51 pages • 1 hour read
Benjamin HoffThe Tao Of Pooh
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1982A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaChapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Cottleston Pie”
Chapter 4 reminds the reader that Rabbit attempts to rid the forest of Kanga and Roo because they are different. Rabbit has formed an opinion of them without basis in fact, as he later realizes. Kanga and Roo are unique, a term that speaks to their inner nature. It is difficult to articulate the meaning of inner nature, however, so Hoff uses what he calls “the Cottleston Pie Principle” to explain it. “Cottleston Pie,” a song in Winnie-the-Pooh, is quoted in this chapter, and it also serves as the epigraph of The Tao of Pooh.
The song’s first lines contain a riddle: "A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly" (39). Hoff says this means that there is no profit in ignoring reality. He likens this idea to attempting to fit a square peg into a round hole. “When you know and respect your own Inner Nature,” Hoff claims, “you know where you belong. You also know where you don't belong” (41).
To illustrate, Hoff presents the story of Chuang-tse, who is approached by representatives of the prince. Chuang-tse gazes the P’u River as the men offer him a position at court. Chuang-tse responds by saying he has heard that the prince has a two-thousand-year-old tortoise preserved in a box in the palace. The prince’s representatives admit that this is true. Chuang-tse then asks the men, "If the tortoise had been given a choice, which do you think he would have liked better—to have been alive in the mud, or dead within the palace?" (41). The men respond with the obvious answer: that the tortoise would have preferred to be alive in the mud. "I too prefer the mud," Chuang-tse says (41). Chuang-tse knows where he does not belong.
Hoff continues to explicate “Cottleston Pie,” and then he relates another story to illustrate the principle of “Cottleston Pie.” The first step of respecting Inner Nature is realizing one’s own weaknesses and to be able to work with those limitations. Hoff points out that the phrase “Cottleston Pie” in the song simply refers to Inner Nature, or, “Things Are As They Are” (56).
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Pooh Way”
Wu Wei means “withoutdoing, causing, or making,” Hoff says (68). The phrase depicts an effortless interaction with the world, a way of being that Hoff says Pooh exemplifies. To further explain Wu Wei, Hoff tells a story about the day K'ung Fu-tse witnesses an old man being tossed about beneath a waterfall. Surprisingly, the old man, unscathed, climbs onto the bank. K'ung Fu-tse is curious about how the man has survived. The old man says, “I go down with the water and come up with the water. I follow it and forget myself. I survive because I don't struggle against the water's superior power. That's all" (69).
Working with nature, rather than against it, requires less effort than fighting against natural forces. Pooh interjects that tasks are still accomplished, but with less effort. “They just sort of happen,” Pooh says (70). The Tao Te Ching expresses the same idea: “Tao does not do, but nothing is not done” (70). In fact, Wu Wei could be called Pooh Way, Hoff suggests.
The martial art of Tai Chi Ch’uan uses Wu Wei for defense. It attempts to tire the opponent by sending his own blows back to him or by deflecting the opponent. As in the example of the old man and the waterfall, “never is force opposed with force; instead, it is overcome with yielding” (87).
The chapter ends by mentioning that rabbits are the opposite of Wu Wei. Rabbits stay constantly busy, running here and there. The perpetually busy lifestyle exemplified by the rabbits, Hoff promises, will be discussed in the next chapter.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Bisy Backson”
This chapter’s unusual title is taken from a note Christopher Robin leaves while he is out one day. “BISY BACKSON,” the note announces. Rabbit cannot interpret the writing, even though he is one, Hoff says. Rabbit consults Owl, who does not understand the words either.
Chuang-tse describes the Bisy Backson via a story about the man who wanted to leave behind his shadow and his footprints. The man tried to run away, but the shadow and footprints followed. He ran faster and faster to outrun them, but he soon died of exhaustion. A better tactic would have been to stand still in the shade, where both the footprints and shadow would have been eliminated.
The Bisy Backson, Hoff says, is “desperately active” (93). Bisy Backsons must always be involved in some frantic activity, and they often work themselves to death. Perhaps this is because the first Bisy Backsons in the United States were Puritans, who coincidentally bequeathed the Puritan work ethic that drives many Bisy Backsons today. The original Puritan planters, however, failed to understand that rest is important for the soil. They worked the soil to exhaustion, refusing to let it rest. Crop failure was the result.
Hoff traces the Puritans’ progress in the United States to their successors: pioneers and cowboys. Characterized as always striving for something better, these are the progenitors of today’s Bisy Backson. For the Bisy Backson, though, “[e]ach time the goal is reached, it becomes Not So Much Fun, and we're off to reach the next one, then the next one, then the next” Hoff explains (111).
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
While Chapter 4 focuses on the difficulty of explaining Taoist principles, Chapter 5 and 6 prove that examples make complex concepts easy to understand. Chapter 5 explains Wu Wei, while Chapter 6 discusses those who live in conflict with Wu Wei.
Chapter 4 uses the term “Cottleston Pie” to symbolize inner nature. In other words, things are as they are, and denying the nature of a thing is fruitless. The song, from Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh, says, “A fly can’t bird, but a bird can fly” (39). This line demonstrates the claim that everything has an inner nature that determines its abilities.
For various reasons, however, people “try to fit square pegs into round holes, ignoring the clear reality that Things Are As They Are” (39). It is much more difficult to work against inner nature. Those who embrace their own inner nature have a more tranquil life.
Chapter 5 emphasizes the importance of working with nature rather than fighting against it. While this approach might seem careless or even lazy, tasks are still accomplished. The difference is that less effort is involved because there is no struggle against the natural order. This effortless path is known as Wu Wei, which means “without doing, causing, or making” (68).
In Chapter 6, Hoff examines the opposite of Wu Wei, using Christopher Robin’s “Bisy Backson” to designate those who are constantly busy. These people, who exemplify the Puritan work ethic, can trace their lineage to the pioneers who shaped the nation’s path toward westward expansion. Never satisfied, ever striving, the Bisy Backson refuses to allow nature to set the course; instead, the Bisy Backson winds up exhausted from the effort to set terms to nature.
Hoff briefly discusses the implications of these principles in regard to ecological issues, but the modern reader can easily think of contemporary problems that have resulted from the Bisy Backson tendency to believe that Inner Nature is of no consequence and can be disregarded in the quest for the next best thing. “Our Bisy Backson religions, sciences, and business ethics have tried their hardest to convince us that there is a Great Reward waiting for us somewhere,” Hoff says, “and that what we have to do is spend our lives working like lunatics to catch up with it” (97).
