go to a page on this book ripped off from the The Pacific Zen Institute website.

Praise for Bring Me the Rhinoceros

by John Tarrant

Bring Me the Rhinoceros is one of the best books ever written about Zen. But it is more than that: it is a book of Zen, pointing us to reality by its own fluent and witty example. John Tarrant has the rare ability to enter the minds of the ancient Zen masters as they do their amazing pirouettes upon the void and, with a few vivid touches, to illuminate our lives with their sayings.

Stephen Mitchell, author of Gilgamesh, a New English Version

There are many books on the great questions of life appearing today, most of
them disguised attempts to keep us imprisoned in a familiar language or a
comfortable manner to which we have become accustomed. This book is a rare
exception: its straight forward honesty, clear writing and destabilizing
insight has a profound effect on the reader, putting them on a frontier
where they might be ready for very personal questions that have absolutely
no right to go away. John Tarrant does indeed bring on the rhinoceros and a
host of other powerful but invisible creatures, ready to run us down, when
we refuse to acknowledge the fierce, awkward and beautiful world we
inhabit.
David Whyte, Author of The Heart Aroused : Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America



Here's a book to crack the happiness code if ever there was one. Forget about self improvement, five point plans, and inspirational seminars that you can't remember a word of a week later. Tarrant's is the fix that fixes nothing because there is nothing to fix. 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.


Every life is full of koans, and yet you can’t learn from a book how to understand them. You need someone to put you in the right frame of mind to see the puzzles and paradoxes of your experience. With intelligence, humor, and steady deep reflection, John Tarrant does this as no one has done it before. This book could take you to a different and important level of experience.

Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul and Dark Nights of the Soul




"An unusual and powerful blend of traditional Zen, contemporary comment, and personal memoir."

Melvin McLeod, editor-in-chief, The Shambhala Sun




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 the your mind and make you happy. Mysteriously, like koans.

Sylvia Boorstein, author of Pay Attention, For Goodness' Sake: Practicing the Perfections of the Heart, The Buddhist path of kindness.