Daodejing Part Eleven

LYRICS: Thirty spokes meet at one still heart, An open hub where the turning starts. Form without hunger, desire unmade, Only the empty can carry the weight. Let the hollow guide the motion— Only space can set things free. In the center, nothing— Yet everything moves. In the quiet, the power— Where the empty proves. Hold no shape too tightly, Let the hollow lead you through. Clay in the hands, a vessel appears, Yet what it holds is shaped by the void. Houses stand by windows and doors, Not the walls, but the openings endure. What we do not fill becomes the path, The unseen breath that makes the world. In the center, nothing— Yet everything moves. In the quiet, the power— Where the empty proves. Hold no shape too tightly, Let the hollow lead you through. Kingdoms rise by yielding strength, The humble gather what the mighty lose. The spirit dwells in an unbound chest, Fears fade where grasping ends. Let go of fullness, trust the fall— The Way is the space between all things. In the center, nothing— Yet everything moves. In the quiet, the power— Where the empty proves. Hold no shape too tightly, Let the hollow lead you through. Empty is the origin, Empty is the key. Where there is no burden, All paths come to be. In the silent center, Form dissolves in light— Nothing holds the everything, And all returns to night. DAODEJING PART ELEVEN: The thirty spokes unite in the one nave; but it is on the empty space, that the use of the wheel depends. Clay is fashioned into vessels; but it is on their empty hollowness, that their use depends. The door and windows are cut out to form an apartment; but it is on the empty space, that its use depends. Therefore, what has an existence serves for profitable adaptation, and what has not that for usefulness.