Explore the simplicity and depth of this beautiful eastern philosophy and fairth with "The Tao of Pooh: An Intro to Taoism." We discuss how Benjamin Hoff uses the beloved character Winnie the Pooh to illustrate the profound principles of Taoism, making it accessible and relatable.
Through the adventures of Pooh and his friends, we uncover the essence of 'The Way' and how effortless action (Wu Wei) and simplicity can lead to a harmonious life.
We discuss key Taoist concepts, including the importance of living in harmony with the natural world, the power of non-action, and finding joy in simplicity.
Through personal reflections and quotes from the book, this video invites viewers to see the world through Pooh's eyes, offering a fresh perspective on life and spirituality. Join us as we journey through the Hundred Acre Wood to discover the timeless wisdom of Taoism and how it can be applied to our daily lives.
For more spiritual explorations and to join our community, visit: https://Kishar.org
Explore the simplicity and depth of this beautiful eastern philosophy and fairth with "The Tao of Pooh: An Intro to Taoism." We discuss how Benjamin Hoff uses the beloved character Winnie the Pooh to illustrate the profound principles of Taoism, making it accessible and relatable.
Through the adventures of Pooh and his friends, we uncover the essence of 'The Way' and how effortless action (Wu Wei) and simplicity can lead to a harmonious life.
We discuss key Taoist concepts, including the importance of living in harmony with the natural world, the power of non-action, and finding joy in simplicity.
Through personal reflections and quotes from the book, this video invites viewers to see the world through Pooh's eyes, offering a fresh perspective on life and spirituality. Join us as we journey through the Hundred Acre Wood to discover the timeless wisdom of Taoism and how it can be applied to our daily lives.
For more spiritual explorations and to join our community, visit: https://Kishar.org
Everyone should read this book. It's life. It's love. After the last book I read interviewed on this channel, I really needed something uplifting. So I picked the Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. This beautiful work was created using the stories of Winnie the Pooh to enlighten people to the beauty of Daoism, Daoism, or Taoism in eastern faith and philosophy. You may know it best by its symbol, the yin and the yang. The publisher actually licensed the original Winnie the Pooh text from the estate of Milne for use in this book and for perspective. This book was written a long time ago in 1982 I wanted to start by reading a beautiful quote from the back cover. sometimes when I read this, it makes me tear up a little bit. Just because of its sheer simplicity, Hoff says. And so there it is for us, right? We should all be more like Pooh, and it'll help us find our way through the forest. I think that's a beautiful metaphor. You know, trying to find our way through the woods. And that takes us back to when we were kids watching or reading Winnie the Pooh. The Tao Te Ching in the Chuang Tzu are the foundational text of Daoism. They bring us down to the base of life. They really get to the heart of this reality we all share together. They simplify what life is and where we all fit into it. the author writes this book from the standpoint of writing the book as if he's putting it together while Winnie the Pooh is right there with him having a discussion about it, about life, about the Dao. And it blends between this and also referencing stories that many of us will recognize from a Milne's classic works. There's also a third perspective where the author just writes about Daoism or just his own perspective on it, or his thoughts on the world. And these three different approaches to storytelling are really woven quite intricately throughout the book. It's something that was really hard to pull off, and I think he did it. Before we move on, please subscribe to this channel by hitting the watermark in the lower right hand corner and share with any friends or family that you think might benefit from it. Let's go back to Daoism again. What is Daoism? The first and most important part of it is this core principle of the Dao. It's this fundamental concept representing the ultimate reality that there is an underlying natural order or principle that governs the function of the universe, and that that is the Dao. You might think of the Dao as the universe or the divine or your true self. The Dao just is. And it also is not. Daoist may simply refer to it as the way Then there is the Wu Wei. Wu Wei is effortless action or non-action. It's acting in harmony with the Dao, allowing things to occur without any type of forcible intervention. Acceptance is a powerful concept that we see in spirituality all over the world. We talk about acceptance on this channel all the time, and it's deeply part of Daoism. That idea that we have this great acceptance about who we are and what we are and how we interact with the world and the universe all around us. Then there's Ziran or naturalness. The idea that everything should follow is inherent nature, allowing life to flow naturally and effortlessly. And I think that says be true to yourself, you know, really be true to yourself. There's the three treasures or essential virtues in Daoism, and they may be translated as compassion, frugality, and humility. you also have qigong or tai chi, and they both come from Daoism and the Daoist Traditions. the practice of Daoism would probably be even more widespread than it is, but it had to compete closely with the teachings of Confucius and they both came about around the same time in history. Winnie the Pooh is the Dao. The effortless nature of Pooh really overlaps with the teachings of the Dao and Wu Way. We don't have to try if we just are in the book. Hoff actually calls this the Pooh way. And I think, you know, he really has a way with words. It's a really serious book at times, but it's also a very playful and humorous book. And I think that's this whole idea of spirituality, right? We have this playful nature about it. There can be this joyous part of it and sometimes a serious and we can balance. That's okay. There's one thing to take away from this book. It's that we get caught up in the noise, the race, the chaos, whatever you want to call it. And where does that get us? And I think we have to ask that important question about being so ingrained and enmeshed in this chaos all around us. The author compares Winnie the Pooh to the term Pu in Chinese, and that means the uncovered block Hoff says, The essence for me personally, this speaks to the power each of us have inside of us. When we were children, it's when we knew magic and it's when we still believed. And what do you mean by believe? We believed in things. We believed in the power of things, and that those things that were like beyond us, but we also thought might be inside of us. There's that again. It's that magic would pooh have been that patient friend, that loyal associate and this unlikely problem solver if he hadn't been this simple uncarved block to the Taoists Being simple minded isn't dumb or unintelligent or anything else that we might call it. Life is simplicity, and we complicated unnecessarily. I think, in fact, we we willfully choose to overcomplicate things. We choose to live our lives in this way. Even in antiquity, the Daoists saw themselves compared to all these busy people around them. So and it ever was, you know, take time, for instance. Time is all we've got this great moment that we keep living in day by day. We're never going to get it back. We have all these things that save us time and I mean save and like air quotes, we have all these things that save us time that have been developed over hundreds of years and maybe even more so over the last hundred years. And that's been a period that it was probably the greatest leap forward in human history as far as technology goes. do we have more time now that we've saved so much? We've saved all this time, but do we have more time? I don't think that we do. You're important and your time is valuable. Your family is sacred. You love your friends, you have your passions, all these special things that you hold dear. And what about them? Do we spend enough time with those things? Do we love them enough? Do we love ourselves enough? What if we slow it down? When we slow it down, we become like, Pooh, like Winnie the Pooh. We're problem solvers. Or maybe we don't even realize that we have problems. And the reason we don't realize we have problems is because we actually don't have problems. And these things that bother us about ourselves or life around us. After reflection, maybe they don't bother us at all. Maybe we find that they help us if we let them. There's all this stuff around us that helps us. The universe sends us what we need to help us out. Let's take care of Mother Earth, take care of Gaia. It's hard to fully encapsulate the beauty of this work by Benjamin Hoff. It's one that you really have to read to completely feel. And I found that this was a really optimistic work by Benjamin Hoff. And I myself remain optimistic. I have great faith and hope in humankind. I think we're going to be okay. Ever since my moment of clarity, your understanding was over two years ago. Now I've taken myself out of politics and out of all those kind of conversations. I don't argue with strangers on the Internet anymore. I'm not an activist. I think each of us can lift up the world by lifting up ourselves. So we lift up this whole world around us in a beautiful way when we're taking care of ourselves. And through all of that, I still want to share this quote from the book, even though it's a little less optimistic than most of the book by Benjamin Hoff. And I, I don't believe, that we're doomed. That's not why I'm sharing this. And I don't believe that. But because I think that a little cautionary wisdom can be helpful on our journey. I wanted to sincerely ask you not to let this dampen the loving and bright nature of this book. So let me go out and share with you I felt I should include that for Benjamin Hoff in honor of him and his writing of this book. And so after reading that, I'll ask you to go out and love yourself, appreciate and have gratitude for your world and the things that you have and love our Mother Earth. The Dao is said to be something that we can't understand, that it's beyond. But we may understand its nature. It's inside each of us and everything. It's everywhere because the Dao is the way. So as Benjamin Hoff recommends, let us appreciate learning from and working with whatever happens in everyday life. There's great happiness and joy there. And what does Winnie the Pooh think of it? He says. And that's really a beautiful way to encapsulate the book with that Winnie the Pooh kind of poem that he reads. Towards the end of it all, Hoff says Benjamin Hoff was a philosopher, and I believe Winnie the Pooh was a philosopher. Probably in the level of Laozi. He doesn't see the way, but he knows the way is part of him, and it's also part of you. And I wish you all love and light. I hope that you find your way through this forest. I love this book so much and I would love to hear what you think of it. Please hit me up in the comments and I'll absolutely get back to you for a peaceful and open minded community where people can share their journeys and be themselves. Where we have conversation. It's just like this. Visit Kishar.org, please, like this video. If you want us to keep making content just like this. And until next time I wish you peace on your journey.