Tao Of Pooh Summary

The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff is certainly an interesting book. Pooh has always been an interesting character and his ways seem to be very close to the ancient Chinese principle of Taoism. When I was younger I was a great fan of Pooh and Huff does a great job of explaining the Taoist philosophy through Pooh and his animal friends. This is not your average children’s bedtime story just as A. A. Milne orginally did not write the Pooh stories for children. In chapter one, “The How of Pooh,” Hoff talks about The Vinegar Tasters painting which represents “the ‘Three Teachings’ of China, and that the vinegar they are sampling represents the Essence of Life” (Hoff 2). The three masters are K’ung Fu-tse (Confucius), Budda and Lao-tse. In the painting “The Vinegar Tasters,”
The scholar writes pompous papers that no one else can understand but the scholar”(Hoff 26). He care little about what others will learn from his writings. The scholars intelligence may be useful for analyzing things but anything deeper is beyond him. Pompous Owl is the animal who is the desiccated scholar. Owl is the brain or absent minded professor. He puts all of his focus on books and learning rather than experience. He keeps what he learns to himself and does not care about the rest of the animals. To a Taoist, knowledge that comes from experience is the best kind of knowledge because you witnessed it firsthand. You know what went right and what went wrong, and how to improve upon yourself in the future, along with what to give those that follow you. Scholars can use their big words to show how smart they are, but sometimes they need to go out and experience the world like and talk to the animals because there is more to knowledge that being right all the