Tao Te Ching Chapter 40 Dao De Jing

Daodejing, Laozi
Chapter 40

"The movement of the Tao
By contraries proceeds;
And weakness marks the course
Of Tao's mighty deeds.
All things under heaven sprang from It as existing and named.
That existence sprang from It as non-existent and not named."
-  Translated by James Legge, 1891, Chapter 40    

"Reversion is the action of Tao.
   Gentleness is the function of Tao.
The things of this world come from Being,
   And Being (comes) from Non-being."
-  Translated by Lin Yutang, 1955, Chapter 40    

"In Tao the only motion is returning;
The only useful quality, weakness.
For though all creatures under heaven are the products of Being,
Being itself is the product of Not-being."
-  Translated by Arthur Waley, 1934, Chapter 40  


"Reversion is the action of the Dao.
 Softness is the function of the Dao.
 The myriad things under Heaven achieve life in existence.
 Existence arises from nothingness."
 -  Translation Richard Lynn, Chapter 40  



反者道之動.
弱者道之用. 
天下萬物生於有.
有生於無.
-  Chinese Characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 40  


fan zhe dao zhi dong, 
ruo zhe dao zhi yong. 
tian xia wan wu sheng yu you.   
you sheng yu wu.
-  Pinyin Romanization, Daodejing, Chapter 40   



"The movement of Tao in the course of time is to return to Simplicity;
 The working of Tao is so subtle that is ostensible effect may not be immediately noticeable.
 Myriad things and creatures on Earth were originated from something;
 This something describable by us was launched ultimately from nothing which is beyond our description."
 -  Translated by Lee Sun Chen Org, Chapter 40   



"Interaction of the opposites is the sphere of Tao activity.
The Highest Subtlety is one of the most important qualities of Tao.
It is opposed by coarse qualities of evil people. 
All the development of incarnate beings goes on in interaction of these opposites.
Yet, the very world of matter originated from the Subtlest Source."
-  Translated by Mikhail Nilolenko, Chapter 40    


"El movimiento del Tao es retornar;
El uso del Tao es aceptar;
Todas las cosas derivan del Tao,
El Tao no deriva de ninguna."
-  Translated by Antonio Rivas Gonzálvez, 1998, Capitulo 40

"The movement of the Tao is a returning,

And weakness marks its course, to our discerning,

But heaven and earth and everything from its existence came,

And existence, from the non-existent spurning."
-  Translated by Isaac Winter Heysinger, 1903, Chapter 40  

"Tao moves in cycles;
Tao functions through softness.
All is born of nothing.
Something is born of nothing."
-  Translated by Tam C. Gibbs, 1981, Chapter 40   

A typical webpage created by Mike Garofalo for each one of the 81 Chapters (Verses, Sections) of the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi) includes over 25 different English language translations or interpolations for that Chapter, 5 Spanish language translations for that Chapter, the Chinese characters for that Chapter, the Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin transliterations (Romanization) of the Mandarin Chinese words for that Chapter, and 2 German and 1 French translation of that Chapter.  Each webpage includes a Google Translate option menu for reading the entire webpage in many other languages.  Each webpage for each one of the 81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching [246 CE Wang Bi version] includes extensive indexing by key words, phrases, and terms (concordance) for that Chapter in English, Spanish, and the Wade-Giles Romanization.  Each webpage on a Chapter of the Daodejing includes recommended reading in books and websites, a detailed bibliography, some commentary, links, research leads, translator sources, and other resources for that Chapter.  

     A Top Tier online free resource for English and Spanish readers, researchers, Daoist devotees, scholars, students, fans and fellow travelers on the Way. 

Chapter 40, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

Chapter and Thematic Index (Concordance) to the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

One Old Daoist Druid's Final Journey  

How to Live a Good Life: Advice from Wise Persons

 

Speaking of Time: The Poetic Investigations

 The Tick-Tock Tractatus

Speaking of Time: The Poetic Investigations

By Michael P. Garofalo

            

                
        August Offerings, Red Bluff CA, 2010, MPG

 

 

Sections

1. Time: time-space, movement, measurement

2. Past: memories, habits, fixed, specific, tradition

3. Present: now, here-now, day, duration

4. Future: maybe, planned, anticipated, uncertain

5. Passing: change, cycles, aging, growth, death

6. Beginning: renewal, starting, enthusiasm

7. Psychology: learning, experience, knowing

8. Middle: in progress, half-way, steady, living

9. Language: poetry, philosophy, ordinary

10. Silence: inexpressive, nonsense, illogical

11. Mystical: numinous, profound, intense, insightful,

12. Beauty: art, crafts, music, reading/writing

13. Social: ethics, morality, economics, manners, value

14. Philosophy: ethics, history, analysis, arguments, logic

15. History: landmark events, books/printing, memory

16. Eternity: forever, infinite, unimaginable, death

 

Preface

Key to Books Cited

Bundled Up Quintains about Time

Additional Notes

12.6

The Gardening Sutra: Excerpts
Pulling Onions

 

 

A garden recreates itself daily; we seldom step in the
     same garden thrice.
We don't erase the past, we just build more and bigger blackboards.
The present is made from the past.
Time creeps, walks, runs and flies - it is all about moving things.
Chaos breaks its own rules to allow Order to play.

How can gardening be considered a "leisure time" activity?
Always leave extra time for unraveling the hose.
Gardeners turn into the soil their lifetime.
Time may wait for no man, but seems to muddle and poke
     quite slowly for gardeners.
Springtime for birth, Summertime for growth;
     and all Seasons for dying.

Put the right plant in the right place at the right time in
     the right way - and you won't go wrong.
Winter does not turn into Summer; ash does not turn
     into firewood - on the chopping block of time.
A garden flourishes in the mind's time of last season,
     next season, and now.
Gardening requires no commuting time.
In the right place at the right time,
     tomato worms on tomato vines.

Your pocket knife will be its dullest at just the right time.
Gardening is the right sport for a lifetime of pleasures.
Gardening sometimes takes a few hours of a day,
     but adds weeks of pleasure to your life.
The time you have wasted on your garden
     is what makes it priceless.
One purpose of a garden is to stop time in one place.

 

Annuals disappear, shrubs perish, trees die, and
     gardeners are buried; death is the flower of time.
In an instant there is nothing - Time produces Nature.
By the time you peel off five layers of reality,
     it's hard to recall the first.
It's a long time between my garden and the Pacific Ocean.
Time will tell, but we often fail to listen.

The "eternal truths" are sometimes clearly false.
Gardening teaches us to take our time, slow down,
     and wait in peace.
Gardeners learn to live in worm time, bee time, and seed time.
Time will not pass you, but it will follow very close behind you.
Preparation and follow up take up more time than doing the deed.

Springtime flows in our veins.
Silence - never misquoted, sometimes misunderstood,
     often meaningful.
Leave enough time for some pointless behavior
     to reveal your deeper desires.
The seed idea for "God" is springtime.
Things always go downhill, fall apart, wear out...
     the arrow of Time pierces everything.

 

Time prevents too much from happening at once.
A million years and a second have the same
     feeling for the dead gardener.
All metaphors aside - only living beings rise up in the Springtime;
     dead beings stay quite lie down dead.
Any gardener who is not using the scientific method
     will waste time and money.
Take the time to melt into the Details.

Time is rooted in Place.
Most of the time, we just borrow from the past.
Sometimes the present alters our interpretation of the past;
     most often the past surrounds and infects the present.
Time is on your side when you are young.
Leisure can open a window to the breezes of insights,
     and a clear view of the Trees of Time.

We get things done when there is little time left.
Our cash limits and time constraints both prune our gardens.
The second hand of time ticks on---
     measuring our past, time after time.
Beings are Becomings---for the time-being.

Perfection can be the opponent of betterment.
Without vagueness we are bored with literalness.
Borderline cases are where events become really interesting.
I may not be able to precisely define religious nonsense,
     but I know it when I hear it.

A coastline may be impossible to measure,
     but is still beautiful.
You can’t slowly boil the frog unless
     it can’t jump out of the pot.
A “heap” of something desired becomes an issue
     when the price is discussed.
Gratefully, shit happens!
The ten thousand things are more enchanting
     than the Silent One.

Walking needs earth, space, and the walker.
Sometimes, just one 'thing' is critical
     because twenty other 'things' are just so.
Gardening is a kind of deadheading---
     keeping us from going to seed.
Don't interfere, be still, and listen to the litanies of bees.

Tooth and nail, and the stench of a dead animal on the wind.
When life gives you onions, it stinks.
A rake is spaces held together by steel.
In the student's mind there are few possibilities,
     in the teacher's mind there are many;
          but only time to realize very few.

 

Mother Nature is always pregnant.
Time creeps, walks, runs and flies -
     it is all about moving things.
Dogmatists are less useful than dogs.
Take life with a grain of salt, and a icy margarita.
The best things in life are more expensive than you think.

Rather than "love mankind," I'd rather admire a few good people.
Some flourish when crowded together, others don't.
Garbage In, Compost Out.
It is more about You and Now, rather than Them and Back Then.

 

While gardening the borders between work
     and play become blurred.
When gardening, look up more often.
Just the right words can be worth more
     than a thousand pictures.
Death's door is always unlocked.
A flower needs roots; beauty a society of minds.

A callused palm and dirty fingernails precede a Green Thumb.
A working hypothesis is far better than a belief.
Only two percent of all insects are harmful.
Why are they all in my garden?
Create your own garden, the god's certainly won't.
That something is eternal is unverifiable.

Most laws of Gardening are merely local ordinances.

Too save some time, don’t let them get a foot in the door.
Some slippery slopes are actually improvements or fun.
Butterflies and bees flapping their wings don’t actually
     create hurricanes, but we are very thankful they facilitate
     the emergence of fruits in the billions.
Without metaphors we can barely speak.

Just because you reject the big request, don’t be
     fooled into accepting the smaller request.
Finding a middle ground for agreement may
     be just half of a solution, and the wrong solution.
Sometimes the wisdom of the crowd is quite unwise and unfair.

Chaos breaks its own rules to allow Order to play.

Failures, disorder and death are the
     Grim Reaper of Entropy at work.
Somehow, someway, everything gets eaten up, someday.
The meaning is lost in the saying - a nature mystic's dilemma.
Vigorous gardening might help more than a psychiatrist's couch.
A gardener is no farmer, he is much too impractical.

No garden lasts for long - neither will you.

Shade, in the summer, is as precious as a glass of water.
A wise gardener knows when to stop.
Gardens are demanding pets.
Unclench your fist to give a hand.
The little choices day after day are the biggest issue.

Gardening is but one battle against Chaos.
When life gives you onions, you ain't making lemonade.
Many friendships are sustained by a mutual
     hatred of another person or group.
Read until you go to seed.
What you see depends on when you look.

Beauty is the Mistress, the gardener her slave.

One's "true self" is changing and elusive.
A little of this and a little of that, and some exceptions -
     these are the facts.
Does a plum tree with no fruit have Buddha Nature? Whack!

BU3152, BU929, GC#9

Pulling Onions by Mike Garofalo
     Over 1,000 random quips, one-liners, sayings,
     and "insights" from an old gardener.

Process Philosophy

The History of Gardening: A Timeline From Ancient Times to 2000

The Spirit of Gardening

Months and Seasons

 

Tick-Tock Tractatus by Mike Garofalo, Section 7

The Tick-Tock Tractatus

Speaking of Time: The Poetic Investigations

By Michael P. Garofalo

            

                
        August Offerings, Red Bluff CA, 2010, MPG

 

 

Sections

1. Time: time-space, movement, measurement

2. Past: memories, habits, fixed, specific, tradition

3. Present: now, here-now, day, duration

4. Future: maybe, planned, anticipated, uncertain

5. Passing: change, cycles, aging, growth, death

6. Beginning: renewal, starting, enthusiasm

7. Psychology: learning, experience, knowing

8. Middle: in progress, half-way, steady, living

9. Language: poetry, philosophy, ordinary

10. Silence: inexpressive, nonsense, illogical

11. Mystical: numinous, profound, intense, insightful,

12. Beauty: art, crafts, music, reading/writing

13. Social: ethics, morality, economics, manners, value

14. Philosophy: ethics, history, analysis, arguments, logic

15. History: landmark events, books/printing, memory

16. Eternity: forever, infinite, unimaginable, death

 

Preface

Key to Books Cited

Bundled Up Quintains about Time

Additional Notes

7.   Psychology: experience, learning,
      phenomenology, sense of time, personal

 

7.1
Generalities, Questions, Quips

What you see depends on when you look.
What you hear requires you to listen now.

Time is our 6th Sense.

The Specious Present extends consciousness
to include a pinch of the past,
a pinch of the future,
and the fullness of the now.

Give awareness a 5 second window
for processing perceptions.

Afraid to run out of time.
He had time on his hands, then dropped it.

Your brain works on time schedules.

"The quality of attention determines
the nature of the experience."
Joanne Kyger

BU794, GC§14

The Five Senses

 

7.2
Using vs Knowing

We knew that water was essential,
but did not know it was H2O;
We knew the sun was hot,
but had no concept of nuclear.
It works but we don't know how or why.

BU2930

History of Science

 

7.2.1
Unfolding Time

     Implicate orders of a
Underlying Reality
Unfolding Being... and the
     Explicate orders of
ordinary common things.

BU1149, GC§7

David Bohm

Net of Indra

 

7.3.1
End Game

They ran out of time
The game ended on time
They lost this time.
They all got back to the bus in time.
They will do better next time.

BU2835

 

7.3.1.1
The Game of Death

I'm too old
for any real Destiny
except for Death
creeping up to me, tagging Me:
"Your It!"

BU891, GC§36

 

7.3.1.2
Impermanence of Samsara

Samsara is Nirvana?
10,000 Things are Nothing?
Past and future are gone (Empty?).
The Present is gone in a Flash.
What's left? Samsara won't last.

BU918

 

7.3.1.3
Silent Lips

          The sting of Death,
the sharp pains of unseeing,
the final closing of the eyes,
the silent lips of emptiness...
faces lost forever in future times.

BU1246

 

7.3.2
Better Next Month

That such and such is the case
May piss me off for all the day
Why should it be this damn way?

Next month, such and such will not be the case.
I will be very pleased come that day.

BU3431

Quintain Poetry

Time Explained: Experience, Consciousness and Relativity.
By Alan Bennett, 2026.

Reading Wittgenstein 1975-

 

7.3.2.1
Timely Emotions

Emotions cluster around Immediacy.
Distant futures lack emotional density.
We feel very little about 2222 CE.
Few have any passion for far distant unrealities.
We lust after, say, Hot SEX Today! Fuck the Future!

BU3371

Emotions and Time

 

7.3.3
Take it Slow

Travel light
Even yesterday is a heavy backpack.
Travel slowly
Even tomorrow can wait---
Move on, don't hesitate.

BU2890

Time, Change, Freedom:
An Introduction to Metaphysics
By Nathan Oaklander

 

7.3.4
Differences and Distinctions

Things that look the same
are often really different---
in a web of new respects as to usage
in a web of words wedded meanings
in a different place in space/time.

BU2968

Appearances

 

7.3.5
Time Snuck By

The time sauntered by
invisibly, casually, punctually...
I barely noticed.
so busy with pressing deeds---
time flew by in a gentle breeze.

BU3083

"... time is not a linear flow, as we think it is,
into past, present, and future. Time is an
indivisible whole, a great pool in which all
events are eternally embodied and still have
their meaningful flash of super-normal or
extra-sensory perception, and a glimpse of
something that happened long ago in our
linear time."
- Frank Waters, Mountain Dialogues, 1981

 

7.3.5.1
The Time of Inner Mind

Under the Water
of my mind
an unconscious Sea
of Memories
guide me through time

Keep me on a course line
send me some signs
become conscious at times...
freedom may a fiction be
controlled by unknown destinies.

Bring the Unconscious,
Sub-Conscious, ego, and Id,
Collective Unconscious figured in—
Over the waves of Consciousness
the flotsam of Unknowns are adrift.

BU9

The Gushen Grove Sonnets

The Five Senses

 

7.3.5.2
Opportunities for Change

Aging provides
more opportunities
for becoming the person
you should
have been.

BU995

Aging Wisely

 

7.3.5.3
Bent and Twisted

My experiences at times
have not damaged or broken me;
     but, indeed,
     have bent and twisted
          my identity.

BU3528

How to Live a Good Life
Advice from Wise and Respected Persons

 

7.3.5.4
Who Am I?

my identity
exists for me
resting on the shoulders
of my memories
substantially

BU3131

Personal Identity

Identity

 

7.3.5.5
A Conscience for the Future

The Id is only Present Tense Alive,
focused on immediate needs
and drives flowing bodily, incessantly,
facing only nowness craving sensuality---
The Super-Ego, Conscience, has future schemes.

BU3355

Freudian Psychology

Conscience

 

7.3.5.6
Perspectives Towards Time

Past-positive: In the good old days...
Past-negative: My childhood was painful...
Present-hedonistic: I want some fun now...
Present-fatalistic: Que Sera, Sera
Future-options: Here is the schedule for tomorrow...
Transcendental-future: We want to go to Heaven...

The Time Paradox, p. 30-69

BU1575

Oulipos Quintain Museum

Time Research

 

7.3.6
Appear and Disappear

Time is an idea about
how objects/things interact,
move from place to place,
appear and disappear untraced,
are at our hands for work and play.

BU3022

Time - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Time, 2018

Time Research

Reism Reism is the doctrine that only things exist.

 

7.3.6.1
subjective/objective?

Our naive perceptions of Time,
Sequenced cause-effect Directionality,
Time headed south for sleepy entropy--
Was this merely my subjective Kantian processing;
or is it true of Nature's own activities?

BU3146

- Immanuel Kant

Kantian Space and Time

Kant holds that we can't have any experience
unmediated by our internal mental temporal
modes of being and understanding. Time is
constructed by our minds.

Reism Reism is the doctrine that only things exist.

 

7.3.7
Heartbeats of Time

The ticking of the metronome:
It's a lie told by a machine.
My heartbeat
     is a truth
          told by my body.

BU3192

Felt Time, by Marc Wittmann, 2017

Time and Free Will, Henri Bergson, 1910

Living in Time, by Barry Allen, 2023

Henri Bergson (1859-1941)

 

7.3.7.2
Stretched Tight

between
two eternities
     my brief life
               is stretched
tight

 

BU1503, BU978

CHB: Time

- Being and Time, by Martin Heidegger

Time is our 6th Sense.

Five Senses

 

7.3.7.3
What to Defer

Live Now in this moment
Cultivate presence within Today.
But, unwise to act exclusively
Within pleasures only of today---
Deferment of pleasure... time to delay.

BU3349

Bundled Up: Volume 2

 

Table of Contents

Forms are Full, Fullness begets Forms

Waves of Reflections at the Bandon Jetty

By Michael P. Garofalo
January 2023

The immense Oceans are undrinkable, and
in some ways unthinkable.  
No fresh water begets death, and 
Water is Life.

Words from the Heart Scripture went unsaid, and
the Bodhi Tree flourished in Life's Garden.  

Something evolves from Something Else, and
nothing evolves from nothing.

Beings emerge from Beings, and
emptiness disappears into emptiness.

"Nothing" is not a noun-thing, and
"Somethings" are dependent relationships.

Forms are Full, and
Fullness begets Forms.

Somethings created my body-mind, and
my body-mind created somethings.  

The Dao marries Yin-Yang, and
some of their step-children are Black Holes. 

Chaos is not emptiness, and
the Void provides Space for Somethings.

Somethings are transitory, ephemeral, and
They are Not empty illusions or unreal. 

Time is the crux of the matter, and
Somethings come and go, appear and disappear.  

"Nothing" is the absence of Something
we desire, and
not the presence of something.  

Somethings are Appearances, and
Appearances are Somethings.

Is or is not, true or false, real or unreal,
something or nothing, be Careful, and
sometimes choose the Middle Way of Maybe So.

Pointing to Nothing, and 
slogging through a muddy muddle of Mu.

Come Closer, Come Closer, and
Open the Door to Wonderous Beings.

Come Closer, Come Closer, and
Embrace Body-Mind-Spirit.
Cast off emptiness and the void.  

Gate Gate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha, and
some Lotus plants died in a drought.  Oh No!

Words from the Heart went unsaid, and
the Bodhi Tree flourished in Life's Garden.  (5) 

Waves of Reflections at the Bandon Jetty
By Michael P. Garofalo
January 2023

 The Heart Sutra and The Threefold Lotus Sutra.  

Emptiness and Forms

Experiences of "emptiness" are often a case of not finding something we desire in the complex world of Somethings.  Something desired seems or is missing.  We want a drink of water and the glass is empty.  We wanted wheat, and a drought destroyed the wheat crop and brought nothing we wanted.

Yaoshan's "For the Time Being"

 

The Fireplace Records, Chapter 17

Yaoshan's "For the Time Being"

When Mary awoke in the morning, it was snowing heavily.  The northeast area of Vancouver, Washington, was under a heavy blanket of cold and wet Winter weather.  She brewed some coffee.  She lit some kindling and started a fire in her lovely brick fireplace.

Mary enjoyed reading poetry.  It took her mind off her concerns about her employment duties as a manager of a larger local supermarket.  

Mary read poetry from all around the world translated into the English language.  Lately, she had favored reading metaphysical poetry, and Taoist, Neopagan, and Zen Buddhist tales, riddles, and poetry.    

Today she read a poem quoted from the Shobogenzo by Eihei Dogen, Zen Master (1200-1253):

Yaoshan, an old Buddha, said:
For the time being, I stand astride the highest mountain peaks.
For the time being, I move on the deepest depths of the ocean floor.
For the time being, I’m three heads and eight arms.
For the time being, I’m eight feet or sixteen feet.
For the time being, I’m a staff or a whisk.
For the time being, I’m a pillar or a lantern.
For the time being, I’m Mr. Chang or Mr. Li.
For the time being, I’m the great earth and heavens above."

She thought about what "for the time being" meant to her today. 
She was enthralled by being here, at the present, for the time being, just reading ancient poetry.
She thought of all the objects in her environment for the time being.
For the time being, she was listening to and feeling a cracking hot fireplace.
For the time being, I’m Mary.  

A Student's Considerations:

The study of the subject of "Time" takes us deep into the complexities of science, metaphysics, history, theology, psychology, linguistics, calendars, philosophy, poetry, feelings, management, scheduling, etc. 

For the time being, what must I do, accomplish, achieve, or not do?
For the time being, we are always just here and now, Present in the Present.

Related Links, Resources, References

Koans: BOS 03, Yaoshan and Mazu

Dogen says, " Mind Here and Now is Buddha" [Soku Shin Ze Butsu #6 Book 1]

Time Movement Change Transformation Mortality

Process Philosophy

Refer to my Cloud Hands Blog Posts on the topic of Koans/Dialogues.

The Daodejing by Laozi    Best? 

Pulling Onions  Over 1,043 One-line Sayings by Mike Garofalo

Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans

Taoism

Buddhism

Fireplaces, Stoves, Campfires, Kitchens, Pots, Firewood

Chinese Art

Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong

Meditation Methods

Zen Koan Books I Use

Koan Database Project

Brief Spiritual Lessons Database Project: Subject Indexes

Time in Dogen's Thoughts:

Each Moment is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time. By Dainin Katagiri. Shambhala, 2008, 256 pages. VSCL, Paperback.

Being-Time: A Practitioner's Guide to Dogen's Shobogenzo Uji. By Shinshu Roberts. Wisdom 2018, 321 pages. VSCL, Kindle E-Book.

Treasury of the True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen's Shobo Genzo. Translated, edited, comments, notes by Kazuaki Tanahashi. Shambhala, 2013, 1280 pages, Hardcover.

Sparks: Brief Spiritual Lessons and Stories
Matches to Start a Kindling of Insight
May the Light from Your Inner Fireplace Help All Beings
Taoist, Chan Buddhist, Zen Buddhist, Philosophers
Catching Phrases, Inspiring Verses, Koans, Meditations
Indexing, Bibliography, Quotations, Notes, Resources
Research by Michael P. Garofalo

The Fireplace Records
By Michael P. Garofalo

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, Chapter 11

Daodejing by Laozi
Chapter 11

"Thirty spokes unite in a nave, but the nothingness in the hub

Gives to the wheel its usefulness, for thereupon it goes round;
The potter kneads the clay as he works, with many a twist and rub,
But in the nothingness within, the vessel's use is found;
Doors and windows cut in the walls thereby a room will make,
But in its nothingness is found the room' s utility;
So the profit of existences is only for the sake
Of non-existences, where all the use is found to be."

-  Translated by Isaac Winter Heysinger, 1903, Chapter 11 

"Thirty spokes share one hub.
Adapt the nothing therein to the purpose in hand, and you will have the use of the cart.
Knead clay in order to make a vessel.
Adapt the nothing therein to the purpose in hand, and you will have the use of the vessel.
Cut out doors and windows in order to make a room.
Adapt the nothing therein to the purpose in hand, and you will have the use of the room.
Thus what we gain is Something, yet it is by virtue of Nothing that this can be put to use."
-  Translated by D. C. Lau, 1963, Chapter 11 

"Thirty spokes share one hub.
It is just the space (the Nothingness) between them
That makes a cart function as a cart.
Knead clay to make a vessel
And you find within it the space
That makes a vessel as a vessel.
To build a house with doors and windows
And you find within them the space
That makes a house function as a house.
Hence the Being (substance) can provide a condition
Under which usefulness is found,
But the Nothingness (space) is the usefulness itself."

-  Translated by Gu Zengkun, Chapter 11 



"Thirty spokes surround one nave, the usefulness of the wheel is always in that empty innermost.
You fashion clay to make a bowl, the usefulness of the bowl is always in that empty innermost.
You cut out doors and windows to make a house, their usefulness to a house is always in their empty space.
Therefore profit comes from external form, but usefulness comes from the empty innermost."
-  Translated by Isabella Mears, 1916, Chapter 11 

"Although the wheel has thirty spokes its utility lies in the emptiness of the hub.
The jar is made by kneading clay, but its usefulness consists in its capacity.
A room is made by cutting out windows and doors through the walls, but the space the walls contain measures the room's value.
In the same way matter is necessary to form, but the value of reality lies in its immateriality.
Or thus: a material body is necessary to existence, but the value of a life is measured by its immaterial soul."
-  Translated by Dwight Goddard and Henri Borel, 1919, Chapter 11


"Thirty spokes will converge
In the hub of a wheel;
But the use of the cart
Will depend on the part
Of the hub that is void.
With a wall all around
A clay bowl is molded;
But the use of the bowl
Will depend on the part
Of the bowl that is void.
Cut out windows and doors
In the house as you build;
But the use of the house
Will depend on the space
In the walls that is void.
So advantage is had
From whatever is there;
But usefulness rises
From whatever is not."
-  Translated by Raymond Blackney, 1955, Chapter 11   

"Treinta rayos convergen en el medio,
pero el vacío mediano
hace andar al carro.

Se modela la arcilla para hacer jarrones con ella,

pero de su vacío interno
depende su utilización.
Una casa está abierta con puertas y ventanas,
otra vez el vacío
permite que se habite en ella.
El Ser da posibilidades,
sólo se utilizan a través del no-ser."
-  Translated by Alba, 1998, Tao Te Ching, Capítulo 11 

"Though thirty spokes may be joined in one hub, the utility of the carriage lies in what is not there.
Though clay may be moulded into a vase, the utility of the vase lies in what is not there
Though doors and windows may be cut to make a house, the utility of the house lies in what is not there.
Therefore, taking advantage of what is, we recognize the utility of what is not."
-  Translated by Jan J. L. Duyvendak, 1954, Chapter 11 


"Thirty spokes share the hub of a wheel;
 yet it is its center that makes it useful.
 You can mould clay into a vessel;
 yet, it is its emptiness that makes it useful.
 Cut doors and windows from the walls of a house;
 but the ultimate use of the house
 will depend on that part where nothing exists.
 Therefore, something is shaped into what is;
 but its usefulness comes from what is not."
 -  Translated by Kari Hohne, 2009, Chapter 11 


三十輻共一轂.
當其無, 有車之用.
埏埴以為器.
當其無有器之用.
鑿戶牖以為室.
當其無, 有室之用.
故有之以為利.
無之以為用.
-  Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 11   



san shih fu kung yi ku.
tang ch'i wu, yu ch'ê chih yung.
yen ch'ih yi wei ch'i.
tang ch'i wu yu ch'i chih yung.
tso hu yu yi wei shih.
tang ch'i wu, yu shih chih yung.
ku yu chih yi wei li.
wu chih yi wei yung.
-  Wade-Giles Romanization, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 11   



"Thirty spokes unite in one hub: on what in it is nothing
depends the usefulness of the cart.
Clay may be made into vessels: on what in them is nothing
depends the usefulness of the vessels.
We cut out doors and windows to make a house: on what in them
is nothing depends the usefulness of the house.
So the existent may be regarded as profitable; the non-existent
may be regarded as useful. The sage discards the outer life in favour of the inner."
-  Translated by P. J. Maclagan, 1898, Chapter 11

"Thirty Spokes converge upon a single hub;
It is on the hole in the center that the use of the cart hinges.
We make a bowl or cup from a lump of clay;
It is the empty space within the vessel that makes it useful.
We make doors and windows for a room;
It is the empty spaces that make the room livable.
Thus, take advantage of what is visible, by making use of what is not visible."
-  Translated by J. L. Trottier, 1994, Chapter 11

A typical webpage created by Mike Garofalo for each one of the 81 Chapters (Verses, Sections) of the Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) by Lao Tzu (Laozi) includes 25 different English language translations or interpolations for that Chapter, 5 Spanish language translations for that Chapter, the Chinese characters for that Chapter, the Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin transliterations (Romanization) of the Mandarin Chinese words for that Chapter, and 2 German and 1 French translation of that Chapter.  Each webpage for each one of the 81 Chapters of the Tao Te Ching includes extensive indexing by key words, phrases, and terms for that Chapter in English, Spanish, and the Wade-Giles Romanization.  Each webpage on a Chapter of the Daodejing includes recommended reading in books and websites, a detailed bibliography, some commentary, research leads, translation sources, a Google Translate drop down menu, and other resources for that Chapter. 

  
Chapter 11, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu.  Complied by Mike Garofalo.  

Chapter and Thematic Index (Concordance) to the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

English Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Spanish Language Daodejing Translators' Source Index

Ripening Peaches: Taoist Studies and Practices

Taoism: A Selected Reading List

A Daoist Druid's Final Journey  

An Old Philosopher's Notebooks