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An excerpt from Letters to a Dead Friend About Zen by Brad Warner

The night that bestselling author and Zen teacher Brad Warner learned that his childhood friend Marky had died of cancer at the age of forty-eight, he had just arrived in Hamburg, Germany where he was scheduled to give a talk to a group of Zen students.
It was the last thing he felt like doing. Instead, Warner was thinking about all of the things he never said to his friend, since topics like spirituality and meditation didn’t exactly fit with the passion for punk rock they had shared since they were young.
So, as Warner continued his teaching tour through Europe, he began writing out all the things he wished he had said to Marky before he died, and the ultimate result is the new book Letters to a Dead Friend about Zen.
Simply and humorously, Warner reflects on why Zen provided him a lifeline in a difficult world. We hope you’ll enjoy this excerpt from the book.

Through sheer dumb luck I happened to encounter Zen Buddhism when I was a teenager. I didn’t go looking for it. It was just there at exactly the time I needed it to be.

I don’t believe in Buddhism either, by the way. It’s not like I heard their fairy tales and figured they were better than anybody else’s stories. The Buddhists have fairy tales too. The difference is that nobody cares if you believe them. They don’t care whether you believe their stories because the very idea of a you who can believe in stories is something they also call into question.

Even so, I’m not all that interested in Buddhism. I’m much more interested in what is true. What I like about Buddhism is that the Buddhists are also interested in what is true. At least, most of them are.

I’m not sure if Zen Buddhism would have helped you or not, Marky. I never tried to sell it to you. You knew I was into it, but you never asked.

I never liked people who tried to sell me their religions. I know you didn’t either, so I wasn’t gonna do that to you. No one ever tried to sell me Zen Buddhism. If they had, I would have regarded them as people who were too insecure to believe in something unless a bunch of other people believed it too. I have no time for that.

But nowadays I’m a minor spiritual celebrity. I’m not as big as Deepak, but I’m big enough to make a living at it. Which was always a source of embarrassment whenever I interacted with you and still embarrasses me when I’m around friends who, like you, knew me long before I started doing what I do now.

I see spiritual celebrities as charlatans, as people who make their living selling empty promises that they themselves don’t even believe. I swear that’s not what I do. But I don’t have anything against anyone who assumes the worst about me in that regard. Because that’s probably what I’d assume about me if I wasn’t me.

Spiritual celebs play the same stupid games as regular celebs. They, or maybe I should say we, validate each other the same way cheap nightclub singers do when they get on TV talk shows.

It’s like there’s a little Enlightened Beings Club. Here’s how it works. Some guy says he’s got enlightenment. He has a story to back him up about the wonderful day when he finally understood everything about everything. Another guy, his teacher, certified him as a member of the Enlightened Beings Club. And now he’s ready to help you learn to be just like him.

You go to the enlightened guy, and he trains you to imitate the things he says. Or if he’s real clever he teaches you how to rephrase his schtick in your own words. If your imitation meets his criteria, he gives you his seal of approval, and off you go. The industry is self-perpetuating. It’s in your teacher’s best interests to support your claims of enlightenment since you, in turn, are expected to support his. Without such support, the whole thing falls to pieces.

If someone comes along and says, “Ain’t no such thang,” it threatens the whole system since it is built on extremely shaky ground. Unless people believe in enlightenment, enlightenment cannot exist. The enlightenment they sell is nothing more than the belief in enlightenment.

This is the same deal with religions. Believing in God is not like believing in the existence of Mount St. Helens or something tangible like that. The difference is that you can question the existence of Mount St. Helens all you want, but it doesn’t go away. But when someone questions the existence of God, the very existence of God is threatened, because that sort of God is nothing more than the belief in God.

And here’s what’s even weirder.

It turns out that enlightenment actually is real.

God actually does exist.

I don’t know how you feel about my saying that now that you’re dead, Marky. But I know that when you were alive you would have rolled your eyes at me. And I would not have blamed you.

There are a lot of things I wish I’d talked to you about. But I didn’t. And so I’m writing you this letter. Maybe I’ll write you a bunch of letters. There’s a lot to say. I don’t know if there’s an afterlife and you can somehow read these letters, or if there’s reincarnation and you’re still a baby and can’t read them, or if you just stay dead after you die, in which case you’ll never even know of their existence. Maybe I’ll write about that in another letter.

All I know is that whether or not you can receive what I’m saying doesn’t change the fact that there are things I want to say. And so I’m going to say them.

But I’m going to have to say them later because right now there’s nobody else in the Pizza Pazza and the surly guy behind the counter is giving me a funny look. So I’d better scarf down my cold pizza and go.

Brad Warner is the author of Letters to a Dead Friend about Zen and numerous other titles including It Came from Beyond Zen, Don’t Be a Jerk, and Hardcore Zen. A Soto Zen teacher, he is also a punk bassist, filmmaker, and popular blogger who leads workshops and retreats around the world. He lives in Los Angeles where he is the founder and lead teacher of the Angel City Zen Center. Visit him online at www.hardcorezen.info.

Excerpted from the book Letters to a Dead Friend About Zen. Copyright ©2019 by Brad Warner. Printed with permission from New World Library.

Sometimes when I hold something or look at something, I get this tingly, chilly feeling. That's all that happens, however. How can I find out what this is? I try to read more into it, but I can't seem to get any further than this feeling. Do you think I'm psychic? If so, what can I do to develop my abilities further?

- Patti

Astrea:

I'm sure you have a gift for psychometry. This is the ability to read people, places, and things by holding something that was either dear to the person or particular to the place. That tingly feeling you get is something you should develop further so you can really use it.

To develop your skill, you must make every one of your five (regular) senses tune in to the object you're touching or holding. First, try to turn those feelings into something visual. Once you can picture something that is related to the item you're holding, examine that picture in your mind.

With practice, you'll be able to tell if the item you're holding belongs to a man or a woman, what age that person is, and how long ago they held or owned it.

Next, seek the scent of the object. How does it smell, and what is the taste you have in your mouth? Is it salty? Sweet? Bitter? That's a key to the personality of the object.

Is the owner speaking? While you may not be able to make out exact words, what is that voice like? How does it sound? Is it high-pitched or low and baritone? Use those five senses to engage your sixth sense - your psychic awareness. Be methodical about this and practice a lot.

Begin with small, simple things that belong to a person. Focus on items that have only had one owner because those are less confusing. Keys are good because usually they belong to just one person.

Antique jewelry can create a mess in your head because it has probably passed through many hands. Clothing also gets handed down, as do toys. Also, at least at first, make sure that your friends aren't trying to fool or test you.

In a few months, you'll be able to branch out to rocks, leaves and soil to read places. Start with items from places that you've actually been so that it's easier for you to identify where it is you go. These are the most fun for me because you get to mentally go there when you're holding the rock. You can travel the whole world this way!
s
The most difficult items are things that have belonged to people who have crossed over, so don't try to read those until you have a little more experience. Sometimes our loved ones are so eager to come through that they can short-circuit our psychic wiring, which can lead to a bad headache.

Also, people with your gift are often natural mediums, so you have to take care that you don't hurt yourself by doing things you're not ready to do yet. Reading objects is like solving a puzzle, so if you're good with puzzles, you should be good at psychometry too.

*****

Susyn:

How wonderful! What you're experiencing is definitely a sign that your psychic gifts are coming to life, and once they awaken, there's no stopping them.

Psychic abilities (or in this case ESP, which is a precursor to psychic abilities) appear at different times for different people. What you're experiencing is the ability to sense energies beyond what normal people can - hence the term Extra-Sensory Perception.

Your ability to perceive the invisible fields of energy surrounding the objects you hold tells me you are especially sensitive to these vibrations. Because of this, I strongly recommend you invest in a crystal pendulum. Divining with a pendulum will allow you to ask specific questions or evaluate your options based simply on the energy fields the pendulum picks up.

Here are two more exercises you can use to build your powers or use them to do readings for people:

At a local rock or metaphysical store, purchase seven stones of different colors. Use the key below and pick one stone to represent each of the seven chakras or energy centers in the human body. (The type of stone is unimportant).

Red: Root Chakra/ Physical Body
Orange: Creation Chakra/ Creative Energy
Yellow: Solar Plexus Chakra/ Personal Power
Green: Heart Chakra/ Emotions
Light Blue: Will Chakra/ Self-Expression
Indigo: Mind Chakra/ Intellect
Purple: Crown Chakra/ Connection to spirit

Sit in a quiet space where you won't be distracted, and one by one, pick up a stone and hold it in your hand. As you sit with it, note the images, thoughts or feelings you have. Also note on a scale from 1-5 the level of energy you feel emanating from each stone.

You can use these stones to check your own and others' energy centers. If the energy from the stone is low, that indicates an area you will want to meditate or record so you can clear any blocks.

Another great way to develop your gifts is to have people bring you objects or items that belonged to someone who has crossed over. It's best if this was someone you didn't know.

Trusting the thoughts or feelings you get and expressing them will help you see how often your psychic impressions are right, which in turn will deepen your ability to trust them and encourage further development.

There are many ways to develop and use this talent, so work with it and stay open to these feelings. By practicing, you'll encourage your psychic gifts to grow and prosper.

Good luck to you!