Hundred Acre Wood is a magical world inhabited by author A. A. Milne's son Christopher Robin & his toys. They are firstly Winnie the Pooh, a small bear, "with very little brain", always thinking of his pots of honey & "a little something" (snack) even when he goes visiting & favourite activity being doing nothing. Next is the bossy Rabbit, the born organiser. The professorial Owl is the know all. The hyper-active "bouncy" Tigger debuts in the second volume, where the house at Pooh corner is built. The chronically depressed donkey Eeyore is perpetually sunk in self-pity. The smallest & most timid is the Piglet. Kanga & it's child Roo arrive before Tigger & are accepted after some initial hiccups.These simple creatures inhabit the farm which is both comforting & terrifying with imaginary "Heffalumps." & "Wozzles". They go about their lives much the same way as Thoreau did in his self-built house (at Pooh corner?). If Thoreau self-consciously contemplates the simple life, Christopher Robin & his animals live instinctively in the Tao way, as Benjamin Hoff brilliantly analyses in his "The Tao of Pooh" & "The Te of Piglet." In fact, Hoff calls Thoreau the first "undeclared" Taoist! But Thoreau was immensely influenced by Hindu thought like his co-transcendalists Emerson & Whitman, profusely quoting from "Bhagawat Gita", "Vishnupurana", & the Vedas.
Fittingly, though his books are about Winnie the Pooh & Taoist philosophy, Hoff concludes with a paean to Gandhi, saying he put Taoist principles into practice & has shown the only way in which our world can be saved.
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