tao te ching ~ 11

Today, don’t have much to say. Inviting self to stillness and a reminder of that which really matters is not matter or mind but our essential true nature, formless, presence, the space between words, the unborn.  Name it what you will, however, names are only symbols, pointers if you will. Lao-tzu through the heart of Stephen Mitchell points clearly to what is un-nameable. This chapter grabbed me many, many years ago perhaps in my teens, I have never forgotten it. 

tao te ching

amazing translation by 

Stephen Mitchell

         11

We join spokes together in a wheel,

but it is the centre hole

that makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,

but it is the emptiness inside

that holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house,

but it is the inner space

that makes it livable.

We work with being

but non-being is what we use.