The Tao of Pooh

by Benjamin Hoff

  One day, when Christopher Robin and Winnie the-Pooh and Piglet were all talking together, Christopher Robin finished the mouthful he was eating and said carelessly: "I saw a Heffalump today, Piglet."

  "What was it doing?" asked Piglet.

  "Just lumping along," said Christopher Robin, "I don't think it saw me."

  "I saw one once," said Piglet. "At least, I think I did," he said. "Only perhaps it wasn't."

  "So did I," said Pooh, wondering what a Heffalump was like.

  "You don't often see them," said Christopher Robin carelessly.

  "Not now," said Piglet

  "Not at this time of year," said Pooh.

  That's what a Heffalump is, So Pooh and Piglet decided to capture one. The plan started out well . . .

  Pooh's first idea was that they should dig a Very Deep Pit, and then the Heffalump would come along and fall into the Pit, and——

  "Why?" said Piglet.

  "Why what?" said Pooh.

  "Why would he fall in?"

  Pooh rubbed his nose with his paw, and said that the Heffalump might be walking along, humming a little song, and looking up at the sky, wondering if it would rain, and so he wouldn't see the Very Deep Pit until he was half-way down, when it would be too late.

  Piglet said that this was a very good Trap, but supposing it were raining already?

  Pooh rubbed his nose again, and said that he hadn't thought of that. And then he brightened up, and said that, if it were raining already, the Heffalump would be looking at the sky wondering if it would clear up, and so he wouldn't see the Very Deep Pit until he was half-way down . . . When it would be too late.

  Piglet said that, now that this point had been explained, he thought it was a Cunning Trap.

  Pooh was very proud when he heard this, and he felt that the Heffalump was as good as caught already, but there was just one other thing which had to be thought about, and it was this. Where should they dig the Very Deep Pit?

  Piglet said that the best place would be somewhere where a Heffalump was, just before he fell into it, only about a foot farther on.

  "But then he would see us digging it," said Pooh.

  "Not if he was looking at the sky."

  It sounds easy, doesn't it? Let's see. First, you dig a hole . . .

  . . . making sure that it's big enough for a Heffalump.

  And the best way to make sure that the Heffalump gets into the Trap once you've made it is to put something that Heffalumps like into it, such as a bag of peanuts, or

  "Honey," said Pooh.

  "Honey?"

  "A jar of honey," said Pooh.

  "Are you sure?"

  "A big jar of honey," Pooh insisted.

  "Who ever heard of Heffalumps liking honey? Sticky, gooey . . . How would they ever——"

  "The best thing," said Pooh.

  All right, honey. You put the honey in the Trap, and before you know it, you've caught a . . .

  Hmm. Something went wrong. That's not a Heffalump. But what is it? Maybe Piglet will find out when he goes to see what's in the Trap.

  "Help, help!" cried Piglet, "a Heffalump, a Horrible Heffalump!" and he scampered off as hard as he could, still crying out, "Help, help, a Herrible Hoffalump! Hoff, Hoff, a Hellible Horralump! Holl, Holl, a Hoffable Hellerump!" And he didn't stop crying and scampering until he got to Christopher Robin's house.

  "Whatever's the matter, Piglet?" said Christopher Robin who was just getting up.

  "Heff," said Piglet, breathing so hard that he could hardly speak, "a Hell—a Heff—a Heffalump."

  "Where?"

  "Up there," said Piglet, waving his paw.

  "What did it look like?"

  "Like—like It had the biggest head you ever saw, Christopher Robin. A great enormous thing, like—like nothing. A huge big—well, like a—I don't know—like an enormous big nothing. Like a jar."

  So the honey wasn't such a good thing to use, after all. We didn't think that it really matched the Nature of Heffalumps, somehow.

  Now that we know the principle, we can ——"Oh, it's you, Pooh."

  "Mufflewuffle Cottleston Pie mufflewuffle."

  "I beg your pardon?"

  "Tell them about Cottleston Pie—what it means," Pooh whispered, a little more clearly.

  "I just did," I said.

  "I mean, tell them what it stands for," said Pooh expectantly.

  "Oh, of course. Thank you, Pooh."

  Pooh wants us to know that the words Cottleston Pie are a way of saying Inner Nature. So, by substituting that term for the last line in each verse of the song, we get:

  Ask me a riddle and I reply:

  "Inner Nature."

  Hmm.

  "Cottleston Pie sounds better," said Pooh.

  "Well, how about this, Pooh?"

  Ask me a riddle and I reply:

  "Things Are As They Are."

  "Better . . . But it still doesn't rhyme."

  "All right, how's this?"

  Ask me a riddle and I reply:

  "Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."

  "Just right," said Pooh.

  Now that we know the principle, we can look at its applications. As we have likely recognized by now, no two snowflakes, trees, or animals are alike. No two people are the same, either. Everything has its own Inner Nature. Unlike other forms of life, though, people are easily led away from what's right for them, because people have Brain, and Brain can be fooled. Inner Nature, when relied on, cannot be fooled. But many people do not look at it or listen to it, and consequently do not understand themselves very much. Having little understanding of themselves, they have little respect for themselves, and are therefore easily influenced by others.

  But, rather than be carried along by circumstances and manipulated by those who can see the weaknesses and behavior tendencies that we ignore, we can work with our own characteristics and be in control of our own lives. The Way of Self-Reliance starts with recognizing who we are, what we've got to work with, and what works best for us.

  "How would you explain it, Pooh?"

  "With a song," he said. "A little something I just made up."

  "Go ahead."

  "Certainly . . . (cough)."

  How can you get very far,

  If you don't know Who You Are?

  How can you do what you ought,

  If you don't know What You've Got?

  And if you don't know Which To Do

  Of all the things in front of you,

  Then what you'll have when you are through

  Is just a mess without a clue

  Of all the best that can come true

  If you know What and Which and Who.

  "That's it," he said, leaning back and closing his eyes.

  "A Masterpiece."

  "Well, better than average, maybe."

  Sooner or later, we are bound to discover some things about ourselves that we don't like. But once we see they're there, we can decide what we want to do with them. Do we want to get rid of them completely, change them into other things, or use them in beneficial ways? The last two approaches are often especially Useful, since they avoid head-on conflict, and therefore minimize struggle. Also, they allow those transformed characteristics to be added to the list of things we have that help us out.

  In a similar manner, instead of struggling to erase what are referred to as negative emotions, we can learn to use them in positive ways. We could describe the principle like this: while pounding on the piano keys may produce noise, removing them doesn't exactly further the creation of music. The principles of Music and Living aren't all that different, we think.

  "Wouldn't you say, Pooh?"

  "Say what?" asked Pooh, opening his eyes.

  "Music and Living "

  "The same thing," said Pooh.

  That's what we thought. So rather than work against ourselves, all we need to do in many cases is to point our weaknesses or unpleasant tendencies in a different direction than we have been.

&
nbsp; The following incident recorded by the Taoist Liu An can serve to illustrate:

  In the state of Ch'u, a housebreaker became a soldier under the General Tzu-fa, a man known for utilizing the abilities of others to a remarkable degree.

  A short while later, Ch'u was attacked by the army of the state of Ch'i. Tzu-fa's men went out to counter the attack, but were driven back three times. The Ch'u strategists exhausted their minds while the enemy forces grew stronger.

  At that point, the housebreaker stepped forward and asked for a chance to work for the defense of Ch'u. The General granted his request.

  That night, the housebreaker sneaked into the Ch'i camp, entered the general's tent, and removed the curtains from the bed. Tzu-fa sent these back the next morning by special envoy, with a note which explained that they had been found by some men who were out gathering firewood.

  The following evening, the housebreaker removed the Ch'i general's pillow. The next morning, it was returned with a message like the first.

  On the third night, the housebreaker removed the general's jade hairpin. It was returned the next morning.

  That day, the Ch'i general called his officers to gether. "One more night," he warned them, "and it will be my head!" The troops were ordered to break camp and return home.

  So there is no such thing as an ability that is too useless, too crooked, or too small. It only depends on what you do with it. As Lao-tse pointed out, the bad can be raw material for the good.

  So quite often, the easiest way to get rid of a Minus is to change it into a Plus. Sometimes you will find that characteristics you try hard to eliminate eventually come back, anyway. But if you do the right things, they will come back in the right ways. And sometimes those very tendencies that you dislike the most can show up in the right way at the right time to save your life, somehow. If that's ever happened to you, you'll think twice before setting out to completely Unbounce yourself.

  What do we mean by Unbounce yourself?

  Well, you remember the situation with Tigger . . .

  "How did you fall in, Eeyore?" asked Rabbit, as he dried him with Piglet's handkerchief.

  "I didn't," said Eeyore.

  "But how——"

  "I was BOUNCED," said Eeyore.

  "Oo," said Roo excitedly, "did somebody push you?"

  "Somebody BOUNCED me. I was just thinking by the side of the river—thinking, if any of you know what that means, when I received a loud BOUNCE."

  "Oh, Eeyore!" said everybody.

  "Are you sure you didn't slip?" asked Rabbit wisely.

  "Of course I slipped. If you're standing on the slippery bank of a river, and somebody BOUNCES you loudly from behind, you slip. What did you think I did?"

  "But who did it?" asked Roo.

  Eeyore didn't answer.

  "I expect it was Tigger," said Piglet nervously.

  "But, Eeyore," said Pooh, "was it a Joke, or an Accident? I mean——"

  "I didn't stop to ask, Pooh. Even at the very bottom of the river I didn't stop to say to myself, 'Is this a Hearty Joke, or is it the Merest Accident?' I just floated to the surface, and said to myself, 'It's wet.' If you know what I mean."

  So, to remove the Bounce from Tigger, Rabbit came up with another one of his famous plans: Rabbit, Pooh, and Piglet would take Tigger to someplace at the top of the Forest where he'd never been, and lose him there. And from then on, he would be a Small and Sorry Tigger who bounced no more. Well, so much for Cleverness, as Eeyore might say, because as things turned out, Rabbit got everyone lost, including himself. Everyone but Tigger, that is. Tiggers don't get lost, it so happens, not even in the mist at the top of the Forest. And that proved to be very Useful.

  Because, although Pooh and Piglet found their way back after a while . . .

  "Where's Rabbit?"

  "I don't know," said Pooh.

  "Oh—well, I expect Tigger will find him. He's sort of looking for you all."

  "Well," said Pooh, "I've got to go home for some thing, and so has Piglet, because we haven't had it yet, and——"

  "I'll come and watch you," said Christopher Robin.

  So he went home with Pooh, and watched him for quite a long time . . . and all the time he was watching, Tigger was tearing round the Forest making loud yapping noises for Rabbit. And at last a very Small and Sorry Rabbit heard him. And the Small and Sorry Rabbit rushed through the mist at the noise, and it suddenly turned into Tigger; a Friendly Tigger, a Grand Tigger, a Large and Helpful Tigger, a Tigger who bounced, if he bounced at all, in just the beautiful way a Tigger ought to bounce.

  "Oh, Tigger, I am glad to see you," cried Rabbit.

  In the story of the Ugly Duckling, when did the Ugly Duckling stop feeling Ugly? When he realized that he was a Swan. Each of us has something Special, a Swan of some sort, hidden inside somewhere. But until we recognize that it's there, what can we do but splash around, treading water? The Wise are Who They Are. They work with what they've got and do what they can do.

  There are things about ourselves that we need to get rid of; there are things we need to change. But at the same time, we do not need to be too desperate, too ruthless, too combative. Along the way to usefulness and happiness, many of those things will change themselves, and the others can be worked on as we go. The first thing we need to do is recognize and trust our own Inner Nature, and not lose sight of it. For within the Ugly Duckling is the Swan, inside the Bouncy Tigger is the Rescuer who knows the Way, and in each of us is something Special, and that we need to keep.

  For a long time they looked at the river beneath them, saying nothing, and the river said nothing too, for it felt very quiet and peaceful on this summer afternoon.

  "Tigger is all right really," said Piglet lazily.

  "Of course he is," said Christopher Robin.

  "Everybody is really," said Pooh. "That's what I think," said Pooh. "But I don't suppose I'm right," he said.

  "Of course you are," said Christopher Robin.

  THE POOH

  WAY

  By the time it came to the edge of the Forest the stream had grown up, so that it was almost a river, and, being grown-up, it did not run and jump and sparkle along as it used to do when it was younger, but moved more slowly. For it knew now where it was going, and it said to itself, "There is no hurry. We shall get there some day."

  Now we come to what could be called the most characteristic element of Taoism-in-action. In Chinese, it is known as Wu Wei. It is also the most characteristic element of Pooh-in-action. In English, it is not known as much of anything in particular. We believe that it's time that someone noticed it and called it something, so we will call it the Pooh Way.

  Literally, Wu Wei means "without doing, causing, or making." But practically speaking, it means without meddlesome, combative, or egotistical effort. It seems rather significant that the character Wei developed from the symbols for a clawing hand and a monkey, since the term Wu Wei means no going against the nature of things; no clever tampering; no Monkeying Around.

  The efficiency of Wu Wei is like that of water flowing over and around the rocks in its path—not the mechanical, straight-line approach that usually ends up short-circuiting natural laws, but one that evolves from an inner sensitivity to the natural rhythm of things.

  Let's take an example from the writings of Chuang-tse:

  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.