Thirty spokes
meet in the hub.
Where the wheel isn’t
is where it’s useful.
Hallowed 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.
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 the counterintuitive 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.