Tales of Zen Buddhist Scoundrels

Sensei, a man accused of laziness, malingering, sexual misconduct, alcoholism, blasphemy and depression, wanders in a netherworld somewhere between modern Los Angeles and ancient Kyoto. He appears under many names and in many guises, and often belongs to many religions or no religion. He also seems indifferent to politics, long-term employment and monogamous relationships, leaving him open to the charges of agnosticism, amorality and nihilism. He wanders from temple to dive bar, and from holy lands to inner cities. Going from job to job, sometimes serving as a priest, sometimes forced into emeritus status, and at other times wandering the streets homeless, he always seeks, though his adventures, to wreck any attempts at smugness or certainty. Whatever beliefs his interlocutors are holding on to, even if it's Buddhism itself, Sensei will, through his escapades, unearth the unfounded assumptions that guide most of his questioners through their predictable days. Sensei is, above all things, unpredictable, and one can never tell whether he will respond to a given situation with a most transcendent gentleness or the most explosive violence. In the Bodhisattva tradition, he uses different medicines to cure different illnesses, as the old sutras used to say.