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

Bring Me The Rhinoceros is a wise and intimate book. Ostensibly it is about koans, those tricky Zen "riddles" such as "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"Really though, it is about how to live a life steeped in intimacy and love and openness. How to allow your heart to be more vulnerable, how to let yourself take that gigantic risk of truly being present in your own life. How to let go of believing you have the answers, how to let go of believing you do not have the answers.For what matters is not "the answer" to a koan; what matters is living with the koan, letting it pierce your heart and draw out the suffering stored within its many chambers. Reading Tarrant is like walking in warm rain, feeling the rain and the wind and the earth and the fire of life burning in your blood vessels. His tenderness shines from every page.Here is a short sample, about desire: "One spiritual solution to desire is to flee it. The idea is nonattachment, transcending the body and its feelings--an intellectual form of taking a cold shower. But trying not to think about what you want sets up an inner conflict and is not the same as freedom. Desire might be handled another way, as a given.What you want is a portion of the world rising out of nothingness to meet you. It has its own purity just by existing. It is as real as the Sydney Opera House or a wombat. You can't transcend a wombat. Perhaps desire is necessary for life and fundamental to empathy. You might find freedom by going towards the disturbing force rather than away from it. There is nowhere outside the body you can live, so you might find freedom in the body."Tarrant likens awareness as the cone of light a single lamp makes on a desk. The area illuminated by the lamp is much smaller than the darkness in the room. Our usual strategy is to look for things lit by the lamp, to to drag something in the nearby darkness into the light to examine.Tarrant suggests that a better strategy is to explore the darkness, courageously walking far beyond the circle of light into the unknown. Here is where we may find surprising truths, unsuspected feelings, memories we have deliberately forgotten.I have chosen this book, and one other to be my guide as I contemplate koans, because of Tarrant's unusual, heart-based approach to koan work. The other book is If You're Lucky, Your Heart Will Break by James Ford. Both are worthy of letting down your guard of self-esteem and quietly gazing in awe at the beauty and mystery of life.

As with all books of imagination and kindness, they tattoo themselves onto you. And in all times, through all days, you are reminded of their presence. John tarrant is as true of a baby bodhissatva as one can wish to be. I am forever changed, day by day, by his efforts and energy. I can think of few books I’ve read more and practiced with more diligently. If you get a chance to live with this book, please take it

This book is an examination of fifteen classic Zen koans selected by John Tarrant, founder of the Pacific Zen Institute (PZI.) Koans are statements or stories that are designed to help students of Zen Buddhism escape their usual ways of thinking because the absurdity of koans cannot be meaningfully answered with the usual approach based in logic and reason. Even if the concept isn’t familiar, readers are sure to have heard the famous koan: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” [Though one may have missed the value as a tool of the mind, and dismissed the koan as a sage’s attempt to be abstruse and esoteric.]Each chapter addresses one koan in great detail. First, the koan is presented in a simple fashion. It should be pointed out that some of these koans are a single line and others are as long as several paragraphs. Next, there is a sort of introduction to the concept or point being addressed in the koan. Tarrant knows the value of story, and this frequently involves a narrative approach. Next, there is a section describing the koan in more detail than in which it was first introduced. Here the author elaborates and provides background. The final section of each chapter is about “working with the koan” and offers a bit of insight into how to start considering the lesson of each koan.I enjoyed this book. It’s a good selection of koans that cover a wide range of styles and approaches. As I mentioned the author uses stories and anecdotes – both historical and contemporary – to help get his point across. The titular use of a particularly absurd koan “punchline,” gives one a taste of the author’s willingness to engage in the whimsical.I’d highly recommend this book for those who are seeking to better understand koans, either as students of Zen or as individuals interested in the workings of the mind more generally.

My koan teacher works with John Tarrant and recommended this book. It was a very good suggestion and excellent way into koans and koan practice. I don't know what the one star reviewer was expecting but this book is far clearer on the hows and whys of koans than any other text I have read and still doesn't miss the point, or the rhinoceros.Like a good Zen storyteller, Mr Tarrant uses a range of koans to illustrate different points of practice and this is the raison d'etre for koan study - to open our eyes to living life in a way that is different to how we have been living thus far. If you are happy with your life, continue on, but if you have experienced what another teacher of mine calls the 'gentle tap on the shoulder' or 'that quiet inner voice' telling you that another way is possible then you will almost certainly enjoy this book and benefit from it.Highly recommended for all students of Zen, whether Soto, Rinzai or otherwise.

i've avoided koans for decades. They seemed incomprehensible. John tarrant doesn't explain the koans, but rather shows why they can't be. But at the same time, he makes the way to work with them clear by using contemporary, non-mystical words. I greatly enjoyed his stories about how the koans came into being and learnt a little about the past masters too.

I bought this for my friend, and he liked it so much he then bought it for me. Gentle wisdom for a simpler, more fulfilling way of thinking and living.

Except for one chapter, an excellent book drawing practical lessons of life from a number of koans. E.g. Bring me the rhinoceros - how to handle the unexpected.

The correspond to what I was expecting. It's very subtle and written with tons of wisdom and sensibility. It was a good acquisition