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Thanks to Dana Mitchell for patiently reading and critiquing my writing when no one else wanted to know. And to Miki Mochizuki for listening to a lot of my rants that eventually went into this book. Thanks to everyone who reads my website (www.hardcorezen.org) for letting me test out some of this stuff on you. When I wasn’t making sense you always told me so. Please keep it up.

Thanks as well to the bands who meant so much to me when I was a young tyke (and not such a young tyke): The Who, The Beatles, Syd Barrett, KISS®, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Iggy and the Stooges, The Cramps, Black Flag, Minor Threat, The Misfits, The Meat Puppets, The Dickies, The Descendents, ALL, PiL, The Dead Kennedys, MDC, Robyn Hitchcock, Teenage Fanclub, Flaming Lips, and all the great Akron/Kent bands like Rubber City Rebels, Starvation Army, The F-Models, Hammer-Damage, Urban Mutants, and Bongo’s Jungle Party.

Also thanks to anyone not mentioned or expecting to be mentioned in these acknowledgments who’s actually read down this far. I never read the acknowledgments sections in books. Boring, boring, boring. Who cares about all these people you never heard of? So here’s a joke as a reward for sticking with me: How many Zen masters does it take to screw in a light bulb? The plum tree in the garden! Haw! Get it?

Finally a big huge thank you to my luscious wife, Yuka, for never giving up.

If you liked HARDCORE ZEN, check out these:

BLUE JEAN BUDDHA

VOICES OF YOUNG BUDDHISTS

Edited by Sumi Loundon

Foreword by Jack Kornfield

288 pages, ISBN 0-861781-177-7, $16.95

“These stories are NOT AT ALL WHAT YOU’RE USED TO HEARING.” —Angela Watrous, editor of Bare Your Soul: The Thinking Girl’s Guide to Enlightenment “This is AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME.”—Publishers Weekly

“THESE 20- AND 30-SOMETHINGS REALLY GET IT, in a way that perhaps their parents did not. They write of finding peace and practice in NEW YORK CITY; of taking vows of celibacy while continuing to be a PUNK ROCKER. They seek, investigate, QUESTION, retreat, sit zazen, or chant as part of their practice—the new American Buddhism. There is wisdom here for all ages.”—NAPRA ReVIEW

“These stories RESONATE.”—Shambhala Sun

“Here are the voices of YOUNGER PEOPLE bringing their own GENERATIONAL CONCERNS and CULTURAL SPIN to the Buddha’s teaching. Blue Jean Buddha is a testimony to the timelessness of the dharma, as well as to the vitality of a new generation that is taking it to heart.”—Inquiring Mind

NOVICE TO MASTER

AN ONGOING LESSON IN THE

EXTENT OF MY OWN STUPIDITY

by Soko Morinaga

Translated by Belenda Attaway

Yamakawa

144 pages, ISBN 0-86171-393-1,

$11.95

“A spiritual autobiography by an accomplished master of Zen, and also A COMPELLING STORY OF COMING OF AGE in post-war Japan. One can’t help but be drawn to the genuine tone of Morinaga’s voice and his SENSE OF HUMOR.” —Shambhala Sun

“UNPRETENTIOUS, POIGNANT AND INSIGHTFUL. Artfully written and translated, Novice to Master weaves personal narrative together with key concepts of Zen practices.” —Sumi Loundon, editor of Blue Jean Buddha

“If Novice to Master were just a monk’s story, it would be worth reading. But it is far more. It is the story of A MAN’S DEVOTION TO GETTING IT—WHATEVER IT MAY BE.”—RALPH: The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities

HOW TO RAISE AN OX

ZEN PRACTICE AS TAUGHT IN

MASTER DOGEN’S SHOBOGENZO

Francis Dojun Cook

Foreword by Taizan Maezumi Roshi

208 pages, ISBN 0-86171-317-6, $14.95

“An OUTSTANDING introduction to the most important Zen master in Japanese history. Francis Dojun Cook provides a brilliant translation of ten carefully selected chapters from DOGEN’S MASTER-PIECE, SHOBOGENZO. These chapters are preceded by a series of short essays written by Cook, which distill the essence of what follows and provide an IDEAL INTRODUCTION to it. These essays help the reader to grasp the more subtle and elusive aspects of Dogen’s PROFOUND AND EXTRAORDINARILY CREATIVE WRITING. Cook has