Notes to: "The Tao of Pooh"

Notes to: The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff

I don't normally write marginalia. This got me in the habit of it. Mostly by saying "BULLSHIT" over and over, and crossing things out. 

Foreword

• "That was after some of us were discussing the Great Masters of Wisdom, and someone was saying how all of them came from the East, and I was saying that some of them didn't, but he was going on and on, just like this sentence, not paying any attention, when I decided to read a quotation of Wisdom from the West, to prove that there was more to the world than one half, and I read..."

The How of Pooh?

• "We see three men standing around a vat of vinegar. Each has dipped his finger into the vinegar and has tasted it. The expression on each man's face shows his individual reaction. Since the painting is allegorical, we are to understand that these are no ordinary vinegar tasters, but are instead representations of the 'Three Teachings' of China, and that the vinegar they are sampling represents the Essence of Life. The three masters are K'ung Fu-tse (Confucius), Buddha, and Lao-tse, author of the oldest existing book of Taoism. The first has a sour look on his face, the second wears a bitter expression, but the third is smiling." 
• "To K'ung Fu-tse (kung FOOdsuh), life seemed rather sour. He believed that the present was out of step with the past, and that the government of man on earth was out of harmony with the Way of Heaven, the government of the universe...Under Confucianism, the use of precisely measured court music, prescribed steps, actions, and phrases all added up to an extremely complex system of rituals, each used for a particular purpose at a particular time. A saying was recorded about K'ung Fu-tse: 'If the mat was not straight, the Master would not sit.'"
• "In order to find peace, the Buddhist considered it necessary to transcend 'the world of dust' and reach Nirvana, literally a state of 'no wind.'"
• "To Lao-tse (LAOdsuh), the harmony that naturally existed between heaven and earth from the very beginning could be found by anyone at any time, but not by following the rules of the Confucianists...Earth was in essence a reflection of heaven, run by the same laws--not by the laws of men...According to Lao-tse, the more man interfered with the natural balance produced and governed by the universal laws, the further away the harmony retreated into the distance...When abstract and arbitrary rules were imposed from the outside, struggle was inevitable. Only then did life become sour. To Lao-tse, the world was not a setter of traps but a teacher of valuable lessons. Its lessons needed to be learned, just as its laws needed to be followed; then all would go well."

The Tao of Who?

• "So here we are, about to try to explain P'u, the Uncarved Block. In the classic Taoist manner, we won't try too hard or explain too much, because that would only Confuse things, and because it would leave the impression that it was all only an intellectual idea that could be left on the intellectual level and ignored. Then you could say, 'Well, this idea is all very nice, but what does does it amount to?' So instead, we will try to show what it amounts to, in various ways."
• "The essence of the principle of the Uncarved Block is that things in their original simplicity contain their own natural power, power that is easily spoiled and lost when that simplicity is changed." 
• "P'u is composed of two separate characters combined: the first, the 'radical' or root-meaning one, is that for tree or wood; the second, the 'phonetic' or sound-giving one, is the character for dense growth or thicket. So from 'tree in a thicket' or 'wood not cut' comes the meaning of 'things in their natural state'..."
• "If it were Cleverness that counted most, Rabbit would be Number One, instead of Bear. But that's not the way things work." 
• "Pooh can't describe the Uncarved Block to us in words; he just is it. That's the nature of the Uncarved Block." 
• "When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few other things that get in the way, sooner or later you will discover that simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the Uncarved Block: Life is Fun." Also horrific. And atrocious. And full of the slaughter of flesh and soul. But yes, also fun. Let's just not essentialize it too much, though, okay? This idea that "Life is Fun" and fundamentally, almost solely fun, is almost a surefire litmus test to suss out the people who have never known the worst that can be lived. 
• "From the state of the Uncarved Block comes the ability to enjoy the simple and the quiet, the natural and the plan. Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously and have them work, odd as that may appear to others at times. As Piglet put it in Winnie-the-Pooh, 'Pooh hasn't much Brain, but he never comes to any harm. He does silly things and they turn out right." 

Spelling Tuesday

• "To begin with, it is necessary to point out that in China, scholars were generally Confucianist in training and orientation, and therefore often spoke a somewhat different language from the Taoists, who tended to see Confucianist scholars as busy ants spoiling the picnic of life, ruhsing back and forth to pick up the bits and pieces dropped from above. In the final section of the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tse wrote, 'The wise are not learned; the learned are not wise'--an attitude shared by countless Taoists before and since." 
• Chuang-tse: "A well-frog cannot imagine theo cean, nor can a summer insect conceive of ice. How then can a scholar understand the Tao? He is restricted by his own learning." 
• "It seems rather odd, somehow, that Taoism, the way of the Whole Man, the True Man, the SPirit Man (to use a few Taoist terms), is for the most part interpreted here in the West by the Scholarly Owl--by the Brain, the Academician, the dry-as-dust Absentminded Professor." 
• "'Lots of people talk to animals,' said Pooh. 'Maybe, but...' 'Not very many listen, though,' he said. 'That's the problem,' he added." 
• "In other words, you might say that there is more to Knowing than just being correct." 

Cottleston Pie

• "'A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly.' Very simply, isn't it? And yet, you'd be surprised how many people violate this simple principle every day of their lives and try to fit square pegs into round holes, ignoring the clear reality that Things Are As They Are."
• Chuang-tse: "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 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." 
• "When you know and respect your own Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don't belong. One man's food is often another man's poison, and what is glamorous and exciting to some can be a dangerous trap to others." 
• "There's nothing wrong with not being able to whistle, especially if you're a fish." 
• "That doesn't mean that we need to stop changing and improving. It just means that we need to recognize What's There. If you face the fact that you have weak muscles, say, then you can do the right things and eventually become strong."
• "The wise know their limitations; the foolish do not." 
• "A saying from the area of Chinese medicine would be appropriate to mention here: 'One disease, long life; no disease, short life.' In other words, those who know what's wrong with them and take care of themselves accordingly will tend to live a lot longer than those who consider themselves perfectly healthy and neglect their weaknesses." 
• "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." 
• "As we have likely recognized by now, no two snowflakes, trees, or animals are alike. No two people are the same, either. Everything has its own Inner Nature." 
• "The Way of Self-Reliance starts with recognizing who we are, what we've got to work with, and what works best for us." 
• "Sooner or later, we are bound to discover some things about ourselves that we don't like. But once we see they're there, we can decide what we want to do with them. Do we want to get rid of them completely, change them into other things, or use them in beneficial ways? The last two approaches are often especially Useful, since they avoid head-on conflict, and therefore minimize struggle." 
• "In a similar manner, instead of struggling to erase what are referred to as negative emotions, we can learn to use them in positive ways." 
• "So quite often, the easiest way to get rid of a Minus is to change it into a Plus. Sometimes you will find that characteristic you try hard to eliminate eventually come back, anyway. But if you do the right things, they will come back in the right ways." 
• "In the story of the Ugly Duckling, when did the Ugly Duckling stop feeling Ugly? When he realized that he was a Swan. Each of us has something Special, a Swan of some sort, hidden inside somewhere. But until we recognize that it's there, what can we do but splash around, treading water? The Wise are Who They re. They work with what they've got and do what they can do. There are things about ourselves that we need to get rid of; there are things we need to change. But at the same time, we do not need to be too desperate, too ruthless, too combative. Along the way to usefulness and happiness, many of those things will change themselves, and the others can be worked on as we go. The first thing we need to do is recognize and trust our own Inner Nature, and not lose sight of it." 

The Pooh Way

• "By the time it came to the edge of the Forest the stream had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved more slowly. For it knew now where it was going and it said to itself, 'There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.'"
• "We believe that it's time that someone noticed it and called it something, so we will call it the Pooh Way." 
• "Literally, Wu Wei means 'without doing, causing, or making.' But practically speaking, it means without meddlesome, combative, or egotistical effort." 
• "The efficiency of Wu Wei is like that of water flowing over and around the rocks in its path--not the mechanical, straight-line approach that usually ends up short-circuiting natural laws, but one that evolves from an inner sensitivity to the natural rhythm of things." 
• Chuang-tse: "I go down with the water and come up with the water. I follow it and forget myself. I survive because I don't struggle against the water's superior power. That's all." 
• "When we learn to work with our own Inner Nature, and with the natural laws operating around us, we reach the level of Wu Wei. Then we work with the natural order of things and operate on the principle of minimal effort. Since the natural world follows that principle, it does not make mistakes." 
• "Tao doesn't force or interfere with things, but lets them work in their own way, to produce results naturally, Then whatever needs to be done is done...In Chinese, the principle would be Wei Wu Wei--'Do Without Doing.' From Wei Wu Wei comes Tsu Jan, 'Self So.' That means that things happen by themselves, spontaneously."
• "When you work with Wu Wei, you put the round peg in the round hole and the square peg in the square hole. No stress, no struggle. Egotistical Desire tries to force the round peg into the square hole and the square peg into the round hole. Cleverness tries to devise craftier ways of making pegs fit where they don't belong. Knowledge tries to figure out why round pegs fit round holes, but not square holes. Wu Wei doesn't try. It doesn't think about it. It just does it. And when it does, it doesn't appear to do much of anything. But Things Get Done." 
• "Things just happen in the right way, at the right time. At least they do when you let them, when you work with circumstances instead of saying, 'This isn't supposed to be happening this way,' and trying hard to make it happen some other way." 
• "At its highest level, Wu Wei is indefinable and practically invisible, because it has become a reflex action. In the words of Chuang-tse, the mind of Wu Wei 'flows like water, reflects like a mirror, and responds like an echo.'"
• "Using Wu Wei, you go by circumstances and listen to your own intuition...When you do that sort of thing, people may say you have a Sixth Sense or something. All it really is, though, is being Sensitive to Circumstances. That's just natural. It's only strange when you don't listen." 
• "One of the most convenient things about this Sensitivity to Circumstances is that you don't have to make so many difficult decisions. Instead, you can let them make themselves." 
• "The Wu Wei approach to conflict-solving can be seen in the practice of the Taoist martial art T'ai Chi Ch'uan, the basic idea of which is to wear the opponent out either by sending his energy back at him or by deflecting it away, in order to weaken his power, balance, and position-for-defense. Never is force opposed with force; instead, it is overcome with yielding." 
• "The Wu Wei principle underlying T'ai Chi Ch'uan can be understood by striking at a piece of cork floating in water. The harder you hit it, the more it yields; the more it yields, the harder it bounces back. Without expending energy, the cork can easily wear you out. So, Wu Wei overcomes force by neutralizing its power, rather than by adding to the conflict. With other approaches, you may fight fire with fire, but with Wu Wei, you fight fire with water."

Bisy Backson

• Chuang-tse: "There was a man who disliked seeing his footprints and his shadow. He decided to escape from them, and began to run. But as he ran along, more footprints appeared, while his shadow easily kept up with him. Thinking he was going too slowly, he ran faster and faster without stopping, until he finally collapsed from exhaustion and died. If he had stood still, there would have been no footprints. If he had rested in the shade, his shadow would have disappeared." 
• "Our Bisy Backson religions, sciences, and business ethics have tried their hardest to convince us that there is a Great Reward waiting for us somewhere, and that what we have to do is spend our lives working like lunatics to catch up with it." 
• "A way of life that keeps saying, 'Around the next corner, above the next step,' works against the natural order of things and makes it so difficult to be happy and good that only a few get to where they would naturally have been in the first place--Happy and Good--and the rest give up and fall by the side of the road, cursing the world, which is not to blame but which is there to help show the way." 
• "Practically every civilized country in the world has some sort of equivalent--a place where people can go eat, relax, and talk things over without worrying about what time it is, and without having to leave as soon as the food is eaten." 
• Henry David Thoreau: "Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. Men say that a stitch in time saves nine, and so they take a thousand stitches to-day to save nine tomorrow." 
• "One of the most intriguing things about Taoism is that it not only contains respect for the old and wise, but also for the figure known as the Youthful Immortal." 
• "The honey doesn't taste so good once it is being eaten; the goal doesn't mean so much once it is reached; the reward is not so rewarding once it has been given. If we add up all the rewards in our lives, we won't have very much. But if we add up the spaces between the rewards, we'll come up with quite a bit. And if we add up the rewards and the spaces, then we'll have everything--every minute of the time that we spent." 
• "That doesn't mean that the goals we have don't count. They do, mostly because they cause us to go through the process, and it's the process that makes us wise, happy, or whatever...The goal has to be right for us, and it has to be beneficial, in order to ensure a beneficial process." 
• "Enjoyment of the process is the secret that erases the myths of the Great Reward and Saving Time." 
• "What could we call that moment before we begin to eat the honey? Some would call it anticipation, but we think it's more than that. We would call it awareness. It's when we become happy and realize it, if only for an instant." 

That Sort of Bear

• "Looking into the lake, he asked himself what one small man in his position [bankrupt, and with his family dead] could possibly do. Then an answer came to him: he was now free to take risks, to initiate action on his own, and, by doing so, to help other people." 
• "Tz'u, which can be translated as 'caring' or 'compassion' and which is based upon the character for heart. In the sixty-seventh chapter of the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tse named it as his 'first treasure,' and then wrote, 'From caring comes courage.'"
• Henry David Thoreau: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." 

Nowhere and Nothing

• "It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering." 
• Claude Debussy: "Music is the space between the notes." 
• "In the middle of a particularly busy day, the emperor was driven to a meeting hall for an appointment of some kind. But when he arrived, there was no one there. The emperor walked into the middle of the great hall, stood silently for a moment, then bowed to the empty space. He turned to his assistants, a large smile on his face. 'We must schedule more appointments like this,' he told them. 'I haven't enjoyed myself so much in a long time." 
• Lao-tse: "To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day." 
• "There the Pooh books come to an end, in the Enchanted Place at the top of the Forest. It's not far away; it's not hard to find. Just take the path to Nothing, and go Nowhere until you reach it. Because the Enchanted Place is right where you are, and if you're Friendly With Bears, you can find it." 

The Now of Pooh

• "The one chance we have to avoid certain disaster is to change our approach, and to learn to value wisdom and contentment."