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

Scheff, Leonard; Edmiston, Susan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0761158154 ISBN 13: 9780761158158

Publisher: Workman Adult, 2010

Synopsis

Don’t get mad. Get calm. Ask yourself: “Do I really want to be angry?” Leonard Scheff, a trial attorney who used anger to fuel his courtroom persona, realized the answer had to be no. Anger is toxic. Anger is in the eyes of the beholder. Using simple Buddhist principles and applying them in a way that is easy for non-Buddhists to understand and put into practice, Scheff and Susan Edmiston have created an interactive book that helps readers change perspective, step-by-step, so that they can replace the anger in their lives with newfound happiness. Based on the Transforming Anger workshop Shceff created, The Cow in the Parking Lot shows how anger is based on unmet demands, from the reasonable (we want love from our partner) to the irrational (we want respect from a total stranger) to the impossible (we want someone to fix everything in our life). The authors show how, once we identify our real unmet demands, we can dissolve the anger. The same is true for our “buttons”―once we understand them, we can defuse what happens when they’re pushed. We learn to laugh at ourselves, a critical early step in changing angry behavior. We learn how to deal with the anger of others, and ultimately how to transform anger into compassion. And finally, we learn the liberating truth: Only you can make yourself angry.

About this title

About the Author

Susan Edmiston, a former editor at Redbook and Glamour, writes for New York, The New York Times Magazine and Book Review, Esquire, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Women's Day. She lives in Berkeley, California. Leonard Scheff, a successful trial lawyer in Tucson, Arizona, is also a practicing Buddhist who, for the last fifteen years, has conducted seminars on managing anger.

Edition details

• Publisher: Workman Adult
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0761158154
• ISBN 13: 9780761158158
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 197