The Tao of Pooh

I thought the Tao of Pooh was a cute way of understanding Taoism. Some of my favorite comparisons between Taoism and Winnie the Pooh are: Wu Wei and Pooh’s way of life, and explaining how Cleverness and Academics (Rabbit and Owl, respectively) are not the best ways to reach solutions or live life.  Wu Wei and Pooh’s way always seem to result in a beneficial result or outcome.  I found that when I have practiced Wu Wei without actually knowing I was doing so, things seemed to always work out. I am the kind of person who will often “go with the flow” or play things by ear, and I don’t usually make plans (mostly because I am terrible at keeping them).  When I live my life this way, I notice that good things happen. This could also be because without making plans, I have less of a chance of being disappointed if they don’t work out or go as I thought.  Pooh does this too, and I imagine so do many Taoists.  On the other hand, Rabbit and Owl’s ways of life are similar to many Americans’. Rabbit thinks he’s clever and always tries to come up with a plan (which ends up not working), and Owl thinks he’s really smart but he really doesn’t have much intelligence at all.  When they try to outthink the problems that situations present, they only cause more trouble.

There were some parts of the book that I didn’t like very much, though. When the author described all Americans as “Busy Backsons” and implied that our way of life is inferior, I got a little offended. I agreed with what he was saying, how it’s bad that people rush through life and waste time by trying to save time, instead of enjoying the moment they’re in (108).  But I still felt like his tone was really offensive.  Not all Americans are like that, and a lot of people do take the time to enjoy life. His juxtaposition of American society to Taoist societies clearly put down American society and marked it as inferior.  I think a lot of Americans could find value out of Taoist practices, but saying “your way of life is terrible, do it this way” isn’t the best way to get that message across, in my opinion.

The Tunnel

I watched a section from Kurosawa's film "Dreams" called "The Tunnel."  It starts out with a man in uniform walking down the road and into a tunnel. An angry dog soon comes out of the tunnel and barks at him. It doesn't bite him, and he cautiously walks into the tunnel. He gets to the other side and stops because he hears footsteps behind him. A soldier with blue skin walks out of the tunnel, and we soon learn that he is dead. He looks a little like this, actually:

Shintos believe that in the afterlife, the human spirit lives on forever. This particular dead soldier has a conversation with the man, who turns out to be his commander. The soldier doesn't believe that he is dead, and the commander explains to the soldier that he died in his arms. The soldier is very depressed, and goes on to talk about his family, and how they are at home, waiting for him to come back.

The soldier leaves momentarily, and soon a whole platoon arrives, all of whom are dead. They are loyally "reporting" to their commander, and assuring him that they have returned from war safely (they obviously did not, but they don't know they're dead).  This is where it gets interesting, because we find out that the commander actually sent them out knowing they would be killed. He says he takes responsibility for his "misconduct," and it's clear he's ashamed about it. He should be, because his actions were one of the worst, according to Shinto beliefs. He says he was captured and tortured, and while he was being tortured he felt like dying would be easier. Seeing all of the soldiers that he sent out to die makes him feel so much pain, that he wishes he could have died with them.

He asks them to leave and rest in peace, and tells them that they are accomplishing nothing by being there. They do as they are instructed, and march away back into the tunnel.

At the very end, the angry dog comes running back out of the tunnel, and it barks ferociously at the commander. It's not really clear how he reacts, but I think that he almost wants the dog to bite him this time. He isn't as cautious as before, and in the last few seconds of the video it looks as if he might collapse to the ground at any point and allow the dog to tear him up. I think I get this feeling because it's so clear that he feels he has dishonored his troop, and Shintos believe that dishonor is worse than death and suicide should follow. If he was really a Shinto he would perform a ritualistic suicide, so feeding himself to the dog probably wouldn't be the best way to go out, but he's clearly suffering so much pain and wants to die soon.