Author: Benjamin Hoff

Publisher: Penguin(Non-Classics)

Pub. in: July, 1983

ISBN: 0140067477

Pages: 176

Measurements: 7.2 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches

Origin of product: USA

Order code: BA00589

Other information:  

National Bestseller (in North America)

In The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff uses the personalities of the characters in A. A. Milne's tales to illustrate Taoism alongside some competing worldviews.

The characters can divided into 3 categories of personality and philosophy: Rabbit/Owl, Eeyore, and Pooh.

Rabbit quickly develops and executes clever action plans that don't capture the essence of a given situation and usually go awry. Similar to Rabbit in terms of being too clever by half, Owl pontificates and analyzes and never actually does anything. Eeyore is also clever in his own way, but interprets everything negatively and is bitter and ineffectual. Whereas Pooh ambles along without the brains of the others, but with a stout heart, and muddles through to contentment.

Rabbit/Owl together embody logical analysis, clever planning, and ceaseless but largely misdirected hard work. The aim of all their analysis and effort is to exert maximum control over outcomes by actively 'understanding' and intervening in every situation. In the Eastern tradition, this approach corresponds to Confucianism, a very rigid and circumscribed approach to achieving harmony. In the Western tradition, the Rabbit/Owl approach seems very familiar, as the general attempt to organize and control our physical and social environments with logical tools and techniques is integral to the Western experience. The Rabbit/Owl approach regrets the past and worries about the future.

Eeyore represents knowing resignation. The aim of this hopelessness, and the ensuing lack of commitment and activity, is to shield oneself emotionally from the risk and reality of failure. In the Eastern tradition, this approach corresponds to Buddhism, which counsels that our world is illusion and suffering, and the best response is to actively disengage from it all. In the Western tradition, the Eeyore approach can be construed as loosely analogous to the easy cynicism and disengagement of the many people who are alienated by the overbearing and omnipresent Rabbit/Owl aspects of society. The Eeyore approach sees endless failure in the past and inevitable failure in the future.

Pooh, on the other hand, embodies warm-hearted, inclusive, and spirited enjoyment of what's happening in the moment. He unconsciously embodies the fact that we cannot control the infinitely complex interplay of forces and events out there, so the healthiest response to this overwhelming reality is to be true to our inner nature and in so doing, accept being part of the great flow of things. In the Eastern tradition, Pooh's approach is Taoist. He does not worry about the past. He does not worry about the future. He simply is himself, now, enthusiastically. He is simply honest and true to his friends and to his own nature. To Pooh, 'things are as they are', and do not need constant worry, analysis, self-doubt, and striving, unlike the flustered Confucian-Rabbits. But at the same time, he is quite engaged in the world, unlike the fatalistic Buddhist-Eeyores. When he wants honey, he goes about getting it, quite tenaciously at times. When he wants to help a drowning Roo or Eeyore, he rushes to save them with whatever's handy. And so on.

The Tao of Pooh is overall a charming read. Hoff does a good job of maintaining the whimsical tone of the original Pooh tales, painlessly conveying some fairly abstruse concepts about the nature of reality and perception.

To be fair, it should be noted that there's a bit of apocalyptic sermonizing at the very end, to the effect that the Owls and Rabbits of the world will destroy everything if we don't learn a better way to be. Also some readers will construe Hoff's periodic mild teasing of the Rabbit/Owl way as irritating intolerance, hypocritically un-Taoist. Personally, I do not take his teasing that way at all; Taoist hermits probably did not show much deference to the great Confucian bureaucrats of their day! To me, these are minor and forgivable blemishes in a book that otherwise has a deft, light touch, though not as light as the childlike wisdom of the Way that it hopes to explain. (From quoting Timmothy Mansfield, USA)

Target readers: General readers