Brad Warner - Letters to a Dead Friend About Zen

Brad Warner – Letters to a Dead Friend About Zen

Aired Wednesday, November 20, 2019 at 5:00 PM PST / 8:00 PM EST

Many of us have experienced the loss of a friend, perhaps someone we have known since childhood. When our life paths have been divergent and communication of those paths are not shared, we might reflect on a missed opportunity to have exchanged these ideas and insights and perhaps grown through the exchange. What would you do if you wanted to reach out and have a conversation or even write a letter to someone no longer in this life? What would you share and in this sharing, would you find some solace, completion or even a deeper understanding of the path you chose?

My guest this week on Destination Unlimited, best-selling author and Zen teacher Brad Warner, had this very experience. When word reached him that his childhood friend, Marky, had died of cancer at age 48, Brad thought of all the things he never said to his friend and began writing them down in a series of “letters”.

Brad Warner is the author of It Came from Beyond Zen, Don’t be a Jerk and Hardcore Zen. Brad is a Soto Zen teacher as well as a punk bassist, filmmaker and popular blogger who leads workshops and retreats around the world. In addition to his books, his writing appears in Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, Buddhadharma and Alternative Press. He lives in Los Angeles where he is the founder and lead teacher of Angel City Zen Center. His website is hardcorezen.info and he joins us this evening to discuss his path and his just published book, Letters to a Dead Friend About Zen.