Poor Eeyore was changed into an aggressive, useless, self-aggrandizing monster for no reason than because he's usually a bit blue. This moral is expressed by manipulating the characters of Winnie the Pooh by stretching their characterizations out of shape. The book is aggressively against any sort of knowledge-gathering, any sort of self-advancing effort, and basically anything anti-Tao. Near the end of the book, the author even has the gall to say that being clever or scholarly (as opposed to following the way of Tao) will bring about the end of the world and that whatever is left to the few people who survive won't be worth looking at that is a bit of a paraphrase, but only a bit. Learning about Taoism was interesting, and the use of Winnie the Pooh in orchestrating that was creative (hence the two stars instead of one), but the entire book was riddled with accusations about every other mode of thought being unambiguously inferior to Taoism without even the consideration to say that there are benefits to them. But as far as this book is concerned, everything except Taoism is the root of all evil in the world and must be stopped with the principles and application of Taoism, and the beloved characters from Winnie the Pooh were left as casualties in the aftermath. Perhaps if the author hadn't taken a no-holds-barred offensive stance against everything apart from Taoism, or if he hadn't torn the characters apart to get them to fit around the characters he needed them to be to get his point across, I might have thought his words were more worthwhile. The Everything-Else-Is-Bad-For-You of Pooh The Tao of Pooh is an international bestseller and the first Taoist-authored book in history to appear on bestseller lists, it remained on The New York Times’ bestseller list for 49 weeks. And that's the clue to the secret wisdom of the Taoists.

While Eeyore frets and Piglet hesitates and Rabbit calculates and Owl pontificates, Pooh just is. Romp through the enchanting world of Winnie-the-Pooh while soaking up invaluable lessons on simplicity and natural living. Through brilliant and witty dialogue with the beloved Pooh-bear and his companions, the author of this smash bestseller explains with ease and aplomb that rather than being a distant and mysterious concept, Taoism is as near and practical to us as our morning breakfast bowl. Is there such thing as a Western Taoist? Benjamin Hoff says there is, and this Taoist's favorite food is honey. Audie Award Winner, Personal Development, 2013Īuthor Benjamin Hoff shows that the philosophy of Winnie-the-Pooh is amazingly consistent with the principles of Taoism and demonstrates how you can use these principles in your daily life.

The tao of pooh book