Summary of Brad Warner's The Other Side of Nothing

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Zen Buddhism is a form of Buddhism that emphasizes meditation. It was started by a group of Buddhists who wanted to get back to the basics of what the Buddha had taught, dropping most of the dogmas and rituals.

#2 Zen Buddhism is not a set of beliefs and dogmas, but a way to learn to see what reality actually is beyond all beliefs and dogmas. We can’t see the true nature of reality, but we can discover it.

#3 The nature of time and reality hides the truth of universal oneness from us. But we can see it if we know how to look. The understanding of universal oneness is not like that. It’s not something we can own.

#4 Because you are everything and everyone in the universe, it makes no sense at all to act unethically. To act unethically is the same as punching yourself in the face. Anything unethical you do to someone or something else, you are really doing to yourself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822542020

IRB Media

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Book preview

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Zen Buddhism is a form of Buddhism that emphasizes meditation. It was started by a group of Buddhists who wanted to get back to the basics of what the Buddha had taught, dropping most of the dogmas and rituals.

#2

Zen Buddhism is not a set of beliefs and dogmas, but a way to learn to see what reality actually is beyond all beliefs and dogmas. We can’t see the true nature of reality, but we can discover it.

#3

The nature of time and reality hides the truth of universal oneness from us. But we can see it if we know how to look. The understanding of universal oneness is not like that. It’s not something we can own.

#4

Because you are everything and everyone in the universe, it makes no sense at all to act unethically. To act unethically is the same as punching yourself in the face. Anything unethical you do to someone or something else, you are really doing to yourself.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The term way seeking mind comes from an ancient Japanese Zen teacher named Dogen. He taught a style of Zen that emphasized a practice called shikantaza, which means just sitting. The just in just sitting isn’t like the just in just sitting around. It means to do nothing else but just sit.

#2

I have always been interested in two questions: what is this life I am living. And how can I live that life ethically. I did not grow up with a religious family, so I did not have a spiritual framework to understand my experience of life.

#3

I was raised in a materialistic world, and I hated it. I understood that everything was just a product of random chance, and that the universe was basically dead apart from people and animals. I wondered if religious people could be right.

#4

We lived in Wadsworth, Ohio, for almost four years, and those were the most formative years of my young life. I barely remember living in Ohio before we moved to Nairobi.

#5

I was 11 when we moved to Kenya. I was never a normal American kid again, as I was constantly being exposed to different religions. When I was in high school, my parents told me that I had a 50 percent chance of developing Huntington’s disease if my mom had it.

#6

I wanted to find some neo-Advaita, a form of Hinduism that was not based on the fear of science. I was unable to find any, but I did find out about a sect of Hinduism that was not based on the fear of science.

#7

I was into punk rock in my teens, and I thought the answer to the meaning of life might be found in punk rock. I was heavily into music, and I thought Western philosophy would not help me find the answers I was looking for. Then, around my third or fourth semester at KSU, I took a class in Zen Buddhism.

Insights from Chapter 3

#1

The Heart Sutra is a