Chapter 3 says “practice not doing and everything will fall into place”.
Chapter 3 says “the master leads by emptying peoples minds and filling their cores”
Chapter 5 says “the tao is like a Bellows: it is empty yet infinitely capable.”
Chapter 5 says “hold on to the center.”
Chapter 6 says “the tao is called the great mother: empty yet inexhaustible, it is present within you.”
Chapter 2 says “being and non-being create each other”
The emptiness is important. If we want the wagon to move we need the hole. If we want the pot to hold something, we need the empty space. If we want to live in the house we need the empty space. There is no pot or house or “you” if there is no empty space inside of it. The emptiness is important.
Sometimes my life is is busy and I forget about the emptiness inside of me and how important it is to acknowledge it. I want the master to fill my core. I know everything will fall into place if I just practice not-doing. I want to hold on to that center.
Added September 2021
We join spokes together in a wheel but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move….
We work with being, but non-being is what we use
The usefulness of what is depends on what is not.
I am bone and muscle, skin and organs – but without the “non-being” part (the light within me) I would not be me.
The pot is not a pot without the emptiness inside in. You. Are not you with the emptiness inside you.
Skin, bones, muscle is what is. The invisible life force is what is not. And it is this that makes me – and you.