The Tao of Pooh

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Benjamin Hoff, A. A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard, Benjamin Hoff: The Tao of Pooh (1982)

158 pages

English language

Published Jan. 6, 1982

ISBN:
978-0-525-24458-5
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2 stars (1 review)

The how of Pooh? The Tao of who? The Tao of Pooh!?!

Yes, Winnie-the-Pooh has a certain Way about him, a way of doing things that has made him the world's most beloved bear. In these pages Benjamin Hoff shows that Pooh's Way is amazingly consistent with the principles of living envisioned long ago by the Chinese founders of Taoism. The author's explanation of Taoism is through Pooh, and Pooh through Taoism, shows that this is not simply an ancient and remote philosophy but something you can use, here and now.

And what is Taoism? It's really very simple. It calls for living without preconceived ideas about how life should be lived--but it's not a preconception of how life--It's... Well, you'd do better to read this book, and listen to Pooh, if you really want to find out. --front flap

16 editions

reviewed The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff (The Wisdom of Pooh, #1)

☯️🍯🐻

2 stars

It made me understand some concepts better, like p'u, the uncarved block, but some passages really grated on me, like the one on science and cleverness. I get what the author is saying: it's a criticism of seeking knowledge for the sake of knowledge, of using complicated words as a form of gatekeeping, of focusing on the study of the tree while missing the forest around it etc. But in the era of COVID and climate change, I have very little patience for "what do scientists even know anyway?"

And there are way more nuanced and better written critiques of productivity culture than the chapter about Bisy Backson.