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Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans That Will Save Your Life by [Tarrant, John]

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Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans That Will Save Your Life Kindle Edition

by John Tarrant (Author)

38 customer reviews

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Bring Me the Rhinoceros is an unusual guide to happiness and a can opener for your thinking. For fifteen hundred years, Zen koans have been passed down through generations of masters, usually in private encounters between teacher and student. This book deftly retells more than a dozen traditional koans, which are partly paradoxical questions dangerous to your beliefs and partly treasure boxes of ancient wisdom. Koans show that you don’t have to impress people or change into an improved, more polished version of yourself. Instead you can find happiness by unbuilding, unmaking, throwing overboard, and generally subverting unhappiness. John Tarrant brings the heart of the koan tradition out into the open, reminding us that the old wisdom remains as vital as ever, a deep resource available to anyone in any place or time.

Length: 209 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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Product details

File Size: 433 KB
Print Length: 209 pages
Publisher: Shambhala; Reprint edition (November 11, 2008)
Publication Date: November 11, 2008
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B007WVNW6Y
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

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Not Enabled

Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #134,981 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #39 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Religion & Spirituality > Buddhism > Zen Philosophy
- #51 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Religion & Spirituality > Buddhism > Zen
- #65 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Religion & Spirituality > Buddhism > Rituals & Practice

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How can a book be not a book?

November 15, 2008

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

There is no end to the making of books; Amazon exists for that, and it's great to learn how to, say, repair a window.

But in the "wisdom" category, 99% of books merely engage the old chattering mind, and you just end up with new noise. Nothin' wrong with that, but somehow, Tarrant does something different when he writes, and I come away smiling deep, breathing freer, paying closer attention to my wife, my tasks, the wind battering the tree limb against my window. I shake my head again and again at how much I'd been missing. Sometimes, this shift persists for hours.

Hey, reader: you've earned a brief reprieve from worry and other secret babble. Don't miss this one; it may take you home to the core.

And I, after reading way too many books, don't know how he does it.

0Comment 41 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Shawn Thompson aka the intimate ape

This book on Buddhist koan wisdom is superbly written with ...

March 29, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book on Buddhist koan wisdom is superbly written with background and personal interpretation that avoid the typical arid abstractions and bring it alive. "Count the stars." Shawn Thompson, author of Letters From Prison and The Intimate Ape

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Another way of koan study

February 27, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

John Tarrant describes the method of working with koans in a way that I have never understood before. It is the same approach any Zen teacher would require of a student, but in the method of this teacher, it comes across more clearly to me. That may not be true of everyone who reads this. However, everything in its own time: glad this came along to me. My understanding of koan work has definitely been made clearer in an experiential sense. It would be interesting, perhaps rewarding even, to take a retreat with this author some time.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Margaret Neiheisel

A tool for creativity

August 27, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book is a must for any serious Zen meditator. The koans are a tool to open up one's creative mind in a unique fashion. If you want to think and feel on a higher level, then this book is for you.

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Rita M. Reynolds

Excellent book!

February 21, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I am new to Koans, and found this to be a wonderful introduction - easy to understand yet challenging enough to keep me interested and now, wanting to know more. John Tarrant is an excellent teacher and writer. I strongly recommend this book to any student of Zen Koans and life in general. This is a guide to come back to often.

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Love this book!

October 27, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I love this book. Very modern and very ancient at the same time. It is the kind of book one returns to time after time. I have already read it twice. The author instructs on the koan tradition and brings it into the modern spirit with commentary from his own life. Excellent read.

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In this relatively short and delightfully written book, John ...

November 7, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

In this relatively short and delightfully written book, John Tarrant captures the value and beauty of zen koans and how they directly apply to one's life. It is the simplicity and depth that are captivating. It allows the reader to contemplate and deepen their own understanding rather than being fed lengthly explanations and descriptions.

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Delicious introduction to koans

September 22, 2012

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

John Tarrant's Bring Me the Rhinoceros is a very compelling introduction to koans and other aspects of zen buddhism
for seekers, thinkers, and those who love puzzles ... like life!!!

0Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Most recent customer reviews

Beautiful and funny

This is a thoughtful, sensitive, and moving book. In addition to his extensive knowledge of Zen, John Tarrant has a self-effacing sense of humor that I found very endearing.Read more

Published 3 months ago

Edward V. Phillips

What can I say About a book

Published 3 months ago

Interesting, but left me hungry for more.

I enjoyed this, but anyone with less exposure to Zen/Buddhism than myself can do better. I must acknowledge that I learned some things about koans, so if that's the only...Read more

Published 7 months ago

Some good koans in here.

Published 8 months ago

One of our teachers read some passages from this while ...

One of our teachers read some passages from this while we considered case 55 from the BCR. I found it's take on what is a very polysemic text to be informative and helpful.

Published 1 year ago

take your time reading it.
Beautiful, reflective

Published 1 year ago

... is rather dry and contains some silly testimonials - like one about a woman who became so enlightened that ...

The book is rather dry and contains some silly testimonials - like one about a woman who became so enlightened that she was confused by her own foot.Read more

Published 1 year ago

Amazon Customer

An amazing journey

Tarrant has taken a very "difficult" subject, even intimidating, and made it easy to follow and to learn and to enjoy.

Published 1 year ago

Not the book I was hoping for

not a fair review - this was not what I was looking for. Too Zen for me. I tried to read it, but it was just more than I could absorb. I know that that may be the point.Read more

Published 1 year ago

Published 1 year ago

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