Bring Me the Rhinoceros : And Other Zen Koans to Bring You Joy

Rating:
Summary: Try it. You'll like it!
Review: "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!


Rating:
Summary: Highly Reccomended reading for seekers
Review: How comfortable I find myself in these pages. John Tarrant brings us intriguing stories and a Rhino, a thick-skinned beast that we can ride into the darkness of the unknown, into the mystery of who we are, why we suffer, and how joy can found on a path that goes beyond what can be conceptually understood. An excellent gift book too.

Rating:
Summary: Please join in our discussion
Review: 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.



Rating:
Summary: But what if I don't like rhinoceroses?
Review: It is more than a little ironic that the last koan explored in this book is "There is nothing I dislike," because I spent a majority of this book feeling like I disliked it a lot. To be fair, however, I must admit that much, if not all, of my dislike is the result of having a lot of expectations, preconceived notions if you will, of what this book would/should be. I wanted this book to be more in-depth, perhaps a bit more scholarly with regard to the history and study of koans. Instead, this is a short, sweet & sometimes illuminating take on the koan as applied to modern life; and Mr. Tarrant does this part very well: the presentation of a modern context for the koan. Mr. Tarrant is able to present a component of Rinzai Zen practice as not only relevant, but very much alive, inhabiting the whole of modern life.

"There is nothing I dislike" is a good koan for me because it's a central theme in my life: the fact that I am guided by my imaginary opinions and judgments. So, in the end (literally and figuratively), I am glad I purchased this volume if only to explore this koan a little further in my own life. Perhaps you, too, might benefit, if you happen to stumble --- despite your best efforts not to --- across a real gem.

Rating:
Summary: Presenting Zen
Review: 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.