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Koan Kreativity
Tim Ljunggren. Gentle Thug, $9.99 ISBN 978-0-692-83758-0
Ljunggren, an Episcopal priest and artist, contemplates the creative process and shares quotes from famous artists as well as koans, riddle-like tales meant to be meditated upon by Zen Buddhist monks. Koans are integral to the Zen student’s path to enlightenment because they empty the mind, allowing for insight to enter. Each of Ljunggren’s loosely organized chapters features a koan followed by commentary and personal anecdotes. The first, “A Cup of Tea,” relates a koan in which a Zen master overfills a professor’s teacup. When the professor exclaims, the master tells him that like the cup, the professor’s mind is filled with opinions and needs to be emptied before learning Zen. In “Three Days More,” a pupil cannot solve the enlightenment problem to “hear the sound of one hand,” and after three years, the teacher tells him to kill himself if he does not attain enlightenment; the student attains enlightenment two days later. Each of these chapters is short, and Ljunggren’s comments are not, despite the theme, particularly enlightening. He advises readers to “find strength and courage to become our own mentors” but doesn’t give detailed, concrete advice on how to do so. Ljunggren’s collection is a fun read for those open to riddles, but might not necessarily inspire creativity. (BookLife)

Reviewed by Publishers Weekly on 03/24/2017

Release date 02/01/2017

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