| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
I'm being GENEROUS with 3 stars....,
By
This review is from: The Tao of Pooh (Paperback)
I like what I read or I hate it. Simple as that. Well, This book was annoying in several ways, yet my affection for Winnie The Pooh bouyed my rating of the book, and my interest in Eastern philosophy. I was apalled by Hoff's constant bashing at "intellectuals" and veiled ranting. I was also annoyed at Hoff's bashing of other faiths as essentially being "Wrong". A true Taoist wouldn't beat someone over the head about how "wrong" their Way is because it happens to be structured and staid. That may just be the natural-flowing Way for them. It's a so-so introduction to Taoism...I'd recommend "Tao The Watercourse Way" by Alan Watts and a nice translation of the Tao Te Ching. Put the two together and you'll grok it better than Hoff ever will.Then Again, you can read Hoff's books with an open mind....and as a preacher I once knew said "Eat the meat, and leave the bones".
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pooh and You,
By lasher (Space and the Great Beyond) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Tao of Pooh (Hardcover)
This book is simply magnificent. I've been reading the Tao for years and never had I made the correlation of Pooh and Taoism. From the start you see how Hoff ties in Pooh to the ancient chinese philosophy, and having Pooh as a living and breathing character in the book helps. Pooh injects his simple nature and gentle humor into everything which is just so.. well, Taoist. I found myself entralled by how wonderful and charming Hoff made the book. He made it's reading an enjoyable process. Now for those of you who are new to Taoism or having trouble with its principle nature this will be a helpful book. I read some of the reviews of those who didn't understand the book or perhaps Taoism in general. Western minds often think too hard about everything. If you can relax and simply accept the book and its message as it is presented you should see its beauty. Taoism is like the sky is blue and the grass is green, it is simple and amazing and Pooh makes a great representative to deliver its teachings.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
To even hint that this is about Taoism is insulting,
By anybody else or "amanuet" (Orbis Tertius) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Tao of Pooh (Paperback)
This must be the first time I've given a book a rating of one star, but this one REALLY deserves it. I am sickened by the thought that people might read it and think this actually has anything to do with Taoism.After reading this book, one concludes that Taoism means being intolerant, looking down on other people and other ways of living, and judging people. Which, of course, is about as far from Taoism as one can get. Benjamin Hoff writes about what happens when you try to fit round pegs in square holes, yet this is exactly what HE does. He doesn't accept Eeyore, Piglet, Rabbit, Tigger and Owl as they are, instead he describes Owl as 'the dried-up Western descendant of the Confucianist Dedicated Scholar' (not the only place in the book where he bashes Confucius and his followers) and 'one who studies Knowledge for the sake of Knowledge, and who keeps what he learns to himself or to his own small group, writing pompous and pretentious papers that no one else can understand, rather than working for the Enlightenment of others'. Sounds like accepting everyone as they are, doesn't it? I wanted to give this book two stars - for being another reason to re-read 'Winnie-the-Pooh' and for the few popular quotations of Eastern thinkers. However, the author's attempts to write in the simple, yet brilliant style of Milne and failing miserably really is the last straw. Therefore, instead of reading about 'Nearsighted Science' etc., just go and re-read 'Winnie-the-Pooh'. You'll understand Taoism a hundred times better by doing that (or doing nothing special at all) than by reading 'The Tao Of Pooh'.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
|