The Cow in the Parking Lot

A Zen Approach to Overcoming Anger

De: Leonard Scheff, Susan Edmiston

Narrado por: Bill Mendieta

Imagine you're circling a crowded parking lot. Just as you spot a space, another driver races ahead and takes it. In a world of road rage, domestic violence, and professionally angry TV and radio commentators, your likely response is anger, even fury. Now imagine that instead of another driver, a cow has lumbered into that parking space and settled down. Your anger dissolves into bemusement. What has changed? Not just the occupant of the space but your perspective on the situation.

We're a society swimming in anger, always about to snap. Using simple, understandable Buddhist principles, Scheff and Edmiston explain how to replace anger with happiness. They introduce the four most common types of anger (Important and Reasonable, Reasonable but Unimportant, Irrational, and Impossible), then show how to identify our real unmet demands, dissolve our anger, and change what happens when our buttons are pushed. We learn to laugh at ourselves, a powerful early step, and realize that others don't make us angry. Only we can make ourselves angry.

©2010 Leonard Scheff and Susan Edmiston (P)2010 HighBridge Company

Good lessons for anyone to learn.

When I first read the title of this book, images of angry people with bulging forehead veins came to mind, but really this book is for everyone. Anger and frustration are part of the human condition - to ignore it is wrong and to indulge it is wrong too - so what can we do? This book attempts to tell you.

Overall this book was pretty good but obvious - lacking philosophical depth. I liked the parables and quotes from Buddhist teachers, but I didn't find the author's own experiences very compelling. The chapter on how to handle angry people was, I thought, the weakest in this regard. e.g., see things from their perspective - don't jump to conclusions - try not to get angry back. Not bad messages but really - who doesn't know these things? I would have appreciated more Buddhist philosophy and less weekend-seminar style anger management.

The narrator talked slowly and sometimes his accents sounded funny but he was not terrible.

Overall not bad. Helpful to an extent - especially if you are prone to anger or frustration.

A Zen Review

Would you try another book from Leonard Scheff and Susan Edmiston and/or Bill Mendieta?

yes

Would you be willing to try another book from Leonard Scheff and Susan Edmiston ? Why or why not?

yes

Did Bill Mendieta do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

no

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

no

Any additional comments?

Although the zen method for handling anger was presented the actual application seemed to be missing.It would be better to give actual ways to use this method.

Good principles but poor performance

This books material is well written, offering good insight. However the narration includes strange stereotyped voices when relating quotes from individuals who are of diverse backgrounds. It is the same voice as the rest of the book but with an affected accent.

I had issues with the reader

The reader was distracting from the very important message. Here’s why. His attempt at “ accents” for the people he was quoting was horrible and was racist at best. However, I looked past that and found the message important and helpful.

Great, if you are trying to change your mind about anger

I have already decided I don’t want anger in my life so I was looking for more skills to help when I feel anger. There are some peppered throughout the book, but this is more about why anger is bad for your life.