Benjamin Hoff Books

An utterly unique and accessible introduction to the ancient principles of Taoism with the world's favourite bear, Winnie-the-Pooh and his friend Piglet. Winnie-the-Pooh has a certain way about him, a way of doing things that has made him the world's most beloved bear, and Pooh's Way, as Benjamin Hoff brilliantly demonstrates, seems strangely close to the ancient Chinese principles of Taoism. And as for Piglet, he embodies the very important principle of Te, meaning Virtue of the Small. "It's hard to be brave,' said Piglet, sniffing slightly, "when you're only a Very Small Animal." Rabbit, who had begun to write very busily, looked up and said: "It is because you are a very small animal that you will be useful in the adventure before us." Benjamin Hoff's explanations of Taoism and Te through Pooh and Piglet show that this is not an ancient and remote philosophy but something that you can use, here and now. Beautifully illustrated by E H Shepard.

The bestselling author of The Tao of Pooh offers a uniquely authentic translation of the enduring Tao Te Ching , based on the meanings of the ancient Chinese characters in use when the Taoist classic was written.From Benjamin Hoff, author of The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet, which have sold millions of copies worldwide, comes The Eternal Tao Te Ching , a new translation of the Chinese philosophical classic, the Tao Te Ching.The Eternal Tao Te Ching is the first translation to employ the meanings of the pre-writing brush characters in use 2,400 years ago, when the classic was written, rather than relying on the often-different meanings of the more modern brush characters, as other translations have done. Hoff points out in his chapter notes the many incidents of meddling and muddling that have been made over the centuries by scholars and copyists, and he corrects the mistakes and removes such tampering from the text. Hoff also makes the provocative claim—and demonstrates by revealing clues in the text—that the Tao Te Ching ’s author was a young nobleman hiding his identity, rather than the long-alleged author, the “Old Master” of legend, Lao-tzu. And Hoff’s chapter notes shed new light on the author’s surprisingly modern viewpoint. With a selection of lyrical color landscape photographs by the author, this is a unique, and uniquely accessible, presentation of the Tao Te Ching .

Exploring the Te (a Chinese word meaning virtue) of the small - a principle embodied perfectly in Piglet - this book features dialogues between the author, Benjamin Hoff, and characters such as Pooh, Eeyore, Owl, Kanga, Baby Roo and Piglet.

Volné pokračování autorova bestselleru Pú a tao přibližuje další zásady taoistického učení Tentokrát se pozornost soustřeďuje na postavu prasátka - "velmi malého a nenápadného zvířátka", které jak v původním příběhu, tak v této knize projde Cestou, tj. prodělá určitou vývojovou změnu.