Te of Piglet

The Te of Piglet (or Virtue of the Small) is the companion book to the Tao of Pooh. Once again A. A. Milne's characters are being used to illustrate principles from the Taoist philosophy. The elements he described in his previous book are explained in more detail: Owl is the epitome of knowledge without wisdom, Rabbit is the clever person who worries about appearances, Tigger represents impulsiveness without taking the time to do things right, and Eeyores are people who always complain instead of seeing the silver lining. Piglet is used as an example of the Virtue of the Small. He's A Very Tiny Animal who might not do great deeds, but he does come through in a pinch. He's portrayed as the only one of the 100 Acre Woods friends who evolves as a person. Instead of lamenting about his smallness, he does what needs to be done when necessary.

Benjamin Hoff's portrayal of Pooh and his friends starts of well enough. However, a few pages into every chapter he starts complaining about how the Western world (although he seems to equate the US with the West as a whole) is doing things wrong. Because of this, parts of the book feel as a petulant rant. At times he even comes off as bitter. This is in contrast with the ending, where he claims belief in the coming of an esoteric better world (very much like The Last Battle of Narnia and The Silmarillion) based on a back-to-nature philosophy in which all of nature lives in perfect harmony.

All in all I would suggest to read the Tao of Pooh (which is absolutely brilliant) and leave this one be. If you really want to read both, do so in one go. Don't leave too much time between them. This way, IMHO, it's easier to appreciate the good parts of the Te of Piglet while skipping the once that aren't really up to par.

Tao of Pooh

About a year and a half ago I saw the title of this book by a writer I had never heard about. But what a title: The Tao of Pooh. Cute, yet intriguing. Since then I wanted to buy it, but I never did. I already own enough books I still need to get through, and the few times I checked in the local English bookstore they would have had to order it so I didn't bother. Last week however I was showing the bookshop Sterling Books to a friend of mine, without the intent of buying anything, and the book was in. Naturally, I couldn't resist. And I'm very I glad I couldn't.

In the Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff explains the basic concepts of Taoism with the character of Winnie-the-Pooh as the perfect example of its principles in action. Pooh exemplifies the idea of the Uncarved Block, or P'u. "The essence of the Uncarved Block is that things in their original simplicity contain their own natural power, power that is easily spoiled and lost when that simplicity is changed." Essentially it means that we should listen more to our Inner Nature and see things as they are instead of how we want them to be. This in contrast with Owl who lets his knowledge get in the way for the sake of keeping up an image of wisdom, Eeyore who lets it get in the way of enjoying life, and Rabbit who uses it to sound Clever. The other concept that is touched upon is that of Wu Wei, or Effortless Action (lit. non action or not doing). This means doing things in a natural way, knowing when to act and when not. The traditional metaphor is that of water flowing. A stream of water will not try to move a rock in its path, but will flow around.

As an introduction to Taoism this book is very nice. It explains all the basic concepts in an easy to read and understand way. Using the Pooh characters as metaphors works very well. It's easy to imagine Pooh as a practitioner of Wu Wei and seeing things for what they are in his simplicity. I'm almost convinced that A.A. Milne was a Taoist philosopher without realizing it. Moreover, my interest in Taoism is now aroused. I've always had this feeling that it's an interesting philosophy, but living in a Western society you never really get in touch with it. So, there is much more to find out. First, we'll read the follow-up though, The Te of Piglet.