Kat Tansey's - Choosing to Be: Lessons in Living from a Feline Zen Master relates the chronicle of the author who deep in depression considered taking her own life, or seek another solution to her worries and fears. Once a successful business woman Kat Tansey began battling Chronic Fatigue Syndrome before social acceptance for the syndrome and/or understanding that it is real and oppressive appeared in the mainstream.  As many others who suffered the writer suffered pretty much alone, depressed and weary.

  Choosing to Be: Lessons in Living from a Feline Zen Master explores the Ordinary Mind including Deciding to Stay, Building the Team, Just Sitting, Finding Joy, Walking on Our Toes and Dealing with Dogs.

The author explores the notion that in situations there need not only be two choices when decisions must be made, Deciding to Stay may depend upon more than two choices.  As she discusses the Buddha Nature with her Maine Coon Poohbear the author understands that healing takes many forms; all sentient beings have Buddha nature.

Kat set out to locate a perfect kitten who knows his Buddha nature in order that she and Poohbear might learn from him.

 The Hindrances to life energy includes Letting go of Tuna and the Hindrance of Clinging, Lovingkindness and The Hindrance of Anger, Watching the Water and the Hindrance of Sleepiness, Citzenbear's Tranquility and the Hindrance of Restlessness, Poohbear's Rapture and the Hindrance of Doubt.

The author discusses the various hindrances faced by each of us during our daily life.  One of the tools the author uses for nurturing her inner self is meditation, however, meditation is often thwarted by the rigors of life and intruding thoughts.  Anger and restlessness, sleepiness and need to hold on to what was, or what we hoped was stand in the way of allowing ourselves time and space to think of other solutions to problems.

Achieving a Buddha Mind leads to Gaining Wisdom and The Four Noble Truths in a Nutshell.

The author with the aid of her Zen master cats have achieved the wisdom and serenity she so longed for when she began climbing from depression into an understanding of the four noble truths.  The writer notes Buddha was an optimist, he understood suffering, and realized there is a way out of it. 

Of all animals, the cat alone attains to the contemplative life. He regards the wheel of existence from without, like the Buddha. Andrew Lang, 1844-1912

Through her reading, meditation and communing with her cats, Kat Tansey was able to  begin a healing journey taking her back to herself.

On the pages of  Choosing to Be: Lessons in Living from a Feline Zen Master Writer Tansey provides insight and hope to those who may also be suffering depression.  As a person who also lives with cats I know the comfort and hope that arises from stroking small furry heads or just sitting in companionship with felines.

Tansey writes well, Choosing to Be: Lessons in Living from a Feline Zen Master is filled with interesting snippets and anecdotes as well as pictures of her Zen Masters.  All in all an interesting, worthwhile book filled with helpful suggestions for improving the reader's understanding and outlook for life.

Happy to recommend Kat Tansey - Choosing to Be: Lessons in Living from a Feline Zen Master

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Reviewed by Molly's Reviews
molly martin
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Product Details and Shipping Information from Amazon
TITLE Choosing to Be: Lessons in Living from a Feline Zen Master
AUTHOR Kat Tansey 
GENRE educational

 Paperback: 168 pages
 Publisher: iUniverse Star (September 5, 2008)
 Language: English
 ISBN-10: 1935278142
 ISBN-13: 978-1935278146
 Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
$11.21



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About the Author
When Kat Tansey began writing Choosing to Be fifteen years ago, the world was not ready for a book
about a successful business woman struck down by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome who became deeply
depressed and asked her Buddha master cat to help her learn how to meditate and find the will to live.

Live she did, and after fifteen years she has finished Choosing to Be - and now the world is ready for it. Now the world knows about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Depression remedies are touted nightly on television in very depressing commercials. Buddhist meditation and all things Buddha are so popular that the Los Angeles Times published an article about "Buddhamania." And as for talking to a Buddha Master cat, so many books about talking to God and other spiritual guides have been on bestseller lists that no one even bats an eye about a talking Buddha Master cat.

Kat has always been an innovative thinker who perceived the world with a different lens, one that included concepts and connections most people did not see. After spending twenty years implementing change in organizations, she developed her own Change Model and wrote Winning the Change Game to help companies be more successful in getting people to embrace new systems and methods. However another change awaited Kat, and this one removed her from the world she had known for twenty years. This was the beginning of a very different life, one in which she had to learn to focus on being rather than doing.

Recommended: Yes