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Jenessa Ingledew
Mr. Matich
Honors English 4B
4-23-12
Taoism and Winnie The Pooh
As a child my favorite show was Winnie the Pooh. I had always thought of him as a simple minded bear with no real meaning; just living his life to do what ever. As I have studied more about Taoism and reading the Tao of Pooh, he has more of a meaning then just simplicity. He relates to the ideas of Cottlestone Pie, Bisy Backson, and Wu Wei.
The character Rabbit in Winnie the Pooh is always running around trying to get things done; he never has time to stop and has to stay on his schedule. In the eyes of a Taoist he would be considered a Bisy Backson. “ The Bisy Backson is almost desperately active” (Hoff, 93). He always has to be doing something. Taoist believe that you should live life without a schedule; no planning. Just live minute by minute. By doing this you alleviate the stress from your life.
In life many people force things that are not ment to happen. This is the Taoist idea of Cottlestone Pie.
Hui Shi said to Zhuangzi, "I have a large tree, of the sort people call a shu tree. Its trunk is too gnarled for measuring lines to be applied to it, its branches are too twisted for use with compasses or T-squares. If you stood it on the road, no
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carpenter would pay any attention to it Now your talk is similarly vast but useless, people are unanimous in rejecting it." (Hoff, 41)
The tree is to disformed to be made into lumber and the carpenter knows this, so he pays no attention to it.” (Hoff, 25)
In other words, everyone has their place and function. People are often stuck or put in impossible situations; they try to do everything possible to make it happen, even though it won’t be possible. When you understand your inner nature, everything falls in place. You also know where you don’t belong or what is not possible. Tiger often represents this principle. He believes that he has no limitations.
Without doing, causing or making; this is the Taoist principle of Wu Wei or know as The Pooh Way in the book The Tao of Pooh. In order to accomplish Wu Wei you have to learn to work with your Inner Nature.
At the Gorge of Lu, the great waterfall plunges for thousands of feet, its spray visible for miles. In the churning waters below, no living creature can be seen.
One day, K’ung Fu-tse was standing at a distance from the pool’s edge when he saw an old man being tossed about in the turbulent water. He called to his disciples and together they ran to rescue the victim. But by the time they reached the water, the old man had climbed out onto the bank and was walking along, singing to himself.
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K’ung Fu-tse hurried up to him. “You would have to be a ghost to survive that,” he said, “but you seem to be a man, instead. What secret power do you have?”
“Nothing special,” the old man replied. “I began to learn while very young and grew up practicing it. Now I am certain of success. 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 is all.” (Hoff, 68-69)
The old man fell in the water and was likely to drown. He relaxed and let nature take place; by relaxing he allowed the principle that humans float in water. If he would have thrashed and panicked, he would have inhaled water and died. He understood that the water was superior over him. The character Eeyore represents this principle very well. His house is built out of sticks; they often fall down. When this does happen he just picks them up and rebuilds. He isn’t trying to force them to stay. When you work or understand Wu Wei there is no stress. The round peg goes in the round hole. Cleverness and knowledge tries to find loop holes. Wu Wei doesn’t try; it doesn’t worry about it, it just let it happen. It looks like nothing is happening. Things get done.
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Works Cited
Hoff, Benjamin.the Tao of Pooh. the Penguin Group, 1983.