Rico Provasoli’s deceptive and charming book, Hiding Out With The Enemy~A Zen Carpenter’s Tale, comes closer to describing the Buddhist Path and one’s enemy seeking to throw us off it, better than anything I’ve read in a very long time. A brilliant carpenter, with a hair-trigger temper, afflictions everywhere he turns, skillfully acquaints us with the enemy lurking within each of us–our personal junk-yard dog needing to be tamed. Rico knows whereof he speaks. We’ve practiced Zen together for many years. Rico’s strategy for telling the story will allow you to recognize yourself in its pages, comfort you in your struggles for clarity and self-control, and entertain the hell out of you while you read. Don’t miss it.
~ Peter Coyote, Zen Buddhist priest, actor and author.
There are thousands of books on Zen. And they all are pretty much the same. A master or priest or self-proclaimed guru tells us to follow the rigid rules, rituals and lifestyle of an ancient time and place. This we are told is how we reach enlightenment. But where are the books for the rest of us? Where are the stories of struggle to find the value of the Buddha’s teachings in the midst of our chaotic real-world lives? Rico Provasoli has written such a book…Hiding Out With The Enemy ~ A Zen Carpenter’s Tale. Drawing on his own diverse experiences of travel, adventure and personal Zen practice, Provasoli offers a novel about finding awareness even as we muddle through our everyday problems. The Zen carpenter of this story doesn’t achieve satori while sitting on a cushion in some incense-filled temple. Instead he deals with crappy cars, broken relationships, having no money, impotence, paralyzing anger and a dying mother. Along the way he begins to understand that in the midst of these difficulties…maybe because of them… Zen¾in the largest, inclusive form of the word¾actually allows him a chance for understanding, redemption and ultimately the salvation of compassion. This is not a book about how to study Zen, but rather a relatable and inspirational tale of living with Zen¾which might be the toughest, and most rewarding path of all. Tony Head, Zen Teacher and author
“Whatever you imagine enlightenment to be, it’s something
else… As the seeker soon discovers in Rico Provasoli’s
account of misadventures in guru land.”
Tom Robbins, author of Even Cowgirls Get The Blues
“Rico Provasoli’s book about golf is a good one.”
-Michael Murphy, author, Golf In The Kingdom, co-founder, Esalen Institute
“Provasoli is a good story teller.” -Shambhala Publications
“Your writing shines in Please Don’t Tell My Guru.”
-James Rollins, bestselling author of Map of Bones, The Judas Strain
“Please Don’t Tell My Guru is an entertaining romp.
Angelo, with premature mid-life crisis, manic libido,
and plenty of attitude, is an engaging character.”
-Barbara Kyle, author of The Experiments and
four other thillers published by Warner Books
“Thank you for everything.
I have no complaints, whatsoever.” -Zen Mantra
Rico’s personal story Thank You For Everything
appears in Marci Shimoff’s new best seller Happy For No Reason.
2008 Simon & Schuster
RICO PROVASOLI 