The author says that this book is about how to stay happy and calm under all circumstances. This book is also about a simpleminded
bear who goes around asking silly questions and making up songs without letting anything bother him or come in his way.
Things in their natural state contain their own power, power that is lost when that simplicity is changed. Pooh is able to do what he does because he is simpleminded. When Pooh is spontaneous, things work for him. Pooh never comes to any harm – he does silly things, but they turn out all right. If cleverness were more important, Rabbit would be number one instead of Pooh.
The Taoist attitude to life can be summed up as “The wise are not learned, the learned are not wise”. In the Taoist view of things, the scholar is limited by his own learning.
The scholar’s learning is incomplete because
knowledge cannot be categorized or compartmentalized. Besides, the scholar’s knowledge can be sometimes hard to understand or to apply if it is divorced from our everyday life.
Inner Nature is not something that can be measured or understood. When you respect your inner nature, you know that everything has its own place and function. Cleverness has its
limitations, clever plans tend to fail. Clever people tend to overlook things that are obvious and simple. Clever people do not seem to know their own limitations, or learn from experience. When you know your limitations, you can work with them instead of them working against you. And just by putting labels on things does not mean we understand them.
The square peg does not fit in the round hole. The Way consists of not doing anything against the nature of things. Pooh seems so effortless because he goes with the flow, he does not struggle against nature. We should let things happen, instead of taking decisions all the time. Rabbit, on the other hand, runs around all day without getting anywhere. By trying too hard, we become tense and tired. Besides, if we stop to think of all the possibilities, we will never get anything done. If people were really superior to animals, says Pooh, they would take better care of the world!