Book blurb:
This is the tale of a cat wise in the ways of zen, journeying to discover a fabled ancient pine, under which infinite wisdom may be found.
Along the way he meets a vivid cast of animals: from an anxious monkey and a tortoise tired of life, to a tiger struggling with anger, a confused wolf cub and a covetous crow.
But it’s a surprise encounter with a playful kitten, that forces the cat to question everything . . .
Told in a gentle, calming style, The Cat Who Taught Zen introduces a new cast of characters for readers of all ages to fall in love with, offering timeless wisdom wrapped up into a tale of beguiling beauty.
This was a very quick but very wholesome read. It tells the simple story of a cat that is travelling to find an ancient pine which will allow him to learn infinite wisdom. Along the way he meets a different cast of animal characters, and each one of them has a different lesson in zen to be taught to them.
To start with, this is not a long book at all; the audiobook was only 54 minutes long, and I think it is very obvious that this is the type of book that you could pick up and refer to whenever you needed a little reminder of zen techniques. The audiobook did begin with a prelude, where Mr Norbury explained that he had read many different stories about zen and then tried to rewrite them slightly in his story. A lot of the stories are, in my opinion at least, simple yet effective. Each story is based on teaching one basic lesson, be that learning how to silence racing thoughts, how to focus on the moment you are currently in, or how to let go of fears. Many of the lessons are very common and well-known techniques of mindfulness and self care, but I do admit that this book was a very nice reminder of those techniques. I try to be mindful each day but this obviously isn’t always possible, and this book was a nice little break for me to be able to remind myself of the techniques that work best for me. Some of the animals the Cat encounters really resonated with me, and were a good indicator of where a lot of my stress was coming from and what technique I needed to focus on to address it.
So far as an actual story goes, this isn’t really one of those books which has a big overarching narrative or deep character development, but this obviously works best for this exact story. This story is one to teach lessons in a quick but efficient manner, so whilst the characters may not be overly developed and the plot is quite basic, the lessons are taught in such a simple way that they are easy to remember and refer back to as you go about your day. I finished this book in one sitting whilst I was on a train journey, but even now I still find myself referring back to it in my mind: If I start to feel overwhelmed with tasks, I think of the story of the monkey. If I start to feel dissatisfied with life, I think back to the story of the tortoise. Which I think is exactly what a good story should do, which is teach you something new.
The book is written similar to a children’s story, in that it is very calming. I also think I resonated with this book so much because whilst it could be argued to be self-help as it is teaching about zen and mindfulness, it is not ‘preachy’. It doesn’t read like a self-help book does. I am quite a creative thinker at times, and I found this book to be very good at showing a concept such as emotion (such as anger, jealousy or fear) and tying it to a particular animal helps to almost personify that emotion and make it easier to identify. This book doesn’t appear to be aimed at any age group, and therefore it is written to appeal to everyone: it is easy enough to follow that children could enjoy it, yet has the emotional weight that adults (or at least myself) can connect with.
This is definitely a book that I will be looking for a physical version for, especially if I can find the special edition book which comes with some beautiful illustrations that are inspired by traditional Japanese paintings. Mr Norbury is also a fellow British man, which is always good to see, as I can’t really say that us Brits are known for our zen!
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