Hardcore Zen

What Hacker News says

1. thinksocratesOct 2015
   I would encourage you to try meditation. It's not a cure for depression, but it can have effects that help. In the Zen tradition, Brad Warner's books have been very helpful to me. http://www.amazon.com/Hardcore-Zen-Monster-Movies-Reality/dp...
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2. siberianfruit2Jun 2011
   I, too, know exactly where you're coming from with these feelings. I've recently been making incredible progress with changing my thinking to be more productive and to simply becoming more happy and satisfied while moving forward.

   1. Read Hardcore Zen: http://www.amazon.com/Hardcore-Zen-Monster-Movies-Reality/dp...

   2. Read my last blog post: http://siberianfruit.com/post/6042838362/the-myth-about-what...

   3. Work on separating facts from your interpretation. All of us do this all the time. Something happens (an event of one sort or another). We make up a story about that event. We then proceed to live our lives as if our story WERE the event or the fact. The path to liberation lies through understanding that the stories was not what actually happened. We make them up! The reality is always neutral, not good or bad. Just is. And because of that we have the freedom to choose what our reality is. Of course, I'm just scratching the surface, but if you message me privately, I can point you to more resources on how you can work on this.

   :)

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3. silentbicycleJun 2010
   I sit on a cushion for fifteen minutes or so, sitting cross-legged so that my back is relatively straight and my knees keep the whole posture relatively stable.

   Beyond that, it's just sitting and observing. If (ok, when) I notice my focus has drifted and I'm getting caught up in thoughts, I stop feeding into them and return focus to my breath, posture, and surroundings.

   It can be dreadfully boring, but when I do it periodically, it really does help - like taking the lid off a pot on the verge of boiling over. (It's an especially direct way to train your mind to stay focused, too.)

   There's a decent chapter about sitting meditation in Brad Warner's _Hardcore Zen_, which I also recommend because it isn't a bunch of new-age-y sunshine and lollipops. (Looking at a lot of other Western books on Buddhism, you'd think Zen had antioxidants or something.)

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4. gps408May 2009
   Also Hardcore Zen http://www.amazon.com/Hardcore-Zen-Monster-Movies-Reality/dp... and Brad Warner's blog http://hardcorezen.blogspot.com/
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5. gps408Jan 2008
   Brad Warner is fantastic.

   Check out his blog: http://www.hardcorezen.blogspot.com/

   And his articles at Suicide Girls: http://suicidegirls.com/members/Brad_Warner/news/ (the articles are ok but the site itself is probably nsfw)

   Hardcore Zen is my favourite book.

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6. tsujaminOct 2022
   “Suffering occurs when your ideas about how things ought to be don’t match how they really are.”

   I started reading Hardcore Zen out of interest after seeing it recommended in a twitter thread. Still deciding about the book but this one stuck with me, that (physical causes aside) unhappiness can be a choice that you make moment to moment and that you can decide to change your mind

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