Single White Monk: Tales of Death, Failure, and Bad Sex (Although Not Necessarily in That Order)

Haubner (Zen Confidential), a Zen monk and 2012 Pushcart Prize winner, describes the ordinary humanness of life as a Zen monk in this witty memoir. The first half consists of reflections on his “personal mythology,” like the first time he felt “the call of the void” (the nothingness at the heart of many Buddhist teachings) and the time he jumped the monastery wall to visit a brothel to satisfy his urges. Along the way he offers beautiful reworkings of Buddhist noble truths. “Brokenness doesn’t need fixing,” he writes, but rather “needs company” by “pressing our wounds together.” Haubner is forthcoming with his failings and insecurities, particularly in the second half, which is concerned largely with the inside details of a sex scandal surrounding his former teacher, Joshu Sasaki Roshi. Rather than making excuses for Roshi’s abuse of power, Haubner asks “[H]ow can good people manifest bad things?” Enlightenment does not guarantee someone’s goodness, he concludes. Haubner’s book is a sometimes confused journey, but it is also an honest and heartfelt questioning of what it means to be a flawed human caught in powerful currents of karma. (Oct.)