![]() ![]() ![]() Koan compilations, which include elegant poetic and eloquent prose commentaries on cryptic dialogues, are part of a great literary tradition in China, Japan, and Korea that appealed to intellectuals who sought spiritual fulfillment through interpreting elaborate rhetoric related to mysterious metaphysical exchanges. Viewed as an ideal method for attaining and transmitting an unimpeded experience of enlightenment, they became the main object of study in Zen meditation, where their contemplation was meant to exhaust the capacity of the rational mind and the expressiveness of speech. "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" "Does a dog have Buddha-nature?" These cryptic expressions are among the best-known examples of koans, the confusing, often contradictory sayings that form the centerpiece of Zen Buddhist learning and training. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. Mysteriously, like koans.We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice. "John Tarrant’s talent for telling these classic Zen tales transforms them magically into a song in which, as you read, the words disappear as the music continues to echo in your mind and make you happy. This book could take you to a different and important level of experience." -Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul With intelligence, humor, and steady deep reflection, John Tarrant does this as no one has done it before. You need someone to put you in the right frame of mind to see the puzzles and paradoxes of your experience. "Every life is full of koans, and yet you can’t learn from a book how to understand them. Your life is a koan, a deep question whose answer you are already living-this is the true inspiration, and Tarrant delivers." -Roger Housden, author of the Ten Poems series Tarrant’s is the fix that fixes nothing because there is nothing to fix. Forget about self-improvement, five-point plans, and inspirational seminars that you can’t remember a word of a week later. "Here’s a book to crack the happiness code if ever there was one. " Bring Me the Rhinoceros is one of the best books ever written about Zen." -Stephen Mitchell, translator of Gilgamesh: A New English Version Rather than the usual Zen mystique that treats koans as arcane meditation objects, Tarrant discusses them as open secrets that actually matter for our lives here and now." -Zoketsu Norman Fischer, poet and Zen priest author of Sailing Home: Using the Wisdom of Homer’s Odyssey to Navigate Life’s Perils and Pitfalls His koan re-tellings read like postmodern short fiction, complete with anti-heroic characters, visible scenery, and attitude. Having digested the traditional koan literature, which he has taught for many years, Zen teacher John Tarrant cheerfully goes beyond it. "You’ve never read a Zen book like this before. ![]() He weaves his deep immersion in Buddhist practice, Western psychology, and the arts into a unique yet completely authentic story of the Zen life and its mysteries." -Melvin McLeod, editor-in-chief, the Shambhala Sun "John Tarrant is one of the most interesting minds in American Buddhism. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |