And I'm sure the author realizes this since he spends so much time writing best-selling books.īenjamin Hoff ardently tries to explain Taoist teachings of Lao Tzu and Eastern Philosophy in Western terms with the help of characters created by A.A.Milne. It isn't enlightened to go around hating everything while doing nothing. I am in no way an expert on Taoism, but unless everyone who IS finds that idea posing as a representation of their philosophy to be offensive, I want nothing to do with it. Listen to the birds chirp, they will tell you more about the world.' -wait, we shouldn't care about thirty thousand humans being killed in a horrific accident? news to hear '`Thirty thousand people were killed today when five jumbo airliners collided over downtown Lose Angeles' *click* Stop worrying about everything and go about life. The idea of the Indian American culture being superior to that of the almighty Puritans is used as an example, which could be built upon in several interesting ways, but instead the author chooses to illustrate how everything that came after was just silliness without supplying a single idea about how it could be done better.yet useful.Īt one point he actually uses the example of (paraphrasing here) turning on the T.V. I understand the idea behind the Busy Backson rant, but is there no middle ground at all? Rather than believing in the give and take of Ying and Yang (or any other name it may go under) he's against intellectuals who are secretly foolish for trying to figure anything about the world, against people who work hard and care about their jobs or contributions (again that's just foolish), people who enjoy sports or exercise.heck he's against leaving your house or caring about the rest of the world. The author is against pretty much anything useful. Then about two thirds through the book, it just becomes insulting. Those were great books with great characters, each with their own type of intelligence.

Pooh as western Taoist starts off interestingly enough but halfway through it I came to the realization that it was making me want to just read the actual Milne, who was frankly probably a genius writer.

Milne and juxtaposed them with the Taoist teachings of people such as Lao Tzu. The author took the stories and characters of A.A. I picked up this book because it seemed so charming. I wonder if he was trying to write these stories to illustrate Taoist philosophies, if so, he was more of a genius than I previously thought.Ĭute book, I listened to the audio version and it was well read. What this little book made me want to do is read the Winnie the Pooh books by A. “Stephanie, and thanks Pooh, I would love some.” “I was about to go get some honey, it’s my favorite thing.” Said Pooh “would you like some….uh….what is your name?” But I’m sure it’s more complicated than that.” “You enjoy the day and blow off any important things you really should be doing, and listen to the birds chirp simply because it’s a nice day.” I said “in Taoism procrastination is good, my kind of philosophy. “ I said”something about how you are not very smart, therefore you don’t over think things like Rabbit.”

“From what I understand you are an un-carved block.” In fact the whole book was about the author trying to explain it to you, and you would say “oh.” “Taoist” I said, “it’s very hard to explain, I’m no expert. The most recent one is about how you are a western Taoist.” “There have been many books written about you and your friends. “Hello there! Aren’t you Winnie the Pooh? I’m a big fan.”

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