Tao of Pooh and Te of Piglet Boxed Set

Humorous and very light in tone, 'The Tao of Pooh' is a great and very enjoyable introduction to the core belief of Taoism. Pooh bear indeed, and funnily enough, has a way of dealing with things and going about in his life that is not in contradiction with Taoists precepts -far from that!

Spontaneity, natural simplicity, compassion and, above all a strong ( although naive) optimism no matter what's happening to him, there are some good stuff to learn from his attitude, that Hoff links to some of the most important concepts of Taoist philosophy. More, it's not only from Pooh bear that we can learn about the Tao, but, his friends also -the dry and unimaginative yet pompous and pretentious scholar Owl, know-it-all and pessimistic Eeyore, show more busy but unfocused Rabbit etc. If 'within each of us there is a Owl, a Rabbit, a Eeyore and a Pooh', then this very entertaining book is an amusing way of pointing towards finding a balance between them all.

The 'Te of Piglet' is a follow-up to read; the adorable and timid little piggy being used to demonstrate what the Te ('virtue in action') is all about. However, if Hoff here introduce and nicely poke fun at Tiger (indeed a nice metaphor for our consumerist lifestyles, always on the go) he sadly also give vent to his prejudice against American conservatism, in a rant that some readers may find annoying. Are such proclaimed political allegiance (caricature?) relevant here? I don't think so.

Regardless, both books are a nice start to better grasp what is 'The Way'. show less

I think this is one of those works that I would have enjoyed more if I'd read it in my teens or twenties rather than my thirties (I didn't). Or that I would have found more profound if it were my first introduction to Taoism (it wasn't). Much like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, I came upon these books too late for my own good, as a grouchy, jaded, grown-ass man. And as such, The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet just struck me as being not nearly as clever as they seemed to think they were. I fully admit that it's probably my fault.

Wonderful little book that uses the character and Milne stories of Pooh and friends to explain Taoism. It’s apologetics through common sense, which is probably the best way for Westerners to wrap their heads around ideas like Wu Wei and P’u (serendipitously pronounced “pooh”). With lengthy excerpts from House on Pooh Corner and delightful dialog between Hoff and Pooh, the book’s accessibility makes it a good introduction to eastern religions in general.

It was very fun, and very funny. I think I more easily learned about some concepts of Taoism than if I had read a book that was based soley around taoism. I had to read it for my Theory of Knowledge class, and it was interesting discussing the uncarved block and Wu Wei, so I am really glad that I had the opportunity to read it.

Read both of these individually about 20 years ago, thought I enjoyed them more. Must have been a different person then. Found them to be a little too condescending (towards the non-enlightened like me) and a little too preachy. Would recommend https://www.librarything.com/work/19335035/summary/194107468 instead if you're in a similar mindset.

Also, I found myself wanting to read the Winnie-the-Pooh books :^) They might have to be next on my list.

While I learned some basics of Tao, the whole Pooh thing was tiresome and trivializing. There must be some other, better intros to Taoism.

This book is surprisingly mean to all Winnie the Pooh characters that aren't piglet or Pooh without actually saying much of value,