Zen Shorts: Collector's Edition Book

One day the panda Stillwater, shows up in the yard of Addy, Michael and Karl. They become friends and one by one they go to visit Stillwater. Each of them have a problem of a kind and Stillwater tells them a little Zen teaching story that relates and helps them deal with the problem. I have heard the last 2 stories and not the first.

There is 'Uncle Ry and the Moon', 'the Farmer's Luck' and 'a Heavy Load'. Each of these are ancient stories used to hone one's ability to act with intuition without a goal. They challenge the listener to reexamine habits, fears, concepts and desires.

The artwork is sparse and uses lots of open space with only 1 or 2 things to focus on. It does have a Japanese flavor to it. I very much enjoyed reading this story.

It was fun watching the kids reactions to this. My nephew thinks he's very cool. He probably is, but it's funny to think of a 5 year old being cool. During the story of Uncle Ry and the Moon when the person being robbed gives the robber his only rob, my nephew could not figure this out. Why not report him to the police? Why give him the robe? He has heard the Farmer's luck before. The heavy load completely went over his head. The niece had much the same response. She would not give a robber her stuff if he came and she wouldn't greet him as a guest. They couldn't get their heads around that and to be honest, I don't think I can either. She grasped a little bit of the Heavy load story and she said, "when something bothers me, its hard not to only think of that. How do you set that down?" I told her that is the work of sages. If she figures it out she can let me know. I think it's a practice of over and over until you finally set it down. The nephew gave this 3 stars because he liked the panda and the stories and the niece gave this 4 stars.