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The Tao of Pooh Essay

In The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff, the author is explaining Taoism to people who do not know what it is, using a classic childhood story, Winnie the Pooh. Hoff observes every character from the childhood story and finding Pooh to be the best for all. The main and first thing talked about in the story is what Taoism believes as the uncarved block, Hoff which then says it is everything in it’s simplest form. Pooh represents the uncarved block because he in his self is simplistic. Pooh is always calm, and relaxed and doesn’t stress about anything, well except his honey of course. The concept of Wu Wei is a major concept in the book, where there is no struggle to doing something, for example you don’t but the round peg in the square hole, or vice versa, because it is to put the round peg in the round hole. Wu Wei doesn’t try, it just does. One of the first major ideas in The Tao of Pooh is the uncarved block. When talking about the uncarved block, Pooh is the best example, and character chosen to be described, and describe the uncarved block. The uncarved block is everything being in it’s simplest form, and within simplicity has its own power. pooh is used to describe the uncarved block because he is simple. Pooh doesn’t worry about much of anything, he doesn’t over think, and he simple minded. Rabbit is used as the opposite as the uncarved block because he is always running around and is very busy because that’s who he is. Expressing this is showing you miss many things in life being busy and trying to rush everything. With the topic of Rabbit, it shows how not to life live. As Pooh is The Uncarved Block, Rabbit is the exact opposite, which is the opposite of The Uncarved Block. Hoff is basically telling us doing as Rabbit does is not the way to live life. Rabbit is always rushing around and not taking the time to enjoy life. He is too busy trying to rush and missing so many things and opportunities and not taking any time for

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