Cottleston Pie

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,

A fly can’t bird, but a bird can fly.

Ask me a riddle and I reply:

“Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.”

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,

A fish can’t whistle and neither can I.

Ask me a riddle and I reply:

“Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.”

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,

Why does a chicken, I don’t know why.

Ask me a riddle and I reply:

“Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.”

The Tao of Pooh

Benjamin Hoff describes the Taoist philosophy of Things Are as They Are and Inner Nature, which refers to the innate being of people, places and things. According to Taoist philosophy, one must understand oneself  before understanding others...for this is true wisdom. When you don’t follow your Inner Nature or your Cottleston Pie, that is when things go amuck. Benjamin Hoff takes the song Cottleston Pie, which Pooh sings in Winnie-the-Pooh, and applies it to Inner Nature. The first stanza describes how a fly cannot act like a bird, though a bird can fly and be one with its inner nature. The second stanza shows that a fish cannot whistle and neither can the person who made this song. Why would a fish or a human need to whistle? The third stanza questions the actions of the chicken, but it is unknown. This is true for all life. Why does one person act different from another?...Cottleston Pie. Why does he enjoy wrestling while she prefers art?...Cottleston Pie. Why can I dance and he can write?...Cottleston Pie. Ask me a riddle and I’ll reply: “Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.” It is because of Cottleston Pie (Inner Nature) which explains the working of the earth, the personality of humans and animals, and the bond which connects us all. It is the basis of all understanding and happiness.

Hoff and Lao Tzu show a deep concern for humans in their writing. While Lao Tzu saw the strains of society causing anxiety and the creation of the Bisy Backson in Confucian China, Hoff is concerned with the conformity of American and Western society and the loss of one’s self:

“...everything has its own place and function. That applies to people, although many don’t seem to realize it, stuck as they are in the wrong job, the wrong marriage, or the wrong house. When you know and respect your own Inner Nature, you know where you belong.”

The Tao of Pooh

This quotation from The Tao of Pooh is, in my opinion the basis of the sadness and anxiety in the American lifestyle. When we feel insecure about our Inner Nature, our Cottleston Pie, we compare ourselves to others and feel the need to compete with them. But others have their own Cottleston Pie. They are happy in their own realm, content in their own life, and happy in their own body. We should have no need to compare ourselves to others, because we are all uniquely special. In addition, we should not go through life without understanding. Not understanding oneself makes one become lifeless, humanless...one without a head and heart telling the body what to do. Instead, ones that do not follow innate nature are dragged throughout the mix and make decisions based on others. This poisons life and causes it to be unhealthy...far worse than any economic blunder, illness, or struggle.

Author Christine Organ is quoted in The Hindu article “Be yourself”, “Deep down, people compare almost everything — who has more friends, who is happier, who is more laidback, who is more popular, who is more outgoing. There are also a lot of internal comparisons going on, when we compare our current situation to our expectations of ourselves (realistic or not) and what we would like our situation to be.” Shilpa Agarwal, author of this article, claims that, “Comparison stems from lack of self-esteem and acceptance.” From a young age, we are made to look up to role models, become like our parental role models, and be compared to fake celebrities. This is where humans and society have gone wrong. We become even more respected, even more liked, even more accepted, when we understand ourselves and live our lives as ourself.

If you enjoyed this blog post and others before it, please be on the lookout for my next blog post in two weeks. My next post will explain death, the acceptance of change, and the inability to change the future. Over the next two weeks, please ponder this quote:

If you realize that all things change,

there is nothing you will try to hold on to.

If you aren’t afraid of dying,

there is nothing you can’t achieve.

Trying to control the future

is like trying to take teh master carpenter’s place.

When you handle the master carpenter’s tools,

chances are that you’ll cut your hand.

Androgynous Mind

Know the male,

yet keep to the female:

receive the world in your arms.

If you receive the world,

the Tao will never leave you

and you will be like a little child.

Know the white,

yet keep to the black:

be a pattern of the world.

If you are a pattern for the world,

the Tao will be strong inside you

and there will be nothing you can’t do.

Know the personal,

yet keep the impersonal:

accept the world as it is.

If you accept the world,

the Tao will be luminous inside you

and you will return to your primal self.

The world is formed from the void, like utensils from a block of wood.

The Master knows the utensils,

yet keeps to the block:

thus she can use all things.

Tao Te Ching

Lao Tzu describes the inner-workings of the balancing forces of yin and yang in his Tao Te Ching. The yin has been used to describe female characteristics in nature, while yang describes the masculine characteristics of nature. According to Lao Tzu, when “the Master” not only knows, but understands the nature of yin and yang, trying to become one with the Tao, she then learns of happiness. It is only when she knows the Tao and the balance needed for stability in life, that she can receive the world as a child would. Not only does this part of Taoism contrast with the highly masculine world of the West, it informs readers to “keep to the female”. The female (yin) is attributed to quietness and an intuitive manner in looking at the world. Far from the loud yang described in Western philosophy and religion, Lao Tzu alludes to the peaceful and tender understanding of the yin as being closer to the Tao. He suggests, almost to the point of being direct, that living intuitively through yin leads to becoming one with the primal identity.

Those who know don’t talk.

Those who talk don’t know.

Close your mouth,

block off your senses,

blunt your sharpness,

untie your knots,

soften your glare,

settle your dust.

This is the primal identity.

Yin is a force in nature that can be described as negative, female, dark, passive, intuitive, soft, and cold. It is found in nature as the night and the moon.When the Master uses both intuition (yin) and logic (yang), she can be led to happiness and become a reflection of the patterns of the world. Yang is the countering force of nature. It is attributed to positive, male, light, day, sun, hot,  and hard. It is observed in nature as the day and the sun.

Virginia Woolf, a Western pioneer for the androgynous mind, strikingly contrasted with the societal constraints placed on both genders. She broke the gender barrier, championing for the breaking of the barriers of women. She urged women to become writers, gain employment outside of the home, and to consider themselves equal and capable to carry out tasks that men perform. This advanced woman, far beyond her time, delved into the minds of her contemporaries. Woolf did much more than merely advocate for the equality of women, but caused unprecedented and disagreeable notions which conflicted with old-fashioned viewpoints on the differences of men and women.

Before I explain more of Virginia Woolf’s attitude toward the androgynous mind, I would like to point out questions that arise only when one begins to consider the societal constraints placed upon them. Discard the need to impress others and follow the child-like instinctual premise to follow your own desires. I ask these questions in the viewpoint of American and Western societal standards.

Why are men encouraged to excel in sports? Why are women expected to leave their careers to raise families? Why do women change their last names and take on a new name to be considered “married”? Why is is preferred for men to play sports rather than to become involved in the arts? Why are men viewed as the breadwinners? Why are men expected to be more mentally and physically tough than women, while there are a plethera of cases where the opposite is the case? Why are women ostracized if they do not wear makeup or dress in the “popular” fashions? Why are women, still to this day. being evaluated more on their appearance, while men are judged on their words and actions? Why does our society tend to be concerned with the outside, while not being considering the inner workings of the human experience? Why is gender used as a term to divide the human race, when it should be used to unite us in the common goal of morality and happiness? Most importantly, why can a man not do what a woman can and why can a woman not do what a man can?

The societal rules set up to orient ourselves with our gender are helpful in a way, but keep us from viewing the entire picture. This societal structure still reigns supreme in the psyche of America. From a young age, girls are acclimated to a world where it is most acceptable to like the color pink, play with dolls, act like their mothers, be gentle and kind, and to let boys be the ones to excel in sports. Concurrently, boys become accustomed to a life where they should like manly colors like blue and green, wrestle and fight each other, become “strong” like their fathers, be aggressive and  curt, and to dominate the sporting fields.

These societal rules, though subconsciously meaning to be a source of identity in a positive way, has become limiting. One must understand the “female” qualities as well as the “male”. I do not like to use these two terms to describe a person. One can usually tell the gender of an individual just by looking at them. Does this tell you anything about that person? No. Society may refer to a woman in a derogatory term as being masculine or a man in an “insulting” way as being feminine or “a sissy”. Individuals should disregard the standards of society and its contracting and stuffy immaturity to be themselves. Knowing oneself and acting in an innate manner is one of the core principles of Taoism. Men and women should not be defined as masculine or feminine, but by their personality and moral merit. In regarding human beings this way, they are not constrained by their gender, but are transcended to levels of upright being. This should be the guideline of all humans, not the ephemeral barriers placed by a fleeting society.

In the words of Virginia Woolf:

“And I went on amateurishly to sketch a plan of the soul so that in each of us two powers preside, one male, one female... The normal and comfortable state of being is that when the two live in harmony together, spiritually co-operating... Coleridge perhaps meant this when he said that a great mind is androgynous. It is when this fusion takes place that the mind is fully fertilized and uses all its faculties. Perhaps a mind that is purely masculine cannot create, any more than a mind that is purely feminine…”

A Room of One’s Own

Dr. Elizabeth Wright, a professor of English Literature at the University of Saint Andrews in Fife, Scotland, is a specialist on Virginia Woolf and writes in her thesis "Virginia Woolf and the Dramatic Imagination" on the decisive meaning of the Woolf's ideas of the androgynous mind.

...Woolf does not suggest that the body should be suppressed, rather that 
being a woman or a man is still an important factor – just not the only factor and not 
the conscious factor. Woolf keeps an awareness of the body in her writing, otherwise 
why advocate the development of the women’s sentence and state that “Poetry ought 
to have a mother as well as a father?” Yet at the same time Woolf reminds the 
reader and writer not to judge or create the work on that basis alone. Ultimately, it is 
an unconsciousness of sex, not a “void of sexless absence” that Woolf calls for.

"Virginia Woolf and the Dramatic Imagination"

Wright's thesis, though written in the most consciously unbiased manner, shines with the glowing support of the work of Virginia Woolf. Men and women alike should be aware of their sex, but should not be constrained or feel suppressed by the walls already built for gender stereotypes. This "consciousnesses of sex", which Woolf believes in and Wright informs readers of, parallels Lao Tzu's Taoist teachings of the innate being of an individual and the flow of being oneself regardless of society. Woolf's and Tzu's depth of character and independence from the present-day constrains are constant throughout their works, proving that their theories and philosophies are applicable to any time period.

It is from the liberating and unrestricted minds that society gains knowledge. Though separated by thousands of years and crossing a continent of cultures, Lao Tzu and Virginia Woolf became enlightened by, in the words of Mrs. Banks from Mary Poppins, “casting off the shackles of yesterday”. These are just two of the myriad of authentic artists who break the structure of society in regards to gender roles.

Virginia Woolf and other societal boundary-breaking authors provide wonderful insight into the androgynous mind as well as insight into living authentic lives unbounded by the times.

If you enjoyed this blog, I encourage you to read previous blogs and to be on the lookout for my upcoming blog entry on Benjamin Hoff’s “Cottleston Pie”, the Taoist art of understanding oneself, and the dangers of a life without understanding oneself.

Please ponder this quote from Benjamin Hoff’s The Tao of Pooh:

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,

A fly can’t bird, but a bird can fly.

Ask me a riddle and I reply:

“Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.”

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,

A fish can’t whistle and neither can I.

Ask me a riddle and I reply:

“Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.”

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,

Why does a chicken, I don’t know why.

Ask me a riddle and I reply:

“Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.”

Bisy Backson

Fill your bowl to the brim

and it will spill.

Keeping sharpening your knife

and it will blunt.

Chase after money and security

and your heart will never unclench.

Care about people’s approval

and you will be their prisoner.

Do your work, then step back.

The only path to serenity.

Tao Te Ching

As I informed readers previously, this quotation from the Tao Te Ching can be directly contrasted with the lifestyle of, what Benjamin Hoff describes as, a “Bisy Backson”. In Hoff’s The Tao of Pooh, Rabbit represents the “Bisy Backson”, who feels the need to be constantly active, while in reality is fulfilling nothing. In describing the Bisy Backson, Hoff most broadly describes this busy creature:

“Our Bisy Backson religions, sciences, and business ethics have tried their hardest to convince us that there is a Great Reward waiting for us somewhere, and that we have to do is spend our lives working like lunatics to catch up with it. Whether it’s up in the sky, behind the next molecule, or in the executive suite, it’s somehow always farther along than we are - just down the road, on the other side of the world, past the moon, beyond the stars…”

The Tao of Pooh

Rabbit completely embodies the Bisy Backson by searching for the Uncarved Block and trying to find meaning in existence through keeping himself active and busy. Most likely, when one of the characters from the Hundred-Acre Wood visits Rabbit, they find this on his door:

GONE OUT

BACK SOON

BUSY

BACK SOON

Rabbit feels the need to be busy...to be somewhere where he hasn’t been. He, contrary to the Pooh philosophy, does not appreciate the moment. He does not exchange opinions or appreciate the quiet moments in life. He is not only the Bisy Backson, but you and I.

Lao Tzu refers to the Bisy Backson in his Tao Te Ching. He identifies the single individual Bisy Backson and describes their perpetual search for happiness. “Your bowl” refers to your life. When you “fill it to the brim” is when you add activities and things to do, as you cannot add one more thing. When this occurs, your life “will spill”. In summarizing, one should not add so much to their life that they cannot sustain it. When you keep “sharpening your knife”, you can become dull or “blunt”. This contradicts the Western thought of striving to become as “sharp” as can be to achieve a piercing effect. Lao Tzu informs readers of the counterintuitive nature of working in relationship with the Tao in addressing the power of the “dull knife” and in continuing his portrayal of the importunate continuation of sharpening oneself. When Lao Tzu addresses “people’s approval”, he infers of the immense power of not caring of approval from others. The Master of Taoist philosophy can be completely content in having the approval of only himself. In his last stanza, Lao Tzu reiterates the power in competition of tasks and knowing when to “call it a day”. One must know their own limits, not the limits of others...of society. By learning this, one can be sane.

My previous blog post, I asked viewers to ponder this quotation from the Tao Te Ching by Lao-tzu. This quotation is a perfect example of what happens to A. A. Milne’s busy-bee character...Rabbit. Benjamin Hoff, author of The Tao of Pooh, introduces readers to Rabbit by a conversation he initiates with Pooh:

“Well, here’s another one, then. It has to do with the opposite of the Pooh Way.

What runs around all day without getting anywhere?”

“A Rabbit?” said Pooh.

Hoff discloses the ineffectiveness of time management of Rabbit and his incessant need to be busy. Rather than being moved by the spontaneity of the Tao, Rabbit personifies the fast-paced and rigid life of the West. To American readers, we understand what this means. We always feel the need to be “doing something” and with the time that we are not “doing something” we feel the need to save time. During this process, we lose time. We lose time we could have been using to talk to friends, take a walk, understand nature, and understand ourselves. To Westerners in general, societal pressures force us into this unending need to succeed, thus forcing us to be “productive”. Are you being productive because you want to? Do you want to save time by worrying about outcomes and living for tomorrow? Are you “doing something” because of societal pressures, or because you have a vested interest in your activity? These are questions all readers should ponder. Personally, I can truthfully say I “do things” to feel “productive”. About 9 times out of 10, I would say I am doing it for the wrong reason. I have succumbed to societal pressures to always be striving for success. But in the end, does “success” lead to happiness?

According to Crisis on Campus: the Untold Story of Student Suicides, the suicide rate among adults in the United States, ages 15-24 has tripled since the 1950s. By this point in the child’s human experience, they have gone through the strict regulations of the Bisy Backson Society and the overbearing influence of honor and responsibility. Condemn who or what you’d like, but this author believes it’s not the parent at fault, nor the child themself. It is the pressures of society. It is the pressures of society that cause parents to believe their children need to succeed. But do they believe that this will make their child’s life happier or any more satisfactory? It is the pressures of society that cause children to believe they are only worth anything unless they “succeed”. By is their “success” regarded as a success for themself, or for their peers and angsty pressure? This pressure of society is more than pressure. It is in the starting gate of conformity where these fawns are bent in submission. They can smell the anxious breath of their jockey as they hear the loud yelps of the rude crowd. How can one blame the jockey?...it was only his duty to the crowd. How can one blame the innocent fawn?...he is too naive to know any different. It is the one mind of the crowd to blame. That collective of assimilated minds that forgets its individuality is to blame. In a way, society is responsible for creating the Bisy Backson.

It is the intensified pressures of our fast-paced world that create this Nervous Nellie Character, along with the loss of the individual and innate spirit of every unique human being. There is a Bisy Backson within all of us. We, as human beings in Western and non-Western communities, must learn to clash with the unified standards. We must have the courage and the simple innate passion to live the lives we are truly meant to live.

Please, learn of the simplicity of the innate being of the Uncarved Block (the Pooh Way) to live lives of authenticity! I do not use “learn” in the academic term, but as in understanding yourself...being wise.

If you enjoyed reading this entry, be on the lookout for my upcoming blog entry on yang and yin, Lao Tzu’s perception of masculinity and femininity, and the art of creating an androgynous mind. Keep this quotation from the Tao Te Ching as a meditation for the upcoming week.

Know the male,

yet keep to the female:

receive the world in your arms.

If you receive the world,

the Tao will never leave you

and you will be like a little child.

Know the white,

yet keep to the black:

be a pattern of the world.

If you are a pattern for the world,

the Tao will be strong inside you

and there will be nothing you can’t do.

The Tao and The Uncarved Block

“According to Lao-tse, the more man interfered with the natural balance produced and governed by the universal laws, the further away the harmony retreated into the distance.” The Tao of Pooh

The New York Times article “The Rise of the Tao” describes a 47-year old Taoist Yin Xinhui in 2010 was building a temple to the Taoist deity, the Jade Emperor on peak of Mount Yi. Up until the Communist Revolution era (circa 1949), the peak of Mount Yi was the place of an ancient Taoist temple. Yin Xinhui has a vision of creating the temple during the religious revival of modern China. Traditional Taoist religion and philosophy are on the rise throughout China, especially through the countryside. The state of the temple currently, as of 2010, is simple with a “muddy path up to the pavilion” and “windows that were still without glass”. This condition of the temple, though incomplete, is a perfect example of the Uncarved Block. Author of The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff writes of the secrets to living a life of the Uncarved Block, “When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few other things that get in the way, sooner or later you will discover that simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the Uncarved Block: Life is Fun.” I use this example of the temple as the Uncarved Block to point out the simplicity of the object, it is not completed, but has the capability to be a great building to bring happiness to many. Through the process of completion, through the process of life one learns much more beneficial lessens than through the end result. Hoff leaves readers with this wisdom, “The goal has to be right for us, and it has to be beneficial, in order to ensure a beneficial process. But aside from that, it's really the process that's important.” The importance of process must be used in all aspects of life, to live as a Taoist. But to live a life that emphasizes process, one must learn the Tao.

In introducing the Tao Lao-tzu introduces readers to the center of Taoist philosophy in Tao Te Ching (The Book of the Way),

The tao that can be told

is not the eternal Tao.

The name that can be named

is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.

Naming is the origin

of all particular things.

Free from desire you realize the mystery.

Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations

arise from the same source.

This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.

The gateway to all understanding.

I would like to dissect what Lao-tzu is explaining in his philosophic stanzas, because I think that it explains most accurately the intent of his philosophy (Taoism). The first stanza describes, in a vague manner, the unknowable tao. He states that the tao is not a god because it is not the “eternal Tao” or the “eternal God” (“eternal name of God”). The tao is intangible, even more intangible than gods. It does not have a name, but for the sake of human understanding,  Lao-tzu gives it a name. All that is seen by human perception is from tao. The tao is “the way”: a way of living that’s main purpose is happiness. When one gives up human desires and wishes, one sees what one already possesses (their manifestations). Lao-tzu informs readers that tao’s “source is called darkness”, not in a Western sense of the word, but in that it is not clear. The tao is not reason, but leads to learning about life. The tao must not be used as a guideline for life, but of the natural way in which men are inclined to live...harmoniously.

In Benjamin Hoff’s The Tao of Pooh, A. A. Milne’s characters are analyzed in relationship to taoism philosophy. While all of the central characters contain different pieces of examples for and against Taoism, Hoff makes the argument that each character represents a certain trait which humans all possess. Owl represents the “Knowledge for the sake of Appearing Wise”, in only studying Knowledge for the sake of Knowledge, just to keep his knowledge to himself or a select few. Hoff describes humans that possess this trait as Not Knowing Something. Eeyore represents those with Knowledge for the Sake of Complaining About Something, which inhibits him from finding true happiness and wisdom. Rabbit represents those with Knowledge of Being Clever, who do not possess deep wisdom or emotion, and the “Bisy Backson” who have no time to do anything, but feel the need to save time while he is actually wasting it. Tigger represents those who do not know their own limitations and fall into a mess of trouble because of it.   

Be sure to read my upcoming blog in which I will explain the role of the Bisy Backson in American and Western way of life, evaluate the character of Rabbit in his ever-busy lifestyle, and compare Rabbit to the simple Uncarved Block of Winnie-the-Pooh.

In pondering the introductory statements on Taoism and in preparation for the next blog entry I encourage readers to ponder this quotation from Tao Te Ching:

Fill your bowl to the brim

and it will spill.

Keeping sharpening your knife

and it will blunt.

Chase after money and security

and your heart will never unclench.

Care about people’s approval

and you will be their prisoner.

Do your work, then step back.

The only path to serenity.