Chap­ter 5: Cot­tle­ston Pie, Hoff argues that Rabbit’s clever schemes often fail because clev­er­ness relies on shal­low judg­ments, which do not stand the test of time. These judg­ments over­look the deep­er “Inner Nature” that gives each thing its unique val­ue. To explain this, Hoff asks Pooh to reflect on the song “Cot­tle­ston Pie.” Each verse of the song begins with “Cot­tle­ston, Cot­tle­ston, Cot­tle­ston Pie,” fol­lowed by a rhyming line, and end­ing with the repeat­ed phrase, “Ask me a rid­dle and I reply: / ‘Cot­tle­ston, Cot­tle­ston, Cot­tle­ston Pie.’” The sim­plic­i­ty of the song rep­re­sents the Taoist view that things should be allowed to exist as they are, with­out unnec­es­sary inter­fer­ence or attempts to change their true nature.

The first verse of “Cot­tle­ston Pie” fea­tures Pooh singing, “A fly can’t bird, but a bird can fly.” This line reflects the Taoist prin­ci­ple that “Things Are As They Are.” Chuang-tse, a Taoist sage, illus­trat­ed this con­cept when he described a warped tree that couldn’t be used for lum­ber. Instead of lament­ing its imper­fec­tions, Chuang-tse saw its true val­ue in its role of pro­vid­ing shade. The same idea applies to peo­ple, Hoff explains. When indi­vid­u­als respect their own “Inner Nature,” they avoid trou­ble that aris­es from try­ing to be some­thing they are not. Chuang-tse’s rejec­tion of a pres­ti­gious posi­tion at the prince’s palace echoes this idea: like a sacred tur­tle that prefers the mud to a life in cap­tiv­i­ty, he chose authen­tic­i­ty over soci­etal expec­ta­tions.

In the next verse, Pooh sings, “A fish can’t whis­tle and nei­ther can I.” This rep­re­sents the under­stand­ing that every­one has lim­i­ta­tions, and wise indi­vid­u­als are aware of theirs. It is the fool­ish who attempt to sur­pass their nat­ur­al lim­i­ta­tions. A per­fect exam­ple is Tig­ger, who boasts to Roo that Tig­gers can fly, swim, and climb trees. How­ev­er, Tig­ger gets stuck in a tree and needs help from Pooh and Piglet. Tigger’s mis­ad­ven­tures high­light the impor­tance of rec­og­niz­ing one’s lim­i­ta­tions. In Chi­nese tra­di­tion­al med­i­cine, there is a say­ing, “one dis­ease, long life; no dis­ease, short life,” sug­gest­ing that those who under­stand and accept their weak­ness­es tend to live more bal­anced lives. By embrac­ing their lim­i­ta­tions, indi­vid­u­als can turn them into strengths, much like Piglet’s small size helped him escape from Owl’s ruined house.

The final verse of “Cot­tle­ston Pie” is about a chick­en, with Pooh singing, “Why does a chick­en, I don’t know why.” Hoff points out that even though sci­en­tists have tried to explain why chick­ens behave as they do, the truth remains elu­sive. The answer to such ques­tions often doesn’t mat­ter. Sci­ence and phi­los­o­phy, Hoff argues, some­times raise more ques­tions than answers. How­ev­er, what is more impor­tant is rec­og­niz­ing one’s own inner nature and accept­ing things as they are, rather than seek­ing expla­na­tions that may nev­er come. This view aligns with Taoism’s empha­sis on liv­ing in har­mo­ny with the nat­ur­al world, with­out the need to over­an­a­lyze or seek end­less answers to unim­por­tant ques­tions.

Hoff reflects on the sto­ry where Pooh and Piglet attempt to catch a Hef­falump, a crea­ture they’ve nev­er seen. Pooh’s plan involves dig­ging a pit and using a jar of hon­ey as bait. How­ev­er, Pooh inad­ver­tent­ly ends up trapped in his own pit, and Piglet mis­tak­en­ly believes he’s caught a Heffalump—mistaking Pooh’s trap for the crea­ture. This sto­ry exem­pli­fies how, in life, peo­ple often try to con­trol and manip­u­late things beyond their under­stand­ing, only to find them­selves caught in their own traps. It also demon­strates the Taoist belief that life should be approached with sim­plic­i­ty, trust­ing that things will unfold nat­u­ral­ly.

Hoff explains that “Cot­tle­ston Pie” sym­bol­izes the con­cept of “Inner Nature.” Every­one and every­thing has a unique inner essence, but people’s cir­cum­stances, thoughts, and soci­etal pres­sures often lead them away from their true nature. Under­stand­ing and respect­ing one’s own inner nature is the first step toward liv­ing authen­ti­cal­ly. As Pooh’s song sug­gests, it’s not about being some­one you’re not, but embrac­ing who you are. The Taoist ide­al of self-reliance begins with self-under­stand­ing. When indi­vid­u­als rec­og­nize their true selves, they can trans­form their weak­ness­es into strengths or use them for good. This self-aware­ness allows peo­ple to live more har­mo­nious­ly with them­selves and the world around them.

Hoff brings up a para­ble by the philoso­pher Liu An, where a skilled bur­glar uses his abil­i­ties for good dur­ing a war. Despite his neg­a­tive skills, he suc­cess­ful­ly caus­es the ene­my to retreat, illus­trat­ing that even seem­ing­ly neg­a­tive traits can be used for pos­i­tive pur­pos­es. Peo­ple can­not com­plete­ly elim­i­nate their flaws, but they can learn to har­ness them in ways that ben­e­fit them and oth­ers. This aligns with Taoism’s teach­ing that embrac­ing all aspects of one­self, both pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive, is key to liv­ing a bal­anced life.

In con­clu­sion, Hoff reflects on the idea of “Unbounc­ing” your­self, a ref­er­ence to anoth­er Win­nie-the-Pooh sto­ry. After Rab­bit, Piglet, and Roo res­cue Eey­ore from the riv­er, Eey­ore com­plains about being “bounced” into the water by Tig­ger. To stop Tig­ger from bounc­ing, Rab­bit plans to aban­don him, only to get lost him­self, with Tig­ger even­tu­al­ly find­ing and res­cu­ing him. Just like Tig­ger find­ing his bounce or the Ugly Duck­ling real­iz­ing he is a swan, every­one must rec­og­nize their unique inner nature. Under­stand­ing and accept­ing this nature is the first step in per­son­al growth. As Pooh wise­ly says, “every­one is all right just the way they are,” and embrac­ing this truth leads to true peace and ful­fill­ment.