Zen Confidential: Confessions of a Wayward Monk
Haubner was raised in a Catholic family in Milwaukee. He went on to study philosophy before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a screenwriter and stand-up comic—an unlikely beginning for a Zen monk, he admits. And he found his “true self” not while writing or performing but rather at a Zen Buddhist monastery. In this enjoyably entertaining read, which includes a foreword by songwriter Leonard Cohen, an ordained Zen Buddhist monk, Haubner doesn’t claim to be an expert in Buddhism or Zen. Instead, the Zen he discovered is his antidote to what he describes as capitalistic, individualist, minimall America. He writes about his training with a Zen master, his complex relationship with his parents, and issues regarding his sexuality. At one point, he has a sad revelation: no one “within a thousand-mile radius” genuinely loved him. He had no real home or real friends, “dreams but no goals, credit but no money.” And then his life began to look up. --June Sawyers