Ecclesiastes, according to a zen buddhist One of the books I picked up as research for my book about punk rock and Christianity is Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth About Reality, by Brad Warner, a former hardcore punk musician from Ohio who is now a zen priest in Japan. I started reading it last night and found a great quote to go along with my chapter, "Ecclesiastes in a Ripped Shirt," which focuses on how punk's nihilism connects with Ecclesiastes' message.
Anyway, the quote: it's a great contemporary paraphrase of the first few couple of chapters of Ecclesiastes.
Fame, fortune, really great sex -- maybe those'll cure all your ills. But beautiful famous people with loads of money are just as confused and miserable as anyone else. Spend your whole life chasing after wealth and power and you end up with nothing more to show for it than bleeding ulcers and a heart condition. You can master tantric yogic poly-orgasmic Wonder Sex but you're still gonna die alone. There has to be something more.