NATURAL SELECTION
Reviews of books, film, and other media
A dual review of the state of Gen-X Buddhism today.
Against the Stream
by Noah Levine
(HarperOne, 2007, paperback $13.95)
Departing from the autobiographical troubled-teen-finds-Buddhism backbone of his first book, the thirty-six-year-old Levine has stepped into the role of a full-fledged spiritual teacher, expounding the Buddha-dharma as it was taught to him by his mentor, American meditation teacher Jack Kornfield—only with far more of an edge…
Sit Down and Shut Up
by Brad Warner
(New World Library, 2007, paperback $14.95)
Framed around a trip Warner takes to his hometown (Akron) for a reunion gig with his early-eighties punk band (Zero Defects), Sit Down and Shut Up is a fun but serious explication of Zen practice and theory by a self-avowed master…