THE TAGLINE

useful space from what is not there...

The vessel or bowl is essentially an empty space, but it makes containment, hence drinking and life, possible. The Tao te Ching (literally, "the classic of the way of virtue") uses a series of images to show the potency of that which is not. In its very poetic form it teaches that there is a dynamic, cosmic structure underlying everything that happens in the world. The original polarity is that of being and non-being, and it will be found to interplay throughout the world, with non-being (emptiness, what is not) having as much significance as does being (the fullness of things, what is). Thus the notion of the Tao recaptures the earlier Chinese concept of Yin and Yang, the polarities running through all things.

Thirty spokes meet at a nave; The thirty spokes unite in the one center;
Because of the hole we may use the wheel. But it is on the empty space for the axle that the use of the wheel depends.

Clay is moulded into a vessel; Clay is fashioned into vessels;
Because of the hollow we may use the cup. But it is on their empty hollowness that their use depends.

Walls are built around a hearth; The door and windows are cut out from the walls to form an apartment;
Because of the doors we may use the house. But it is on the empty space that its use depends.

Thus tools come from what exists, Therefore, whatever has being is profitable,
But use from what does not. But what does not have being can be put to use.

Attributed to Lao Zi, Translated by Michael Neville, Translated by James Legge