WORDS & IDEAS
Wu 无
Absence / emptiness. The empty part of a vessel makes it useful. The text asks us to attend to what is absent as carefully as to what is present.
The way and its name
道可道，非常道，名可名，非常名。
The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name. (Conceived of as)…
Read chapterThe usefulness of emptiness
三十辐共一毂，当其无，有车之用。
The thirty spokes unite in the one nave; but it is on the empty space (for the axle), that the use of the wheel depends. Clay is fashioned into vessels;…
Read chapterThe invisible way
视之不见名曰夷，听之不闻名曰希，搏之不得名曰微。
We look at it, and we do not see it, and we name it 'the Equable.' We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name it 'the Inaudible.' We try to grasp…
Read chapterReturn and reversal
反者道之动，弱者道之用。
40. The movement of the Tao By contraries proceeds; And weakness marks the course Of Tao's mighty deeds. All things under heaven sprang from It as…
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