Excerpt
By Way of a ForewordThis is the best account I have ever read of the education of a Zen monk in America.
I was ordained a long while ago. Shortly thereafter my teacher let me know that I was a “pretend monk.” That was true. I was in it for the robes.
Shozan Jack Haubner has trained for more than nine years with a teacher whom I love, on a mountain that I know. Difference is, he is the real deal. He stuck it out while (many years before he arrived) I escaped.
But now this punk of a monk, who should be tending to his own affairs, has decided to infect the real world with his tall tales, and worse, to let the cat out of the bag. And what a sly, dangerous, beautiful, foul-smelling, heartwarming beast it is. We can almost forgive him.
If you are interested in these matters, this is a book you will enjoy. If you want to go a little deeper, this is a book you will need.
—Jikan Leonard Cohen