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The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard – one that thinks too much.

Benjamin Hoff

Without difficulties, life would be like a stream without rocks and curves – about as interesting as concrete. Without problems, there can be no personal growth, no group achievement, no progress of humanity. But what mattes about problems is what one does with them.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Curve Interesting Rocks
“What’s that?” the Unbeliever asked. “Wisdom from the Western Taoist,” I said. “It sounds like something from Winnie-the-Pooh,” he said. “It is,” I said. “That’s not about Taoism,” he said. “Oh, yes it is,” I said.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Sound Taoism Wisdom Words
Treat gain and loss the same.’ Don’t be Intimidated. Don’t make a Big Deal of anything – just accept things as they come to you.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Accepting Gains Loss
The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard – one that thinks too much.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Awkward Confused Thinking
A way of life that keeps saying ‘Around the next corner, above the next step,’ works against the natural order of things and makes it so difficult to be happy and good.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Next Order Steps Way
Unfortunately complaining is one thing Eeyores are not afraid to do. They grudgingly carry their thimbles to the Fountain of Life, then mumble and grumble that they weren’t given enough.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Complaining Enough Fountain
A well-frog cannot imagine the ocean, nor can a summer insect conceive of ice. How then can a scholar understand the Tao? He is restricted by his own learning.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Ice Ocean Summer
You’d be surprised how many people violate this simple principle every day of their lives and try to fit square pegs into round holes, ignoring the clear reality that Things Are As They Are.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Reality Simple Square
It means that Tao doesn’t force or interfere with things, but lets them work in their own way, to produce results naturally. Then whatever needs to be done is done.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Done Mean Needs
Wisdom, Happiness, and Courage are not waiting somewhere out beyond sight at the end of a straight line; they’re part of a continuous cycle that begins right here. They’re not only the ending, but the beginning as well.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Lines Sight Waiting
Phonographic. It goes around and around. Sometimes it gets stuck. That’s why I remember things so well.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Remember Sometimes Stuck
Under Confucianism, the use of precisely measured court music, prescribed steps, actions, and phrases all added up to an extremely complex system of rituals, each used for a particular purpose at a particular time.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Phrases Purpose Steps
Do you really want to be happy? You can begin by being appreciative of who you are and what you’ve got.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Cheer Up Want
Now, scholars can be very useful and necessary, in their own dull and unamusing way. They provide a lot of information. It’s just that there is Something More, and that Something More is what life is really all about.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Dull Information Way
While Eeyore frets … … and Piglet hesitates … and Rabbit calculates … and Owl pontificates …Pooh just is.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Owl Piglet Rabbits
Pooh is able to accomplish what he does because he is simpleminded.
BENJAMIN HOFF

Able Minded Simple Tao

The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard – one that thinks too much.

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The surest way to become Tense, Awkward, and Confused is to develop a mind that tries too hard – one that thinks too much.

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