Home Ursula K. Le Guin Chapter 11

Ursula K. Le Guin

11

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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.

Note UKLG: One of the things I love about Lao Tzu is he is so funny. He’s explaining a profound and difficult truth here, one of those counter-intuitive truths that, when the mind can accept them, suddenly double the size of the universe. He goes about it with this deadpan simplicity, talking about pots.

Continue reading from this chapter in the full translation.