Tao Of Pooh And Application Life And Therapy Philosophy Essay

Tao Of Pooh And Application Life And Therapy Philosophy Essay This paper discusses how the book the Tao Of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff relates the concept of Taoism to the characters from the Winnie The Pooh by A A Milne and their application to life and therapy. In The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff utilizes characters from Winnie the Pooh to attempt to explain the fundamentals of Taoism. By observing Eeyore, Piglet, Rabbit, Owl, Tigger, and Pooh, it is easy to see that the actions of the character Pooh best describe Taoism. One of the most important principles of Taoism used in the book is the uncarved block. Hoff uses the characters from A A Milnes Winnie the Pooh books to illustrate and explain the basics of Taoist philosophy, showing how Pooh himself is the epitome of the Taoist thinker, enjoying life with simplicity but not stupidity. The author explains that Taoists try to appreciate, learn from, and work with whatever happens in life, whereas, in contrast, Confucianism attempts to impose order, and Buddhists see lifes tribulations as obstacles to be overcome before achieving Nirvana. He describes how Tao is the Way, which can be understood but not defined, and illustrates key elements of Tao such as Pu, the uncarved block, and Wu wei, goi ng with the flow. In case you should think that this book is altogether too simplistic, I should add that Hoff touches on the writings of Lao-Tzu (author of the Tao Te Ching), Chuang-tse, the poet Li Po, and other Taoist philosophers, giving his own interpretations of the passages. Hoff shows how Pooh best explains the Uncarved Block. The principle of the Uncarved Block is that things that are simple contain their own natural power, power that can be spoiled and lost when overcomplicated. Using the characters he shows how our lives can be sabotaged by errors in thinking and how it can be prevented. Hoff uses Rabbit to show when you are racing through life you can miss out on the valuable things that make up life itself. We seem to jeopardize ourselves by thinking too much of the self. Owl is used to show that when trying to find underlying meaning for everything you overcomplicate it. Hoff uses Piglet in the sense that Piglet is always scared and as a result scared to try things, if Piglet wouldnt dwell in worry, he would accomplish more, and find happiness .Sometimes staying less in your head is an advantage. Hoff goes on to show that the character of Eeyore is always depressed and dwells in negativity. If he abstained from this life would be completely different. Now finally we come to Pooh. The author exemplifies how Pooh doesnt stay in worry, nor is he over-analytical, he stays in the spontaneous. As a result of staying in the way he finds everything goes its own course and works out as a result of his non-action. Pooh goes with the flow of nature and doesnt interfere. He leads a life of simplicity and one free of worry. This is a perfect reflection of someone who follows the Tao. I think this is more or less a basic explanation of Tao and how to apply it to our lives by modeling out behavior in a likewise manner. There arent any obscure references here only face value application. The use of the cartoon characters that we all are familiar with is a very u seful strategy. It is a way of explanation that transcends all racial, sexual, gender barriers. For example, we wont try too hard or explain too much, because that would only Confuse things, and because it would leave the impression that it was all only an intellectual idea that could be left on the intellectual level and ignored. (p. 10) He uses each chapter of the book to teach a new principle of the Uncarved Block of Taoism. In each chapter he tells a Winnie the Pooh story and then explains how it relates to Taoism. Hoff writes a chapter teaching how cleverness does not always help, but it sometimes destroys things and is the reason that things do not work out. Hoff teaches that the Taoist believe that if you understand Inner Nature it is far more effective than knowledge or cleverness. He uses a poem called Cottleston Pie. The poem explains how things just are as they are and how people try to violate these principles with their everyday lives. There is also the story of Tigger and Roo. Tigger tries to be what he is not and as a result everything goes wrong and he always ends up getting stuck in a tree. Hoff also explains that working with Nature is best in the sense that you do not screw things up with a story about Eeyore getting stuck in the river. Everybody had been trying to think of clever ways to get Eeyore out of the river when Pooh said that if they just dropped a big stone into it, then it would just wash Eeyore ashore. He did it without even thinking, because thinking would complicate things, and of course it worked. Pooh worked with Nature and things worked out for him. As you can see, Hoff uses many different Winnie the Pooh stories to teach the uncomplicated ways of the Taoist. The only argument that Hoff really presents is whether or not the Taoist way is the best way and whether or not it really works. When you look at it from the point of Pooh and the stories he is a part of, you are able to see how easily the Taoist ideology fits snuggly into Pooh and his world. Obviously if you do not believe that cleverness and knowledge are not important, then you will not agree with anything Hoff is saying, but he makes you believe in showing you how it always works out with Pooh. He argues whether or not cleverness and knowledge really are important. For example, it can be explained in the story when Eeyore gets stuck in the river. Clever ways do not work, but Poohs simple way always seem to work surprisingly well. Hoff also argues how the Taoist believes that over exhausting ourselves needlessly only works against us. He uses Rabbit to explain this. Quite simply, Rabbit is always in a hurry, he is the very face of stress itself. Hoff explains these so called creatures like a shadow. Shadows are always rushing along. They are also always trying to lose their shadows. They try to run from them not realizing that they cannot, that they are one and the same. Hoff argues that by just sitting down and enjoying a nice sunny day, like Pooh would do, you can complicate things. You do not get the full fulfillment of your life. There is the argument that this is just using examples to match the conclusions that we have already come to. I believe however, that one cannot free himself of the weight of our foolish ways until we have exposed that fallacy and this is a vehicle to do that without feeling condescended by an authority figure that many associate with other comparative theories. Case and point Hoffs adaption of Winnie the Pooh to Taoist philosophy is brilliant and yet never strays from its humility. Through this I can now see how the field of psychology, is a chaotic discipline much more suited to the Taoist approach of going with the flow-the Wu wei, then against it. In Hoffs description of A A Milnes characters I was able to see myself trying to be like the Owl, while actually being a combination of the Rabbit and the pessimistic Eeyor e. Hoff has shown me how the ideal is to be a simple character such as Pooh himself, accepting life, work, and other people as they are rather than trying to impose order on them. I now seek to accept and move with events as they occur, preferring not to try to impose change nor viewing changes it as an obstacle to be overcome. It all comes down to acceptance and will. When you yield to the flow you find that it goes along with the grain of your life instead of against it. This approach spills over into every aspect of life, keeping them simple, letting nature direct the flow as it were.

Business Studies coursework Task 8 continued: :: Business and Management Studies

Business Studies coursework Task 8 continued: Latest news shows that the car company, MG Rover will be taken over by a Chinese car manufacturer. This may vastly affect the sales of car production for the MG Rover Company. The company ‘Shanghai Automotive’ will own 70% of the company whilst MG Rover owning 30%, which means that the company may change names and affect customer’s who already own a MG car, meaning they may feel unhappy with the change, as the company production maybe moving to China. This means sales and customer satisfaction may change dramatically for the business. As the company is taking over (Shanghai Automotive) this means that they are going to inject around  £1 billion pounds aiming to make over 100 million cars a year. This means saving over 6000 jobs that would have been depleted if the Chinese car manufacturers had not come up with the money to save the business. This maybe recognised by the public, meaning that they like the new changes as they will be able to carry on with their job. However, the problems that have occurred are that they want to concentrate the main manufacturing of the car over in China, and bringing machines and technology over to Britain, but only are considering making around 200,000 cars. This means that the cars available are lower, and that people who buy the cars may think that they are buying a British car, but are buying a car exported from China, which they may not like. Especially if something goes wrong with the car that they have bought, they do not know if there are local garages and car manufacturers near their homes. This could mean that the customer is unhappy as more expenses are being made just to satisfy there non-British car. They may also be against the fact that there car has not been made in Britain; therefore it can only be fixed if it was sent back to the manufacturers in China. Reports have shown that there are three types of cars that they will introduce under the new manufacturers ‘Shanghai Automotive’. The first will be the mid-sized family car, then the sports car, and finally a smaller car like the Rover 25, and also a sleek executive model. This is good news as we are promoting the MG-TF, which is a sports car, so in the future when we are promoting the MG-TF, we can be sure that sales will happen, because sports cars will still be made. As the production of cars is being extended to China, both ‘Shanghai Automotive’ and ‘MG Rover’ have said they are expanding the business

Impact of Sociological Theories on Education Essay -- Education

Impact of Sociological Theories on Education Sociologists and educators argue the function of education in society. Historically speaking, education was very informal; formal education was only for the elite. Whether education serves a political or an economic agenda can be best viewed within three perspectives. These perspectives are the functionalist, conflict and interactionist perspective. We will explore the differences and similarities in functionalist, conflict, and interaction theories of education; as well as their effect on individual views, approach to social change, and views of society within education. The functionalist theory focuses on the ways that education serves and contributes to the needs of society. â€Å"Functionalists first see education in its manifest role: conveying basic knowledge and skills to the next generation (CliffsNotes.com).† From a functionalist perspective, education is an interrelated yet independent element that benefits society as a whole. Functionalist Talcott Parsons says that education prepares and selects individuals for their future roles in society, therefore benefiting the individual as well as society. Looking from the functionalist’s perspective, education is positive in helping society to function because it provides a value consensus and social solidarity. Functionally speaking, education serves as a venue to transmit culture and skills. â€Å"Schools supplement the family by passing on to youngster’s important elements of their culture, (Sullivan, T.J., 2007).† Functionalists see this as equipping the individual with the skills necessary to function in society and to promote success. Not only does it establish a soci... ...am, Martin Nystrand, Mark Berends, and Paul C. LePore. 1995. â€Å"An Organizational Analysis of the Effects of Ability Grouping.† American Educational Research Journal 32:687-715. Higginson, Z. (2003-2004). University of Leicester School of Education: Social Science Resources. Retrieved Nov. 16, 2008, from Interactionism and Education: http://www.le.ac.uk/education/resources/SocSci/zoe.html Long, R. (2008, Mar. 09). Introductory Sociology: Social Organization. Retrieved Nov. 16, 2008, from SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, Russ Long's Lecture Notes: http://www.delmar.edu/socsci/rlong/intro/org.htm Structural functionalism. (2004, July 22). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved Nov. 16, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functionalist_perspective Sullivan, T. (2007). Sociology: Concepts and applications in a diverse world. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

Nazi Olympics Essay -- essays research papers fc

The Nazi Olympics The 1936 Olympics in Berlin, also known as the â€Å"Nazi Olympics†, was a milestone in the history of the world. All of the attention of the Olympics that year was focused on Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. In 1933, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler became leader of Germany and quickly turned the nation's democracy into a one-party dictatorship. He took thousands of political opponents, holding them without trial in concentration camps. The Nazis also set up a program to strengthen the Germanic Aryan population. They began to exclude all one-half million Jews from the population, and German life. As part of the drive to "purify" and strengthen the German population, a 1933 law permitted physicians to perform forced sterilizations of psychiatric patients and congenitally handicapped persons, Gypsies, and Blacks (Encarta Encyclopedia 1996 [CD-ROM]). The 1936 Olympics in Berlin caused many worries, problems, and questions for America and other countries throughout the world. On 13 May 1931, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 1936 Summer Olympics to Berlin. The choice seemed to signal Germany's return to the world community after defeat in World War I. Berlin had forty-three votes, and Barcelona, Spain, the other option, had sixteen. The choice showed that Germany was being included once more in the world community. It also showed the International Olympic committee’s respect for Dr. Theodor Lewald, and Carl Diem, German sports leaders. Both men had been the planners for the 1916 Olympics that was scheduled, but was cancelled. Since then, they have been urging the Olympics to attempt to go back to Germany. Both Lewald and Diem were very pleased with the results (Mandell The Nazi Olympics 39). On 30 January 1933, the German president, Paul von Hindenburg, selected Adolf Hitler to be the head of the government. This was very unexpected. Hitler was the leader of an extreme right-wing political party, the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party. Hitler sought to expand Germany with new territories and boundaries. Hitler also focused on rebuilding Germany’s military strength. In many speeches Hitler made, he spoke often about the value of â€Å"racial purity† and the dominance of the Aryan master race. The Nazi’s spread their racist beliefs in schools through textbooks, radios, new... ...oft Encarta The 1936 Olympics [CD-ROM] Microsoft, 1996 Sirracose, Constantine. History of the Olympic Games Seaburn Books, 15 March 2000 Swaddling, Judith. The Ancient Olympic Games HRH The Princess Royal, January 2000 Bibliography Bachrach, Susan D. The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936 Boston, MA : Little, Brown and Company, 2000 Green, Robert. â€Å"Berlin Olympics exhibition opens in Washington† Dateline: WASHINGTON 19 July 1996 Hoadley, Johanna. â€Å"’36 Olympic Hopefuls Remember Nazi Past† Scripps Howard News Service,as provided by SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE 19 July 1996 Kastor, Elisabeth. â€Å"Olympic History† The Washington Post 19 September 2000 : C15 Kindersly, Dorling. The Olympic Games: Athens 1896-Sydney 2000 Chronicle of the Games, 1 July 2000 Mandell, Richard. The Nazi Olympics Illinois : Sports and Society, 1987 Martin, David. The Olympic Marathon Human Kinetics, May 2000 Microsoft Encarta 1996 The 1936 Olympics [CD-ROM] Microsoft, 1996 Microsoft Encarta 2001 The 1936 Olympics (The Nazi Olympics) [CD-ROM] Microsoft, 2001 Sirracose, Constantine. History of the Olympic Games Seaburn Books, 15 March 2000 Swaddling, Judith. The Ancient Olympic Games HRH The Princess Royal, January 2000

The Skills and Qualities Necessary Required to Establish and Maintain a

The Skills and Qualities Necessary Required to Establish and Maintain an Effective Working Relationship In this essay I have chosen to explore the skills and qualities required to establish and maintain an effective working relationship with my mentor in practice in the role of supervisee. I will discuss communication skills, willingness to learn, self-awareness, assertiveness, open-mindedness, reflective skills as criteria of mentee to establish working relationship with mentor. The term mentor originates from Greek mythology, was first introduce in academic and business world of north America (Laurent 1998) used in United Kingdom with the implementation of project 2000 in the national health service (Bracken 1989) to help smooth transition from student to professional. (Philips et al 1996, Grey M and Smith1999). The dictionary defines a mentor as a trusted counselor or guide. A mentor is generally an influential, experienced individual with whom mentee establish a personal relationship and who actively helps mentee reach their goals. The terms mentorship are designated to staff nurses who engage in a multitude of roles supporting student nurses in the clinical setting. (Quinn2000). And reducing the theory practice gap (Earnsaw 1995). Mentorship is a mechanism that promotes safe and effective practice, maintains standards and accountability, and develops nurse practitioners autonomy. Proctor (1998) has grouped supervisees' skills under three functions: formative, supportive and normative. Supervisee should be keen, capable, trustworthy, attentive, ... ...ellor:Acyclical Model. 2nd Edition. London. Roultedge. Power S (1999) Nursing Supervision. A guide for clinical practice. London: Sage. Proctor (1988) supervision: a working alliance. London: Alexia, Scanlon C, Weir W S (197) learning from practice? Mental health nurses' perceptions and experiences of clinical supervision. Journal of advanced nursing 26,295-303. Watson N. A., 1999. Mentoring today-the students' views. An investigative case study of pre-registration nursing students' experiences and perceptions of mentoring in one theory/practice module of the Common Foundation Programme on a Project 2000 course. Journal of Advanced Nursing 29, pp. 254-262. Wong S (1979) Nurse teacher behaviour in clinical field:Apparent effects on nursing students' learning. Journal of advance learning, 3 ,369-378 The Skills and Qualities Necessary Required to Establish and Maintain a The Skills and Qualities Necessary Required to Establish and Maintain an Effective Working Relationship In this essay I have chosen to explore the skills and qualities required to establish and maintain an effective working relationship with my mentor in practice in the role of supervisee. I will discuss communication skills, willingness to learn, self-awareness, assertiveness, open-mindedness, reflective skills as criteria of mentee to establish working relationship with mentor. The term mentor originates from Greek mythology, was first introduce in academic and business world of north America (Laurent 1998) used in United Kingdom with the implementation of project 2000 in the national health service (Bracken 1989) to help smooth transition from student to professional. (Philips et al 1996, Grey M and Smith1999). The dictionary defines a mentor as a trusted counselor or guide. A mentor is generally an influential, experienced individual with whom mentee establish a personal relationship and who actively helps mentee reach their goals. The terms mentorship are designated to staff nurses who engage in a multitude of roles supporting student nurses in the clinical setting. (Quinn2000). And reducing the theory practice gap (Earnsaw 1995). Mentorship is a mechanism that promotes safe and effective practice, maintains standards and accountability, and develops nurse practitioners autonomy. Proctor (1998) has grouped supervisees' skills under three functions: formative, supportive and normative. Supervisee should be keen, capable, trustworthy, attentive, ... ...ellor:Acyclical Model. 2nd Edition. London. Roultedge. Power S (1999) Nursing Supervision. A guide for clinical practice. London: Sage. Proctor (1988) supervision: a working alliance. London: Alexia, Scanlon C, Weir W S (197) learning from practice? Mental health nurses' perceptions and experiences of clinical supervision. Journal of advanced nursing 26,295-303. Watson N. A., 1999. Mentoring today-the students' views. An investigative case study of pre-registration nursing students' experiences and perceptions of mentoring in one theory/practice module of the Common Foundation Programme on a Project 2000 course. Journal of Advanced Nursing 29, pp. 254-262. Wong S (1979) Nurse teacher behaviour in clinical field:Apparent effects on nursing students' learning. Journal of advance learning, 3 ,369-378

Style and Supervenience :: Technology Computers Computer Essays

Style and Supervenience ABSTRACT: Cope's Computers and Musical Style (1991) describes a computer program that allegedly can represent and replicate musical styles solely on the basis of compositions that have been entered into it. If this claim is correct, then it must be that an oeuvre ¡Ã‚ ¦s stylistic characteristics locally supervene on its textual features, which roughly means that its stylistic properties are entirely determined by its textual properties. In my paper I argue that stylistic properties do not locally supervene on textual properties, and thus that neither Cope ¡Ã‚ ¦s program nor any other that essentially works like it can represent or replicate styles. Cope (1991) describes a computer program that allegedly can represent and replicate musical styles solely on the basis of compositions that have been entered into it (ix, xi ¡Xall page-references are to Cope 1991). If this claim is correct, then it must be that an oeuvre ¡Ã‚ ¦s stylistic characteristics locally supervene on its textual features, which roughly means that its stylistic properties are entirely determined by its textual properties. This paper argues that stylistic properties do not locally supervene on textual properties, and thus that neither Cope ¡Ã‚ ¦s program nor any other that essentially works like it can represent or replicate styles. 1. Cope's Composing Computer David Cope is a composer and music theorist who got interested in the applications of computer science to music. The direct cause of his interest was a composer ¡Ã‚ ¦s block; this made him turn to computer programming in the hope to find a  ¡Ã‚ ¥composing partner ¡Ã‚ ¦ (18). Eventually his search resulted in a program he termed Experiments in Musical Intelligence (EMI). Let me briefly sketch what EMI does and how it works. What EMI does is easily explained: musical data, like for instance a number of Mozart piano-sonatas, are (in coded form) fed into the computer, which then outputs new musical material. This new material is then hoped to be and, according to Cope, also often is, in the style of the music that was entered. How the program works is not so easily explained, but the following simplified account will do for the purposes of this paper (cf. 152ff for details). The two most important components of EMI are a pattern-matcher and a so-called Augmented Transition Network. The first searches for common patterns in the works that have gone into the computer, and stores these in a  ¡Ã‚ ¥style dictionary ¡Ã‚ ¦ (together with a weight, indicating how  ¡Ã‚ ¥common ¡Ã‚ ¦ they are).

The Media and Violent Crime :: Media Argumentative Persuasive Argument

The Media and Violent Crime An issue that many corporate executives ignore is the possibility that aggressive people seek reinforcement for their own destructive acts. Television violence, for instance, and the widespread public concern accompanying it have led to calls for strict controls on the depiction of violent programs. In their decision making, some producers do not take responsibility for the equally important minority. Instead, they may gear their content toward the masses, who crave sexually explicit and violent action. Fortunately, this group has the ability to disseminate violent action rationally, realizing that in reality, people who commit acts of violence have to compensate for their actions by taking full responsibility for the harm they cause others. Not everyone can distinguish fact from fantasy. Not only is it the irrational people who commit the crimes in our country, but our own children who may errantly be learning from day one that nothing bad will happen to them if they shoot their brother in the head with Daddy's pistol. Studies show that in one week of content analysis of prime-time output on seven New York City channels, there were 3,421 acts and threats of violence observed. Children's fictional entertainment programs had three times the frequency of violent acts or threats recorded in adult programs. (Gunter, p.13). many of these acts were committed without any compensation for the action without responsibility, then it must be acceptable behavior. Similarly, aggressive adults are seeking reinforcement for their own anti-social behavior from seeing attractive television characters behave in the same way. Behavioral evidence has indicated that the anti-social effects of violent television portrayals are strongest and are most likely to occur among individuals who are already aggressive. (Palmer, p. 10). The ethical question is, should television submit to mass appeal or take into consideration the affects on certain members of society, including children? The consequences of televising violence are not only harmful to some viewers but concurrently affect the television stations in the form of loss of viewers and possibly gaining a bad reputation. There are many sources, including viewers' associations and popular journalism, which have been condemning the depiction of violence in television programs as a potentially dangerous and anti-social act on the part of those who make and transmit programs. (Gunter p. 2). Still, even though these associations have been condemning television violence, their efforts have had little effect on the large money-making corporations. Therefore, the decision, on the part of those in charge of the programs, should be one of social responsibility. In his article, "Sex and Violence", Joe Saltzman states, "If, as producers