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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.

Benjamin Hoff

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Benjamin Hoff
Age: 78
Born: 1946
Born: January 1
Author
Composer
Journalist
Photographer
Photojournalist
Writer
Oregon
United States
Taoism
Sounds
Western
Taoist
Asked
Winnie
Wisdom
Unbeliever
Sound
Pooh
Something
Like
Unbelievers

More quotes by Benjamin Hoff

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The main problem with this great obsession for saving time is very simple: you can't save time. You can only spend it. But you can spend it wisely or foolishly.
Benjamin Hoff
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If people were superior to animals, they'd take good care of them, said Pooh.
Benjamin Hoff
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Eeyore religion says that the earth isn't worth saving, anyway, and that when it comes to an end, the Faithful will be transported instantly to heaven. No problem. We'd like to see them explain things to Saint Peter at the Gate, when he asks them what they did with the world that God entrusted to them. That might get a bit sticky.
Benjamin Hoff
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Like silence after noise, or cool, clear water on a hot, stuffy day, Emptiness cleans out the messy mind and charges up the batteries of spiritual energy. Many people are afraid of Emptiness, however, because it reminds them of Loneliness.
Benjamin Hoff
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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.
Benjamin Hoff
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The Universe knows what it's doing. So don't develop a big ego, and don't be afraid.
Benjamin Hoff
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Modern man's difficulties, dangerous beliefs and feelings of loneliness, spiritual emptiness,and personal weakness are caused by his illusions about, and separation from, the natural world.
Benjamin Hoff
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It's not surprising, therefore, that the [Bisy] 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.
Benjamin Hoff
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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
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Reality is what one makes it. And the more negative reality one nurtures and creates, the more of it one has.
Benjamin Hoff
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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
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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 Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don't belong.
Benjamin Hoff
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Those who think that the rewarding things in life are somewhere over the rainbow 'burn their toast a lot,' said Pooh
Benjamin Hoff
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We don't need to shift our responsibilities onto the shoulders of some deified Spiritual Superman, or sit around and wait for Fate to come knocking at the door. We simply need to believe in the power that's within us, and use it. When we do that, and stop imitating others and competing against them, things begin to work for us.
Benjamin Hoff
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A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn't really care, wisdom does.
Benjamin Hoff
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Lots of people talk to animals... Not very many listen, though... That's the problem.
Benjamin Hoff
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As any old Taoist walking out of the woods can tell you, simple-minded does not necessarily mean stupid.
Benjamin Hoff
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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.
Benjamin Hoff
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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.
Benjamin Hoff
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How can you get very far, If you don't know who you are? How can you do what you ought, If you don't know what you've got? And if you don't know which to do Of all the things in front of you, Then what you'll have when you are through Is just a mess without a clue Of all the best that can come true If you know What and Which and Who.
Benjamin Hoff