Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Tao of Pooh, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Taoism, Nature, and Happiness
Knowledge vs. Wisdom
Self-Acceptance and Personal Growth
Western Culture and Eastern Wisdom
Summary
Analysis
In a Taoist parable, as a stream grows up and turns into a river, it learns to flow slower and more smoothly. This represents the principle of Wu Wei, which is a lot like “the Pooh way.” Wu Wei means acting “without meddlesome, combative, or egotistical effort.” For instance, water naturally flows around rocks and obstacles instead of trying to take the shortest possible path to its destination.
The stream’s transformation into a river is a metaphor for people’s moral and spiritual growth into mature, enlightened beings. This metaphor indicates that, as people advance along the path of Tao, they should learn to live more slowly, calmly, and effortlessly. This pace and quality of action is the essence of Wu Wei (or the Pooh way). Water flowing around rocks represents harmony in the natural world because each element accommodates the other, instead of trying to displace it through “meddlesome, combative, or egotistical effort.” This is why water is an important metaphor in Taoism: it represents the way that people can work in harmony with the world instead of struggling to overcome and change it.
Themes
Chuang-tse described Wu Wei with a parable about Confucius watching a man save himself from the turbulent pool under a waterfall. The man tells Confucius that he has spent his life learning to follow the water, rather than fight against it. When people are operating in Wu Wei, they work with both their own inner nature and the laws of nature, so they don’t have to put in effort.
The man in the waterfall exemplifies Wu Wei because he has learned to act in harmony with the world—he follows the water rather than fighting it. Through this example, Hoff also shows how Wu Wei connects to the other principles he has explained so far in the book: Wu Wei is how people act when they are faithful to their inner nature. Each person is part of the world as a whole, so they choose to play their rightful part in that world—and harmonize with it—when they honor their own inner nature.
Themes
Pooh also does everything effortlessly. He tells Hoff that, for him, things “just sort of happen.” This reminds Hoff of how Lao-tse says that Tao just lets things happen by themselves, rather than interfering with them. It’s like the scene in The House at Pooh Corner in which Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, and Roo find Eeyore floating down the river, waiting to be rescued. Pooh and Rabbit decide to drop stones in the water and make waves to push Eeyore to the riverbank. Rabbit tells Pooh to drop his stone, but Pooh does it when he’s ready. He hits Eeyore, who disappears under the water—and then comes out on the riverbank. While Rabbit credits his cleverness with saving Eeyore, it was actually Pooh’s Wu Wei.
Just like Pooh exemplifies P’u and inner nature, he also demonstrates Wu Wei. He lets things “just sort of happen” because he trusts that the ways of the universe—what Hoff calls Tao—will inevitably bring about the best outcome. Moreover, he knows that he will help this process along if he works in harmony with the world, but hamper it if he struggles against the world. So when he saves Eeyore from the river, he ignores Rabbit’s clever calculations and instead follows his intuitive understanding of nature.
Themes
Hoff compares Wu Wei to just “put[ting] the round peg in the round hole,” whereas ego, cleverness, and knowledge try to “mak[e] pegs fit where they don’t belong.” For instance, Piglet gets stuck trying to open a pickle jar, but Pooh easily pops it open by twisting it naturally. Tigger wants to take a turn, but he tries too hard and shatters the jar. This shows that acting with tension doesn’t work. This tension comes from trying too hard and overthinking things. Hoff and Pooh agree that it’s ironic that people think of themselves as superior to other animals, because the human mind constantly complicates things, goes in circles, and pulls people’s attention out of the real world. But when people reach Wu Wei, they act effortlessly.
When people act out of ego, cleverness, and knowledge, they try to impose their own plans on nature instead of simply working with nature’s plans for them. Piglet and Tigger’s struggle to open the pickle jar represents this kind of overly tense, deliberate action, which is the opposite of Pooh’s Wu Wei. Hoff suggests that, while humans’ capacity for ego, cleverness, and knowledge makes them different from other animals, it doesn’t make them superior—actually, it makes it harder for them to fulfill their natural purpose and act in harmony with everything else.
Themes
Get the entire The Tao of Pooh LitChart as a printable PDF.
Hoff takes another example from the Pooh books: the search for the Very Small Beetle. Rabbit organizes and directs everyone but Pooh, who accidentally steps on Piglet, wonders what’s going on, and then accidentally finds the beetle. In Wu Wei (the Pooh Way), things simply happen the way they’re meant to. People shouldn’t try to make things work any differently, even if they don’t understand what’s happening at the time. In retrospect, events usually all make sense.
On his missions with the other animals, Pooh isn’t the cleverest or most energetic, but this is actually why he’s the most successful. He might not precisely understand the ways of the universe, but nobody does—at least Pooh recognizes and goes along with them, instead of trying to bend the universe to his own will through clever plans.
Themes
Pooh and Piglet’s birthday party for Eeyore is another example of how things tend to work out the way they’re supposed to. Pooh plans to bring Eeyore a jar of honey as a birthday present, but on his way over to Eeyore’s house, he gets hungry and eats it. So he has Owl write “A Happy Birthday” on the jar and gifts it to Eeyore instead. Meanwhile, Piglet plans to gift Eeyore a balloon, but he trips and pops it while rushing over to Eeyore’s house. He apologizes and gives Eeyore the crumpled-up, popped balloon. But actually, the balloon fits right in the “Useful Pot” from Pooh. Eeyore delightedly plays with the balloon and pot.
While Pooh’s honey binge and Piglet’s popped balloon seem to spell disaster at first, everything ultimately works out in their favor. But Hoff suggests that this is only because they let it—if they had struggled against fate to try and deliver Eeyore his original presents, Pooh and Piglet likely would have caused an even greater catastrophe. This shows why Taoists like Hoff argue that people should go along with the way of the universe (or Tao) even when they can’t explain or understand it.
Themes
Wu Wei is hard to see and define, like a reflex. Chuang-tse says it “flows like water, reflects like a mirror, and responds like an echo.” That’s exactly how Pooh acts. Pooh interrupts to ask what Hoff means—he thinks Chuang-tse’s quote is a riddle but can’t figure out the answer. Hoff explains that using Wu Wei means following intuition and adapting to circumstances, so that decisions just make themselves naturally. For instance, instead of deciding whom to visit, Pooh wanders around and comes to his answer naturally: Piglet. By following his instincts, Pooh lives a stress-free life.
Whereas cleverness makes decisions through analysis and examination, Wu Wei makes them through intuition. But not just any intuition will do—rather, people have to align their intuition with the flow of the universe (Tao) if they want to make good decisions. In order to do this, people first have to recognize their own inner nature and see how they fit into the broader scheme of the world. In other words, they have to be attuned to nature before they can intuitively adapt to it. Pooh does this because he embodies P’u and knows himself—but not everyone does.
Themes
Pooh asks if Chuang-tse’s riddle is about a stream. Almost, Hoff says, but not quite. Hoff explains that the martial art T’ai Chi Ch’üan embodies Wu Wei: it involves redirecting and deflecting the opponent’s force, rather than fighting against it with more force. Hoff suggests that, to answer the riddle, Pooh should just let his mind flow, reflect the answer, and respond naturally. Wu Wei is like hitting a floating cork, Hoff explains: it just bounces back without using any energy of its own. Pooh takes one more guess at the riddle— “a piece of cork!”
Although Pooh gets the riddle wrong, a stream does embody Wu Wei. Like T’ai Chi Ch’üan practitioners and the floating cork, a stream adapts and responds to other forces in its environment, instead of trying to impose its own force on them. It gets its power from its relationship to other things in nature, and not from inside itself. Thus Wu Wei helps people live in harmony with the universe: it allows them to work with the things in their environment and not against them.
Themes
Hoff decides to just tell Pooh the answer to Chuang-tse’s riddle: “the Pooh Way.” Pooh thinks it was a bad riddle, and he gives Hoff one of his own: “What’s black and white and red all over?” The answer is “a sunburned penguin.” Hoff comes up with one more: “What runs around all day without getting anywhere?” Pooh guesses that it’s Rabbit, but Hoff won’t reveal the answer until the next chapter.
Pooh and Hoff’s riddles again show that Pooh doesn’t need to fully understand Tao or Wu Wei in order to embody them. Pooh’s guess that Rabbit is the one who “runs around all day” foreshadows how Hoff connects Rabbit to the people he calls Bisy Backsons in the next chapter.
Themes
