Tao Te Ching: Chapter 11
translated by Ursula K. Le Guin (1998)
Thirty spokes
meet in the hub.
Where the wheel isn’t
is where it’s useful.Hollowed out,
clay makes a pot.
Where the pot’s not
is where it’s useful.Cut doors and windows
to make a room.
Where the room isn’t,
there’s room for you.So the profit in what is
is in the use of what isn’t.
“The profit in what is
Is in the use of what isn’t.”
This blew my mind. While I let you ponder on it, let me share how I’m processing it.
What are you? A human, a body; an orchestra of organs and bones and muscles. It moves, yet it is not the movement. It induces pleasure, laughter, and tears yet it is not pleasure, not laughter, nor sadness. It interprets stars, yet it is not the stars nor is it the interpretation of them.
How do you profit from what you are?
What aren’t you? How do you use what you aren’t?
Do you fill yourself up, that precious emptiness within, long past after its use?
Do you fill it up with worries, past, future, other people’s opinions, shoulds?
Do you accumulate and forget to let out?
And when you do let go, do you appreciate the silence, the stillness, the solitude? For a minute, a second, a millisecond…
Do you put down the identities you inhabit, let go, and appreciate what you aren’t? The ones in front of you… Every earthling that crosses your path…
What is your form? What, who do you hold space for? What do you allow with your presence, in your presence?
Remember to let go, to empty out…
Remember to notice what you allow when you let in, what is in front of you and the interpretation that takes the shape of your mind…
Breathe in… Then out…
