106
" The athletic sort of Backson - one of the many common varieties - is concerned with physical fitness, he says. But for some reason, he sees it as something that has to be pounded in from the outside, rather than built up from the inside. Therefore, he confuses exercise with work. He works when he works, works when he exercises, and, more often than not, works when he plays. Work, work, work. "
― Benjamin Hoff , The Tao of Pooh
108
" Having trouble, Piglet?” “The lid on this jar is stuck,” gasped Piglet. “Yes, it . . . is, isn’t it. Here, Pooh, you open it.” (Pop.) “Thanks, Pooh,” said Piglet. “Nothing, really,” said Pooh. “How did you get that lid off?” asked Tigger. “It’s easy,” said Pooh. “You just twist on it like this, until you can’t twist any harder. Then you take a deep breath and, as you let it out, twist. That’s all.” “Let me try that!” yelled Tigger, bouncing into the kitchen. “Where’s that new jar of pickles? Ah, here it is.” “Tigger,” began Piglet nervously, “I don’t think you’d better—” “Nothing to it,” said Tigger. ‘‘Just twist, and—” CRASH! “All right, Tigger,” I said. “Get those pickles off the floor.” “Slipped out of my paw,” explained Tigger. “He tried too hard,” said Pooh. And when you try too hard, it doesn’t work. Try grabbing something quickly and precisely with a tensed-up arm; then relax and try it again. Try doing something with a tense mind. The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard—one that thinks too much. The animals in the Forest don’t think too much; they just Are. But with an overwhelming number of people, to misquote an old Western philosopher, it’s a case of “I think, therefore I am Confused.” If you compare the City with the Forest, you may begin to wonder why it’s man who goes around classifying himself as The Superior Animal. "
― Benjamin Hoff , The Tao of Pooh
109
" През вековете обаче човек е развил ума, който го отделя от действителния свят, от света на природните закони. Умът се насилва твърде много, изхабява се и приключва слаб и разпилян. Такъв ум, макар и високоинтелигентен, е немощен. Той се лута ту тук, ту там, ту назад, ту напред и не може да се съсредоточи върху това, което върши в момента. "
― Benjamin Hoff , The Tao of Pooh
110
" Looking back a few years, we see that the first Bisy Backsons in this part of the world, the Puritans, practically worked themselves to death in the fields without getting much of anything in return for their tremendous efforts. They were actually starving until the wiser inhabitants of the land showed them a few things about working in harmony with the earth's rhythms. Now you plant; now you relax. Now you work the soil; now you leave it alone. The Puritans never really understood the second half, never really believed in it. And so, after two or three centuries of pushing, pushing, and pushing the once-fertile earth, and a few years of depleting its energy still further with synthetic stimulants, we have apples that taste like card-board, oranges that taste like tennis balls, and pears that taste like sweetened Styrofoam, all products of soil that is not allowed to relax. We're not supposed to complain, but There It Is. "
― Benjamin Hoff , The Tao of Pooh
113
" An empty sort of mind is valuable for finding pearls and tails and things because it can see what’s in front of it. An overstuffed mind is unable to. While the clear mind listens to a bird singing, the stuffed-full-of-knowledge-and-cleverness mind wonders what kind of bird is singing. The more stuffed up it is, the less it can hear through its own ears and see through its own eyes.
Knowledge and cleverness tend to concern themselves with the wrong sorts of things, and a mind confused by knowledge, cleverness, and abstract ideas tends to go chasing off after things that don’t matter, or that don’t even exist, instead of seeing, appreciating, and making use of what is right in front of it. "
― Benjamin Hoff , The Tao of Pooh
119
" At the Gorge of Lu, the great waterfall plunges for thousands of feet, its spray
visible for miles. In the churning waters below, no living creature can be seen.
One day, K'ung Fu-tse was standing at a distance from the pool’s edge, when he saw
an old man being tossed about in the turbulent water. He called to his disciples
and together they ran to rescue the victim. But by the time they reached the
water, the old man had come out onto the bank and was walking along,
singing to himself. K'ung Fu-tse hurried up to him. ‘You would have to be a
Ghost to survive that,’ he said, ‘but you seem to be a man, instead. What
secret power do you have?’ ‘Nothing special,’ the old man replied. ‘I
began to learn while young, and grew up practicing it. Now I am certain
of success. I go down with the water and come up with water. I follow
It and forget myself. I survive because I don’t struggle against the
water’s superior power. That’s all. "
― Benjamin Hoff , The Tao of Pooh
