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Benjamin Hoff's The Tao of Pooh explains Taoism using scenes from Winnie the Pooh as parables. It forces you to think of children's stories and Eastern philosophy in a whole new light.
Using The Tao of Pooh as a guide to life, however, will just make you feel dumber and more helpless than Charlie Brown.
The basic thesis of The Tao of Pooh (and maybe the basic message of Taoism, if Hoff's description is accurate) is that you will be at your happiest and your life will flow most smoothly if you don't fight it -- let life happen to you, flow with it, use its momentum to your best advantage. Life is a river, says Hoff's Taoism, so you'd best swim with the current instead of struggling against it.
Charlie Brown, unfortunately, never met Winnie the Pooh, nor Lao-Tse, nor Benjamin Hoff. Charlie Brown's life is a river, and he drowns in it.
This philosophy of going with the flow only works if your life is a children's book, and if your fate is ruled by a benevolent god like A.A. Milne. It makes for a great story, walking around in a haze, sniffing out honey, floating up through a thousand angry bees and telling them you're just a rain cloud, bumming lunch off your pals. If that's not how your average day runs, then I suggest you be prepared to fight.
One of the problems with Hoff's philosophy is that it assumes you can analyze your own life and easily see the best way to flow with it. But what about when life throws you a curve? How would Pooh react if Piglet started selling his Very Small Body to pay for his Very Small But Growing Smack Habit? What is the "simple" response to abortion, or the Taliban's treatment of women, or your right to bear arms versus the right not to get shot by some hothead who also has the right to bear arms? I know it's just a children's book, but you can't pull an adult philosophy out of it unless you can apply it to adult problems. What kind of whimsical philosophical punchline would Pooh come up with if Tigger lisped, "My father hath been touching me where I go to the bathroom and it maketh me feel OOKY. What thould I do, Pooh? Hoo-hoo-hoo-HOOOO!"
In my imaginary war between The Tao versus The AAUGH!, the philosophy of Charlie Brown triumphs over the philosophy of Pooh not by showing how you can live a happier life, but by showing that sometimes, you can't live a happy life...
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