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

Okay, Mountain Tasting runs a close second, but this book gets me through hard times. It is great to read aloud to a friend or spouse. It is the only book I now recommend to those dealing with life-threatening illnesses. The koans work me and transform my suffering into something like acceptance. My only complaint is that it has not yet come out in paperback.

I am a member of Pacific Zen Institute (PZI) and John Tarrant is my primary teacher. That being said, I offer a little different perspective than what you may read in other responses to his book, "Bring Me the Rhinoceros." We at PZI have one-on-one interviews with John during any given month as well as at retreats. This is the context in which most people view koan work. But the word koan literally means "public notice". John has reconnected our community to the ways of old Chinese masters by bringing public discussion back into koan studies. He does this by conducting koan seminars throughout the year where we will meditate with a koan, then share our experience with the group. What John has done with "Bring Me the Rhinoceros" is to offer every reader the opportunity to join in a grand public koan discussion. John writes how these koans have affected him; he writes about other people and their koan experiences; but it doesn't end here. Sometimes I read one chapter just before going to sleep. Other times I read a chapter just before my morning meditation period. How have you experienced these koans? Join us, then, in this grand discussion.

"Let the teaching flow out from your own breast to cover the sky and the earth." - Yantou "When you unpack all your motives and other people's motives and get to the bottom of things, you find love. I know that this is a shocking thing to say but I will try to show how it is true." - BMtR The single most satisfying aspect of this book is the sharing of personal experience. The author relates his "Stumbling into Koans" as well as sharing the experiences of others who have encountered koan practice. Many of the traditional koans are themselves dialogues or interchanges. Each of the fourteen chapters stands alone as the presentation of a koan with commentary. Each chapter is entitled, for example "ON AVOIDING BAD ART" or "LIFE WITH AND WITHOUT YOUR CHERISHED BELIEFS" or "THE HEAVEN THAT'S ALREADY HERE". Each koan has a section "Working with the Koan", with one or more personal stories from the author or another person. The honest sharing of life experience makes the book intriguing. "Koans might be imagined as vials of ancient light. There is one strange thing about meeting ancestors in this way: when they reach down across night and the years to give you their light, you might find that what you have been given is your own light, something that belongs to you." - BMtR On the other hand, one can lose one's precious maps that over and over lead one into the familiar den of misery. Tarrant strongly advises to discard the old, familiar roadmap to Misery, AND don't replace it with anything. Not knowing is preferred to being CERTAIN and suffering. Life is allowed to be itself, not scrunched into little ugly molds. Try it. You'll like it!

This book is more than a book about Koans. It is a complete presentation of The Matter itself. John Tarrant goes directly to the heart of the matter and directly to OUR hearts. One can't help but take up koans as one reads the book. Koans are about our life, not about some chinese buddhists who lived 1000 years or more ago. John show the way to freedom, demonstrates the way to freedom and the kicker is, it's already here if you can see it and use it. What a gift. Nine bows.