Thoughts on emptiness, on existence and non-existence.
Taoist Insights on Emptiness
Thirty spokes converge on a hub
but it's the emptiness
that makes a wheel work
pots are finished from clay
but it's the hollow
that makes a pot work
windows and doors are carved for a house
but it's the spaces
that make a house work
existence makes a thing useful
nonexistence makes it work.
- From Lao-Tzu's Taoteching translated by Red Pine.
The wheel, the pot, the house — each one depends on what is absent. Lao-Tzu returns again and again to this inversion: the carved-out hollow, the unspoken word, the pause between breaths. What the Tao Te Ching calls nonexistence is not void but potential — the condition that allows anything to move, hold, or shelter.
The Taoist teaching on emptiness is not abstract philosophy but lived wisdom. In wu wei—effortless action—we learn that the most useful space is the one we do not fill. A bowl holds water only because it is hollow. A pause in speech carries the weight of what cannot be said.
-------
The empty mind, empty of words
Is an experience of nature, of joy and beauty.
- Heron Dance journal note
The Tao Te Ching Journal: A Path To Inner Quiet
Zen Mountain Journal blends Taoist hermit poetry, contemplative art, and reflections drawn from a lifetime shaped by wilderness, solitude, and decades doing creative work on the outer boundaries of our culture. These journals are companions for seekers — guides in the reconnection with inner quiet, beauty, and the “soundless music” of a life lived with simplicity and meaning.
• Size: 9.25 × 8.5 inches — convenient size for desk or lap.
• Hardcover — the book can be written in without a table or desk.
• Double wire-o bound to lay flat.
• Printed on Mohawk Superfine, a premium uncoated paper for a beautiful writing surface.
• 160 pages.
