** What is Taoism? It’s really very simple. It calls for living without pre-conceived ideas about how life should be lived.

** While Eeyore frets, and Piglet hesitates, and Rabbit calculates, and Owl pontificates, Pooh just is. And that’s his clue to the secret wisdom of the Taoists.

Notes:

  • The How of Pooh?
    • The Vinegar Tasters 三酸圖: These are no ordinary vinegar tasters, but are instead representatives of the “Three Teachings” of China, and that the vinegar they are sampling represents the Essence of Life.
    • To Lao-tse, the world was not a setter of traps but a teacher of valuable lessons. Its lessons needed to be learned, just as its laws needed to be followed; then all would go well.
    • The natural result of this harmonious way of living is happiness.
    • Sourness and bitterness come from the interfering and unappreciative mind.
  • The Tao of Who?
    • P’u, the Uncarved Block 樸
    • Things in their original simplicity contain their own natural power, power that is easily spoiled and lost when that simplicity is changed.
    • When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few other things that get in the way, sooner or later you will discover that simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the Uncarved Block: Life is Fun.
    • From the state of the Uncarved Block comes the ability to enjoy the simple and the quiet, the natural and the plain. Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously and have them work, odd as that appear to others at times.
  • Spelling Tuesday
    • In the final section of the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tse wrote, “The wise are not learned; the learned are not wise” (知者不博，博者不知)
    • Knowledge for the sake of Knowledge
    • It seems fairly obvious to some of us that a lot of scholars need to go outside and sniff around — walk through the grass, talk to the animals.
    • In other words, you might say that there is more to Knowing than just being correct.
  • Cottleston Pie
    • Everything has its own place and function.
    • When you know and respect your own Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don’t belong. One man’s food is often another man’s poison.
    • The wise know their limitations; the foolish do not.
    • Once you face and understand your limitations, you can work with them, instead of having them work against you and get in your way.
    • Recognize Inner Nature and work with things as they are.
  • The Pooh Way
    • Literally, Wu Wei (無為) means “without doing, causing, or making.” But practically speaking, it means without meddlesome, combative, or egotistical effort.
    • When we learn to work with our own Inner Nature, and with the natural laws operating around us, we reach the level of Wu Wei.
    • Tao Te Ching chapter 37, “Tao does not do, but nothing is not done.” (道德經37章：「道常無為而無不為。」)
    • Egotistical Desire tries to force the round peg into the square hole and the square peg into the round hole. Cleverness tries to devise craftier ways of making pegs fit where they don’t belong. Knowledge tries to figure out why round pegs fit round holes, but not square holes.
    • In the words of Chuang-tse, the mind of Wu Wei “flows like water, reflects like a mirror, and responds like an echo.”
  • Bisy Backson
    • “Gon out, backson, bisy, backson”
    • “Gone out, back soon busy, back soon”
    • “Back out, gone soon, busy, gone soon”
    • 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, and that what we have to do is spend our lives working like lunatics to catch up with it.
    • Those damaging activities that are not part of the search for the Great Reward seems to accumulate under the general heading of Saving Time.
    • The main problem with this great obsession for Saving Time is very simple: you can’t save time. You can only spend it.
    • Enjoyment of the process is the secret that erases the myths of the Great Reward and Saving Time.
    • When we take the time to enjoy our surroundings and appreciate being alive, we find that we have no time to be Bisy Backsons anymore.
  • That Sort of Bear
    • Enjoying life and being special
    • In order to take control of our lives and accomplish something of lasting value, sooner or later we need to learn to Believe.
    • Once we see what the situation is and what we can do about it, we need to utilise everything we find along the way in order to accomplish whatever is required.
    • “From caring comes courage” (慈故能勇)
    • “A tree as big around as you can reach starts with a small seed; a thousand-mile journey starts with one step.” (合抱之木，生於毫末；九層之臺，起於累土；千里之行，始於足下。)
    • Wisdom, Happiness, and Courage are not waiting somewhere out beyond sight at the end of a straight line; they’re part of a continuous cycle that beings right here.
  • Nowhere and Nothing
    • As Claude Debussy expressed it, “Music is the space between the notes.”
    • Emptiness cleans out the messy mind and charges up the batteries of spiritual energy.
    • Many people are afraid of Emptiness, however, because it reminds them of Loneliness. But when all the spaces are filled, the Loneliness really begins.
    • “To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.” (為學日益，為道日損。)
    • The power of a clear mind is beyond description. But it can be attained by anyone who can appreciate and utilise the value of Nothing.
    • The wise are Children Who Know. Their minds have been emptied of the countless minute somethings of small learning, and filled with the wisdom of the Great Nothing, the Way of the Universe.
  • The Now of Pooh
    • Wisdom and contentment are the things that are being searched for anyway, through Knowledge and Cleverness, but they do not come from Knowledge and Cleverness.
    • The masters of life know the Way, for they listen to the voice within them, the voice of wisdom and simplicity, the voice that reasons beyond Cleverness and knows beyond Knowledge.

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