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    The Cow in the Parking Lot: A Zen Approach to Overcoming Anger
    The Cow in the Parking Lot: A Zen Approach to Overcoming Anger
    The Cow in the Parking Lot: A Zen Approach to Overcoming Anger
    Audiobook4 hours

    The Cow in the Parking Lot: A Zen Approach to Overcoming Anger

    Written by Susan Edmiston and Leonard Scheff

    Narrated by Bill Mendieta

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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 kinds of demands that most commonly underlie 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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateJun 8, 2010
    ISBN9781615731152
    The Cow in the Parking Lot: A Zen Approach to Overcoming Anger

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    Reviews for The Cow in the Parking Lot

    4.5/5

    23 ratings4 reviews

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    • 1/5
      This book purports to help the reader cope with angry feelings, including resentment. Unfortunately, the book doesn't do much of anything. The beginning talks about such extreme angry outbursts that I doubt they would help many people (i.e., unless you have no impulse control at all, you wouldn't actually act out any of the scenarios given as examples by the authors). As for the dealing with resentments part, the advice is pretty slim beyond a 'have a Zen attitude of happiness all the time' and 'don't compare yourself to others.' So, really there's not a whole lot of substance in this book; in fact, I can't think of one takeaway that I gleaned from the book. Or rather, my takeaway from this book is whether it's Eastern or Western, it seems to me that a 'sermon' is little more than a hodgepodge of short quips, funny anecdotes, and extreme parables that sort of string together a common theme as if an actual message is being presented, but when parsed down tends to mean very little or at times even presents contradictory advice. But, hey, if it helps you, that's great. It's just definitely not my cup of tea. I do have to say for the audiophiles out there, this reader was fantastic. He was exactly perfect for reading a book about a Zen approach to dealing through anger, with his very calm and soothing voice.
    • 4/5
      This is a very short book that looks at Buddhism’s responses to anger – calling it an ‘emotional addiction’ and stressing that almost every decision made while you are angry is not a good one.The most interesting chapter to me was the one in dealing with others’ anger directed against you. Breathe. Do not respond in kind (ie quit hitting yourself with a hammer). If you feel yourself getting angry in return, acknowledge the other person’s anger and concerns and withdraw, if necessary to address the issue when neither is angry. Above all have compassion for the person being angry. Work to understand their position and why they feel the way they do. Practice feeling loving kindness toward them, even in the midst of their anger. This is a very short book, with some workbook style pages to describe your own situations and responses. I found this book helpful in understanding an angry person in my life – a slightly different perspective from other books about anger that I have read, including at least one by Thich Naht Hanh.
    • 3/5
      My fascination with the idiosyncratic title was the key motivation in selecting this book, plus an interest in looking for different approaches that deal with the underlying cause of an angry reaction. I didn't consider working through all the exercises because I wanted to find the place where the author talks about "owning your own feelings" and how anger is a secondary emotion that masks underlying primary trigger emotions (fear, anxiety). I wanted to see what Scheff's strategies were for the mental preparation to make progress in coping with the initial emotions that spark anger. That’s what I think is most important: to have some strategies for tackling the work of behavioural changes. In my experience, anger management workshops, from skilled facilitators, take the class through exercises to learn about themselves first and foremost. There are myriad personalities in any type of class like this, so it follows that the procedure will have different outcomes which reflect that aspect. Unfortunately, Scheff's book rarely touches on this individual process, choosing instead a rather negative approach by saying "Most people fail at this or at that...". Compounding this absence of enlightened understanding for the reader, the narrative preaches repetitively that no one needs to choose anger or allow another person to control your feelings. It wasn't clear amongst the stories how a person would find ways to embrace change for themselves, since they'd not done the ground work of "know thyself". The book might be useful for an introductory overview but it wasn't serious in delving into anything but surface anecdotes and then some Buddhist philosophical commentary.
    • 4/5
      It was decent. Lost of anecdotal stuff, little scientific evidence