‘Be’ing Pooh
Years ago I read a book called ‘The Tao of Pooh‘ by Benjamin Hoff. It had a companion book called, ‘The Te of Piglet‘ which I highly recommend as well, and which I will touch on in another blog. They were both great introductions into Taoism. If you are unfamiliar with Taoism and you are interested in Eastern Philosophy, like Buddhism, then this is for you. The word ‘Tao’ means ‘way‘, ‘path‘ or ‘principle‘. What I love about Eastern Philosophy is that it is not a religion. It is a way of ‘be’ing, and it is a ‘practice‘. I emphasize ‘practice‘. Anything we do it life, we have to practice if we want it to become second nature, like singing or playing guitar.
Winnie the Pooh is the uncarved block. Simplicity. Taoism is just that. The principle of the Uncarved Block is that things in their original simplicity contain their own natural power, power that is easily spoiled and lost when that simplicity is changed. Pooh walks around unfazed by anything… A simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the Uncarved Block: Life is Fun. Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously and have them work out, which appears strange to most people today.
“Pooh hasn’t much Brain, but he never comes to any harm. He does silly things and they turn out right.” – Piglet
The characters in Winnie the Pooh each have their own disorders; Eeyore (Major depression), Piglet (Paranoia and Major Anxiety), Pooh (Eating disorder, Tourettes syndrome and OCD), Kanga and Roo (Co-dependancy), Rabbit (OCD), Christopher Robin (Schizophrenia), Owl (Narcissism), and of course, Tigger (ADHD).
I’ve been doing my best to be ‘Pooh-like’ (not the disorders listed above, but the Zen aspect). I’ve had to remind myself these last few months that I’m only human 🙂 It’s been a very stressful time for the band, trying to get this tour under way. Getting the band situated, hotels, clubs, fans, promoters, management, booking agents, photographers, press… it’s a lot of work and some days I found myself running around the house pulling my hair out, not sure if any of it was going to happen, and sometimes not trusting that it would happen unless I was stressing out and controlling the whole thing. (I’m writing this on the road on the way to our first gig in Ashland, Oregon, so whatever we’ve done has worked.) That’s when I had to remind myself, or be reminded (Thank you Taylor.), that everything happens for a reason and everything is perfect. Like Pooh… no worries, everything will work out if you just relax and let it flow. It’s hard to remind yourself of something like that when you’re freaking out… believe me. Nobody’s perfect. Reminds me of an old saying that one of my spiritual teachers used to say to me… “You want to see how Buddha you are? Go visit your parents.”
I know people who believe that if they don’t stress out then that means they really don’t care and it will never get done, or better yet, if they stress MORE than anybody else people will feel sorry for them. Where did this start in our society? Where did ‘not stressing out’ become ‘not caring’?
Did you know that its scientifically proven if you have a problem to solve, just go to sleep and when you wake up you’ll have the answer? Take a look at this article from LiveScience that was published in 2010… Deirdre Barrett, a psychologist from Harvard University states that in one experiment, she had college students pick a homework problem to try to solve in a dream. The problems weren’t rocket science; they were fairly easy questions that the student simply hadn’t gotten around to solving yet. Students focused on the problem each night before they went to bed. At the end of a week, about half the students had dreamed about the problem and about a quarter had a dream that contained the answer. What this tells me is that their are things that we can’t explain nor physically see that work around us. So there is something about being ‘Pooh-like’ from a metaphysical standpoint. We really don’t have to control everything. We really don’t have to know it all for things to actually work out.
The moral of this story? Chill out. Relax. Know that everything will work out the way that it is supposed to, even if you don’t believe it. Trust it. Have Fun!!!
Peace,
David
P.S.
Kill Ritual is out on tour right now. As I post this we are on our way to Portland, Oregon after playing in Ashland, Oregon last night. Join us for our second to last show in Las Vegas on March 24th at Vamp’d. I hope to see you there.
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