping little dog. My 2 cents.

If you want self esteem do esteem-able actions... I heard this the other week and it really landed for me. Thanks again as always wonder-full content. 🙏🙇‍♂️

“Stick to the zen path”… that’s why I’m here! thank you for this deep dive and the book rec. Bowing from Marquette Michigan, Liam D

Many thanks Brad

While I appreciate it when you share the teachings of others, and your exegesis of same, I like it when you share your own thoughts, interpretations, and teachings even more.

My dog is barking at Ziggy hahaha

Cats, squirrels and drone/UFOs--will the crazy visitations never end?! Yes, Ramesh-ji was a great teacher, his satsangs were delightful, such a kindly gentleman. Perhaps a bit too deistic for my tastes, but that's just me. Thanks for featuring him again. Solid! 🤙🤓

You said "free will is an illusion, and determinism is also an illusion". I can accept that as a possibility, but in a practical sense I think that free will exists, and determinism exists. :) They contradict each other, and that used to make me think I needed to pick one over the other, but you actually said something to me that has helped me with many of these kinds of contradictions / paradoxes. It was: "contradictions only exist in the human mind". That's great! So it's pretty obvious to me that people have free will, and also pretty obvious to me that the world is governed by the laws of physics (including laws of physics that we don't know yet). Those two obvious things contradict each other, but that's ok, reality will survive. The contradiction only exists in my mind, so I don't have to choose one over the other. :)

"Just don't hate yourself or others or have shame or guilt; that's it." That's it? Boom, easy! lol. I've gotten better about it, but especially for a while I really fell into just monstrous loops of self-hatred; it still starts to start up once in a while, and I just have to yell "STOP!" in my head, sort of. Doesn't lead anywhere good. (Talking pathological self-hatred, and honestly some of the stuff I would beat myself up about was a little beyond my control in that my brain doesn't function correctly once every blue moon.) Regarding the beginning, though; I mean, Zen itself is pretty heavily influenced by Taoism. (I enjoy reading some Taoist texts now and then, actually, at least the more philosophical stuff, less so the "here's how to be an immortal" folk stuff.) And it co-exists very much so with e.g. Shinto in Japan, with people going to ancestral shrines and stuff. It doesn't seem like there's a big conflict there.

“Stirred, not shaken”

please make another list including fear

I believe and I feel and I KNOW that every aspect of this vast manifestation is through and through and through spontaneous. That being said, I also feel and know that guilt and shame and remorse arise spontaneously just as everything else does and I "try" mightily to avoid doing anything that might seem to furnish them an occasion to arise. Logic be damned!

I found my thrill on Brad berry hill 😁❤️

Stick to the path (for 50 years or so then you can go exploring). St Augustine warned of the same kind of thing back in the 300s:” If you believe what you like in the Gospel and disbelieve what you don’t like, it’s not the Gospel that you believe but yourself”. Make sure your foundation is strong before you go exploring. Unfortunately , those with “itchy ears” to whom such advice is directed are least likely to take it! Love your vids, Brad

“Zen Mafia”... Cool name for a band.

Do any of you guys read osho? I enjoyed his book of secrets very much and i think its everything one needs to grow as a human being and understand meditation. Its a multidimensional book, has several techniques and covers many topics.

What does free will have to do with idealism or materialism? The idea is simply incoherent. I , for one, have free will! I keep in in a bag with some square circles, materialism and a clown car full of Leprechauns. Either one thing leads to another or it doesn't. If you can make a version of free will out of that let me have some to put in my bag. If one thing leads to another that is known as "determinism" or colloquially, "causation". If it doesn't that is known as "indeterminism" or "randomness". If you think you can make "free will" out of that, then you'll be able to explain why a thermostat with a random number generator doesn't have "free will". "Ooh. It's freezing today. But my A/C with 'Totally Free Will'™ has decided to turn the temperature down."

Determinism: drakememe says no thanks Dependent-origination: drakememe says ah yeah

I understand concerns about "mixing bits" of varying traditions. But I don't think it's completely about "avoiding the uncomfortable parts" of one tradition. You've explained that for you that Zen was really the only option to you by circumstance. So in that sense it was easy to avoid the "temptation" of dabbling in other forms of Buddhism. But for many of us coming to Buddhism later, it really is a concerted effort to "filter out" and ignore other traditions while trying to stay "pure" in just one. When looking back at the history of Buddhism, I can't help but wonder what valuable insights each tradition has? As much as I value Zen, in what areas may it be lacking where other traditions have something to offer? It's hard for me not to be skeptical that Zen is the most "pure" transmission of Buddha's teaching, and would hate to think I'd be ignoring "authentic" insights from him that Zen may have missed. Sometimes I wonder if Buddhist scholarship still has its work cut out for it to tentatively reconstruct pre-sectarian Buddhism?

Hey Brad, did you read Perfect Brilliant Stillness by David Carse ? My first introduction to Ramesh.

If both are wrong, what is right?

I’m still a work in progress. From what I remember, doesn’t the Zen mafia contract say: No benefits implied implicitly nor directly. :)

I’m going to order the book. What pg is what you read on? Ty

You were talking about sticking to one path, because otherwise one ends up cherry-picking from here and there and avoiding the challenging/uncomfortable stuff. When I think about the Zen-path I can only think about zazen, since there aren't that many rituals (as far as I've experienced it). So I was wondering where Zen gets uncomfortable. Zazen feels really comfortable to be honest. Can you shine some light on that?

Almost 13 thousand suscribers. We should make an impact to get Brad Warner on Joe Rogan Experience! Anyone else want to see that?!

Even for a materialist, chaos theory and quantum mechanics disprove determinism. Hence, they provide an opening for free will.

Where i can find Shinji Shobogenzo PDF ? I live in north Africa and there is no books about zen here Pls give me a link or pdf Or you can sind me books that you don't need

Sometimes I feel shame or guilt in spite of my ethical actions simply because, in many cases, others look askance at ethical behavior (presumably because it's rare -- I'm not sure), and I'm concerned that I caused discomfort or suspicion without intending to. (I've learned that people are often suspicious of sincere kindness, sadly.) I wish I could have more confidence that what I do is heartfelt, well-intentioned, and good and therefore not let such reactions, when they occur, cause shame or guilt, but I guess I'm concerned that ignoring these feelings will result in an inflated ego or conceit. This is one of the reasons that the ethical dimension of consciousness and the universe and everything matters so much to me, and why I'm looking forward to reading your new book when it's published.

Sorry Brad- I'm a beginner student of Buddhism and I'm confused. You quoted Nishijma Roshi as saying " in a material world, there can be no free will, it does not exist and you can kinda figure that out". Huh?Could you give a link or something I can read about that? I'd like to get some insight into the meaning. Thx

Hey really liked this but disagree that we shouldn't learn or take from other paths as we see fit. All paths or schools of thought surely are formed by learning from other schools of thought and creating new analysis from it.

"Glad I had Brad write the books" You get it, right? That step out. Me, combat vet and her, wit even more savage. Hate the selfish. It's okay. Let it go man, they'll kill us all. Better them than you. I bow to you, long distance master.

Cringey memories are killing my zen vibe

Very disappointed as an ex advaitin coming go check out some zen 😊

Hakuin said "True self is no self," As for freewill? Freewill requires a self. No self, no freewill. Kind of like the tree falling in the forest, I think.

Bought the book. Half way thru and this is not even close to zen. Duality, Source, no free will, etc. boo!

You're very confused about philosophy. Free will is compatible with determinism and doesn't imply idealism or other non materialist positions.

R u a R-hat?

" i don't like this sort of eclectic thing of drawing from this and drawing from that" pot calling the kettle black ? AND the kettle calling the pot black ---- "How to Have No Shame, Guilt, or Hate" no shame or guilt anyway apparently

He's looking where the cat was, but there cat's not there anymore . Deep . It's not the same teaching as the video, but it's related 🪷