If people were superior to animals, they’d take good care of them,” said Pooh.
BENJAMIN HOFFEnjoy the simple, the natural and the plain. Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously and have them work.
More Benjamin Hoff Quotes
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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.
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A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn’t really care, wisdom does.
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When we give up our images of self-importance and our ideas of what should be, we can help things become what they need to be.
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But isn’t the knowledge that comes from experience more valuable than the knowledge that doesn’t? It seems fairly obvious to some of us that a lot of scholars need to go outside and sniff around – walk through the grass, talk to the animals. That sort of thing.
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“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.
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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.
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When you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don’t belong.
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Sourness and bitterness come from the interfering and unappreciative mind. Life itself, when understood and utilized for what it is, is sweet. That is the message of The Vinegar Tasters.
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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.
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To Buddha, the second figure in the painting, life on earth was bitter, filled with attachments and desires that led to suffering.
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Life itself, when understood and utilized for what it is, is sweet.
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From the Taoist point of view, the natural result of this harmonious way of living is happiness.
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In the Age of Perfect Virtue, men lived among the animals and birds as members of one large family. There were no distinctions between superior and inferior to separate one man or species from another. All retained their natural Virtue and lived in a state of pure simplicity.
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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.
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Lots of people talk to animals… Not very many listen, though… That’s the problem.
BENJAMIN HOFF