Wisdom of the Punk Buddha Paperback – 3 July 2023

I am not a Punk nor am I a Buddhist, but Sam’s collection of poetry accompanied with enlightening thoughts and guidance in the foot notes, with humorous anecdotes, makes you question your own life choices and whether there is an alternative option or even a small or simple change that can be made in your own life?I have recommended this book to several people and I hope that those that read it may be encouraged to look at their lives from a different angle?

Before reading this book, I felt that I knew a bit about punk rock and nothing at all about Buddhism.Having finished it, I'm pleased to say I know a bit more about both.Sam Marsh may well be known to readers as the incredibly talented and uniquely powerful singing drummer behind the wonderfully creative and trail blazing band Bury St Edmund's band, Jacob's Mouse. Then there is his work with Machismo's, Volunteers and more. He also masters all record releases, his Midas like powers ensuring that even wobbly flexis sound like solid gold.Now this book reveals a completely different side to his character and his skill set.If you too think that you know a little about Punk and about Buddhism, you might have thought that there would be very little connection between the two. Allow Sam to enlighten you! He links the rebelliousness of punk with the anti materialist philosophy of Buddhism by counterposing amusing, well crafted and very intelligible poems with slightly deeper pieces of prose. This prose draws on personal lived and relatable experience to make even complex ideas understandable, which the poems then illuminate with humour and a deftly light touch to illustrate the theological points being made. Together they combine to show how the best way to achieve peace is to move beyond continual wanting, beyond non stop self promotion and ceaseless senseless striving. Realistic examples are then given as to how this can achieved, or at least begun to be achieved.As the book progresses you realize there is indeed a link between these aims and Punk rock's rejection of similar rapaciousness, as it its best, it too seeks to find something beyond the thin sound of the mundane nine to five billboard ideal : 'Same old boring Sunday morning, old men out washing their cars'.As I see it, this isn't to say that campaigning for a better, fairer, kinder world isn't laudable – just that this better world shouldn't be all about commodity fetishism.I thoroughly enjoyed this original, well written, lovingly produced and thought provoking little book and recommend it to anybody who enjoys Punk or Buddhism, or just wants to know a bit more about the world and how to improve it.

A great book, really has given me some nice thoughts to carry around in my head in glum times. Profound non- flashy teachings explained clearly, the kind that can actually help people. The book also has some interesting poetry spread around.

Wisdom of the Punk Buddha is edgy, raw, authentic and helped me to find a way to connect to what is at the very heart of Buddhism and being a punk: being kind, nice, thinking less and keeping a sense of humour and peace in the thick of the chaotic world we find ourselves in.Sam's poems that are woven into the thoughtful and thought-provoking book are witty, fun and can't put help bring a smile to your face. I have enjoyed reading it on the tube!It is a must for anyone who is questioning themselves and their purpose and helps to make sense about how we can find peace in this crazy world.Thank you to Sam Marsh, looking forward to the next read.....

Through constant searching for real healing. I stumbled upon this book. I love it’s honestly. How it sees the beauty and the cruelty in one page. A daily struggle for us all. If you strive to relate then this is a book we can all relate to through the author’s unique understanding of healing and its struggles.Well worth a read.

Passing on wisdom to everyone of all walks of life, essential reading, littered with advice, sprinkled with humour.

Fantastic read, great coffee table book to peruse, wonderful thoughts, quotes and totally unique.

This is a great read! I’m not a Buddhist, but I get a lot of where Buddhists are coming from in the approach to life. Sam IS a Buddhist, but imparts the basics of Buddhism in an irreverent manner, and intersperses this material with some, at times hilarious, poems. I’m not sure that anyone has ever written a book quite like this, and it comes highly recommended!