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BookLoons.com
Stuart Avery Gold, author of small, sage tomes like
Tiger Heart, Tiger Mind: How to Empower Your Dream,
Wowisms: Words of Wisdom for Dreamers and Doers,
and Ping: A Frog in Search of a New Pond now
brings us a sequel to the latter in The Way
of Ping: Journey to the Great Ocean. The
first Ping book (which sold over 400,000 copies and has
been translated into more than 20 languages around the
world) told of the transformative journey of Ping the
frog in the style of a multi-layered Sufist teaching
tale. The sequel's front cover calls The Way of Ping
'A parable about taking risks and discovering a new
path'.
The Way of Ping opens on an admiring crowd
anxiously awaiting the famed frog's appearance at a pond
ruled by the ancient Toad the Elder, whose words the
ponds' inhabitants always believe. Toad angrily
questions Ping about the Great Ocean he came from and
deems his answers heresy. Ping invites his audience to
follow him and see for themselves 'that a bigger world
could indeed be found outside their pond.' Though most
of Toad's followers throw bog balls at Ping, troublesome
(to the autocrat) young frogs Daikon and Hodo take up
Ping's challenge in a 'leap of faith into the beckoning
darkness'. When the two hopeful hoppers come upon a
meditating Ping, he shares the wisdom of the Way - which
'does not ask us to be what we are not, but to be more
fully what we are' - and leads them on their journey.
Ping teaches his two young followers that 'every
problem that exists outside of us has its solution
inside of us'; that the 'rise to success is achieved by
lifting others'; to remain flexible and commit to
themselves; to beware dream killers and imagination
crushers; and that 'if you go as far as you can, you
will discover that you can always go farther.' The elder
frog teaches Daikon and Hodo about 'evolving and
involving' and that the 'purpose of life is a life of
purpose' - sage lessons for both frogs and the humans
who share the planet with them.
Reviewed by Hilary Williamson
The Way of Ping: Journey to the Great Ocean
Published by Newmarket Press
January 2009
hardcover / 96 pages
ISBN-10: 1557048207
ISBN-13: 978-1557048202
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