Don't be a jerk and other practical advice from Dōgen, Japan's greatest Zen master : a radical but reverent paraphrasing of Dōgen's Treasury of the true dharma eye / Brad Warner.

Includes bibliographical references.

Dōgen's Zen FAQ (A talk about pursuing the truth) -- How to sit down and shut up (The universal guide to the standard method of Zazen) -- Dōgen explains the heart sutra (The heart of great perfect wisdom sutra) -- Note to self: there is no self -- You are not yourself (The realized universe) -- Did Dōgen teach reincarnation, and does it even matter if he did? -- Won't get fooled again (One bright pearl) -- You can't say "I miss you" in Japanese -- A list of rules (Rules for the hall of the accumulated cloud) -- You're already enlightened, except you're not (Mind here and now is Buddha) -- Banned in Japan: the twisted history of Shōbōgenzō -- Zen and the art of wiping your butt (Washing) --Three encounters with Dōgen -- Was Dōgen the first Buddhist feminist? (Prostrating to that which has attained the marrow) --Hearing weird stuff late at night (River voices and mountain forms) -- Don't be a jerk (Not doing wrong) -- Psychedelic Dōgen (Being-time) -- The mystical power of the clothes you wear (Transmission of the robe) -- The beer and Doritos sutra (The sutra of mountains and waters) -- The Buddhist hall of fame (The Buddhist patriarchs) -- Buddhist paperwork (The certificate of succession) -- Twirly flowers twirl twirly flowers (The flower of the Dharma turns the flower of Dharma) -- Stop trying to grab my mind (The mind cannot be grasped) -- Monkeys and mirrors and stones (The eternal mirror) -- Chanting sutras (Reading--or chanting--sutras) -- Dōgen's Zen in the twenty-first century.

The Shōbōgenzō (The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye) is a revered eight-hundred-year-old Zen Buddhism classic written by the Japanese monk Eihei Dōgen. Despite the timeless wisdom of his teachings, many consider the book difficult to understand and daunting to read. In Don’t Be a Jerk, Zen priest and bestselling author Brad Warner, through accessible paraphrasing and incisive commentary, applies Dōgen's teachings to modern times. While entertaining and sometimes irreverent, Warner is also an astute scholar who sees in Dōgen very modern psychological concepts, as well as insights on such topics as feminism and reincarnation. Warner even shows that Dōgen offered a "Middle Way" in the currently raging debate between science and religion. For curious readers worried that Dōgen's teachings are too philosophically opaque, Don’t Be a Jerk is hilarious, understandable, and wise.