Great writers, like Leonard Cohen - who knew Shozan Jack as a friend and praised him for his truth and candor - have tried to sublimate these devils through their writing.īut publicizing your struggles with your shadows is a growing experience - because not only do we grow in becoming aware of them, but they grow as well! So that we can become trapped in a vicious squirrel-cage.Īs Cohen, rest his angst-ridden soul, discovered when - late in life - he met Jack and his unorthodox Zen Master! All of you who know the poetry of Leonard Cohen know that he was the archetypal Canadian Poet of Becoming. Not only because it's highly entertaining, but because of its remarkable insight into the human condition.ĭiscovering your true self is problematic, to say the least.Īs well as going against the flow of society’s often necessary constraints and strictures, you’re apt to encounter quite a few personal devils. Whether he's dealing with the pranks of a juvenile delinquent assistant in the monastery kitchen or defending himself against claims that he appeared in a porno movie under the name 'Daniel Reed' (he didn't, really) or being surprised in the midst of it all by the compassion he experiences in the presence of his teacher, Haubner's voice is one you'll be compelled to listen to. How he went from life in the fast lane to life on the stationary meditation cushion is the subject of this laugh-out-loud funny account of his experiences.

Raised in a conservative Catholic family, Shozan went on to study philosophy (becoming de-Catholicized in the process) and to pursue a career as a screenwriter and stand-up comic in the clubs of L.A. These hilarious essays on life inside and outside a Zen monastery make up the spiritual memoir of Shozan Jack Haubner, a Zen monk who didn’t really start out to be one. And what a sly, dangerous, beautiful, foul-smelling, heart-warming beast it is.”-Leonard Cohen, from the foreword “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.

Zen Confidential by Shozan Jack Haubner