The Tao of Pooh
“You complain that your tree is not valuable as lumber. But you could make use of the shade it provides, rest under its sheltering branches, and stroll beneath it, admiring its character and appearance. Since it would not be endangered by an axe, what could threaten its existence? It is useless to you only because you want to make it into something else and do not use it in its proper way.”
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff is a wonderful gem of a book. I finished reading it while traveling home today—caught in a flight delay and then commuting in the bus from the airport to home—to celebrate Chinese New Year with my family. Lots of contemplation while I was at it.
Winnie-the-Pooh is one of my favorite bears (Paddington Bear is another one). Pooh is calm and reflective, and has a great personality. I love reading the wisdom of the Taoists captured within these pages along with Pooh’s friends namely Eeyore, Piglet, Rabbit, Owl and many more.
“A lot of people try to buy Happiness and Importance in the same sort of way. But you can be happy and important without doing that, you know.”
Hoff explains the basic tenets of Taoism by illustrating them with familiar excerpts from stories in The House at Pooh Corner, Chinese proverbs, and tales from Lao-tzu and others. Here are some of the passages:
Wu Wei: “flows like water, reflects like a mirror, and responds like an echo.”
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“The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard―one that thinks too much. [...] But down the centuries, man has developed a mind that separates him from the world of reality, the world of natural laws. This mind tries too hard, wears itself out, and ends up weak and sloppy. Such a mind, even if of high intelligence, is inefficient. It goes here and there, backwards and forwards, and fails to concentrate on what it is doing at the moment.”
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“So there is no such thing as an ability that is too useless, too crooked, or too small. It only depends on what you do with it. As Lao-tse pointed out, the bad can be raw material for the good.”
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“Once you face and understand your limitations, you can work with them, instead of having them work against you and get in your way, which is what they do when you ignore them, whether you realize it or not. And then you will find that, in many cases, your limitations can be your strengths.”
“It’s rather significant, we think, that those who have no compassion have no wisdom. Knowledge, yes; cleverness, maybe; wisdom, no. A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn’t really care. Wisdom does. We also consider it significant that cor, the Latin word for “heart,” is the basis for the word courage.”
Have you read The Tao of Pooh?
