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Tiger Heart, Tiger Mind: How to Empower Your Dream    by Ron Rubin & Stuart Avery Gold Amazon.com order for
Tiger Heart, Tiger Mind
by Ron Rubin
Order:  USA  Can
Newmarket, 2004 (2004)
Hardcover
* * *   Reviewed by J. A. Kaszuba Locke

This book quotes His Holiness The Dalai Lama: 'This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple.' Illustrator Machiko graces the pages with elegant, simplistic black and white sketches of a strong animal, the tiger. Use of the Asian tiger as the symbol for Tiger Heart, Tiger Mind is appropriate. Statistics show there are approximately 4,000 tigers remaining. Its disappearance invokes a human plea for awareness of the 'fading spirit and light that the tiger has symbolized ... the instinctual self'.

Rubin and Gold's intent is to enlighten and empower the mind. They stress 'a love-what-you-do, do-what-you-love' attitude to life. They explain the difference between a dream and a fantasy - 'Fantasy is the escape from reality, dream is the transformation of reality ... connected to the creative imagination.' The authors define the word FEAR as an acronym - 'Face it. Engage it. Accept it. Reject it.' They espouse the ongoing practice of mindfulness -- being aware of what is within you. Zentrepreneurs know that 'we have two lives, the learning life and the life we live with after the learning'. In the Epilogue is a quote for readers, 'we would like to leave you with the noble task of reading one new book each and every week, for ... exposing yourself to new ideas and insights, can be the key to unlocking a life of happiness and fulfillment.'

Rubin and Gold lighten the complexity of Zen with humor. For example, they introduce the round of explanation for the meaning of 'by doing nothing' with 'Now before you throw the book across the room ...' I appreciated the references to other authors' approaches, such as Tom Peters' Re-imagine, Charlotte J. Beck's Everyday Zen, How to Practice by His Holiness The Dalai Lama, What Color Is Your Parachute by Richard Nelson Bolles, and Po Bronson's What Should I Do with My Life. Do you have a hidden dream you want to realize, and the courage to pursue that dream? This book is for readers who yearn for alternatives, and who respect continuous learning. I do not pretend to understand everything in here about Zen philosophy and teaching, but I will do my best (as the authors recommend in their positive-think word list.) I do know that this book encourages me to read more Zentrepeneurs' writings, which comfort the heart and provoke the mind.

Shhhh, a secret shared - if the reader does not already know, the authors' referral to 'WOW' stands for 'Words of Wisdom'. Pssst, another secret shared - over many years I have been told, Good things come in small packages. This certainly applies to Tiger Heart, Tiger Mind, a small book filled with great solace and wisdom, which I recommend to enlighten the mind, and refresh motivation.

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