The Tao of Pooh

by Benjamin Hoff

Mistakes are made—or imagined—by man, the creature with the overloaded Brain who separates himself from the supporting network of natural laws by interfering and trying too hard.

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.

Whether it’s up in the sky, behind the next molecule, or in the executive suite, it’s somehow always farther along than we are—just down the road, on the other side of the world, past the moon, beyond the stars . .

“I was having an awful dream,” he said. “Oh?” “Yes. I’d found a jar of honey . . . ,” he said, rubbing his eyes. “What’s awful about that?” I asked. “It kept moving,” said Pooh. “They’re not supposed to do that. They’re supposed to sit still.” “Yes, I know.” “But whenever I reached for it, this jar of honey would sort of go somewhere else.” “A nightmare,” I said. “Lots of people have dreams like that,” I added reassuringly. “Oh,” said Pooh. “About Unreachable jars of honey?” “About the same sort of thing,” I said. “That’s not unusual. The odd thing, though, is that some people live like that.” “Why?” asked Pooh. “I don’t know,” I said. “I suppose because it gives them Something to Do.” “It doesn’t sound like much fun to me,” said Pooh.

“What?” said Pooh. “No singing?” “Pooh, I’m trying to finish this. That’s right, though. No singing. They didn’t like it.” “Well, if they didn’t like singing, then what was their attitude towards Bears?”

“I don’t think they liked Bears, either.” “They didn’t like Bears?” “No. Not very much, anyway.” “No singing, no Bears . . . Just what did they like?” “I don’t think they liked anything, Pooh.” “No wonder things are a little Confused around here,” he said.

However the discoveries were made, the result in each case was the same: a long life of youthful appearance, outlook, and energy. For that matter, Taoist Immortals of all age levels have traditionally been known for their young attitudes, appearances, and energies.

Do you want to be really happy? You can begin by being appreciative of who you are and what you’ve got. Do you want to be really miserable? You can begin by being discontented.