The yoga of Winnie the Pooh...

When I read Tao of Pooh many years ago, I was blinded again and again by the epiphany of things that sang in my brain... Oh, wow, oh...so many Aha moments--  the clarity of that suddenly hitting me, as happens when I hold a leg raise and settle into it with a love I simply find difficult to explain to most of my students... I can do several variations of the leg raises --- on and on, and still keep adding them on, simply because somewhere the whole intrigue of yoga's depth seeps into me, in that pose....and when I see the effort some people bring to it (simply because it may be boring or something that just needs to be done with and gotten over before moving on to the `real' yoga, they think:)

So read these excerpts from the best little western book on eastern philosophies:) Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff

" From the state of the Uncarved Block comes the ability to enjoy the simple and the quiet, the natural and the plain. Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously and have them work, odd as that may appear to others at times. As Piglet put it in Winnie-the-Pooh, "Pooh hasn't much Brain, but he never comes to any harm. He does silly things and they turn out right." (21)

And this one:

" Not like Pooh, the most effortless Bear we've ever seen."
"Just How do you do it, Pooh?"
"Do What?" asked Pooh.
"Become so Effortless."
"I don't do much of anything," he said.
"But all those things of yours get done."
"They just sort of happen," he said (70)

And another beautiful excerpt:

" It's not surprisng, therefore, that the Backson thinks of progress in terms of fighting and overcoming. One of his little idiosyncrasies, you might say. Of course real progress involves growing and developing, which involves changing inside, but that's something the inflexible Backson is unwilling to do."

"While Eeyore frets ...
... and Piglet hesitates
... and Rabbit calculates
... and Owl pontificates
...Pooh just is. 

“Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully.
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever."
"And he has Brain."
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain."
There was a long silence.
"I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never understands anything.”

And some more:)