Chapter 11 of the Tao Te Ching - The Importance of Nothing

“Come in,” I said. “I just made tea.”

“Thank you,” he said, “That sounds nice.”

He followed me through the house and into the breakfast nook. He sat down at the little table while I got cups and saucers from the cabinets.

“What brings you this far from home?” I asked him.

“I am not really sure,” he said. “I just started walking this morning. I was thinking mostly. I didn’t realize just how long I had been out. The next thing I knew I was looking at your front door. I must have walked several miles today.”

I poured tea for both of us and then sat down to join him.

“What were you thinking about?” I asked.

“Nothing really. Or maybe everything.” He paused. His brow furrowed as if he was in very deep thought. “You know,” he continued, “I am a very happy man. I have everything that I have ever wanted. I am happy with my job, my family is happy and healthy, we never truly want for anything. But…” he paused again, “…I feel like there is something missing.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“I’m not really sure. I just feel an emptiness.”

“Spiritually, emotionally or intellectually?”

“I’m not sure, all three maybe.” He paused again, staring intently at his tea cup. “This tea is very good. What is it?”

“It is a blend that I make myself. It is Green Tea with a few herbs that help to relax the body and mind.”

He smiled, “I could sure use that.”

“You know,” I said, “emptiness isn’t always a bad thing. Many people actually strive to find it as apposed to filling it up.”

“But that is a different kind of emptiness,” he said.

“Is it?” I asked. “Have you ever looked close at a wagon wheel?”

He looked a bit confused at this change of subject. “I suppose,” he said.

“There are as many as thirty spokes on that wheel,” I said. “Each of those spokes connects the rim to the hub. But what is it about that wheel that makes it useful?”

“I don’t know, the shape?”

“No,” I smiled, “it is a wheel, so it is already round.” I pointed to the tea pot sitting on the table. “See this tea pot? I made it myself. I actually formed the clay with my hands, fired it and glazed it. I painted all of the intricate designs by hand. I am very proud of it. But, what is it about this tea pot that makes it useful?”

“It holds tea?”

“You are getting closer,” I said with a smile. I pointed to the back door of the house. “Tell me, what do you think is the most important part of that door?”

“I suppose the knob,” he said. “You couldn’t open it without it.”

“The knob is beneficial, yes. Just as the spout and handle are beneficial to the tea pot or the spokes and hub are beneficial to the wheel. But all of these things have one thing in common. They have emptiness.”

I let him think on that for a few seconds before I continued.

“The wheel has a hole in the middle for the axle to go through. That emptiness, that nothing is what makes the wheel useful. The tea pot has an empty space inside that can be used to hold water. The door has an opening that is empty.

“If these items did not have that emptiness, that nothingness then there would be no room to put anything else and they would be useless.

“That is true in everything. If your spiritual, emotional and intellectual spaces are filled then there is no room for more and they become useless. Therefore the wise man will strive for emptiness so that he is always ready to learn more.”

He stared at me for a few seconds. “Why is it that you always talk in riddles, old man?”

“I never talk in riddles,” I smiled at him. “But I have noticed that you tend to listen in them.”

We finished our tea and I walked him to the door. He would be back, as he always is.

Chapter 10 of the Tao Te Ching - The Primal Virtue

“I haven’t seen you in a very long time,” I said, “How have you been?”

“I have been better,” she replied. Every muscle in her body seemed to be tense. Her eyes darted around the room and never seemed to remain focused on anything.

“You look very distraught, is there anything I can do to help?”

She looked at me. Her eyes were pleading to give her answers, but her voice could not find the words describe what she needed. She slowly moved her head from side to side and slumped back into her chair. She looked like someone that had been fighting for a long time and finely gave up.

“I was given a major promotion at work a few weeks ago,” she said.

I waited for her to say more, but once again, words seemed to be failing her. “Most people would consider that a good thing,” I said, “Is it not working out like you had hoped?”

She sat up quickly. She looked at me with renewed energy. “I don’t understand it,” she began. “I am good at what I do. I am very good. That is why they gave me the position in the first place. There is no one else that can come close to my skills. But nobody seems to care. Everyone just looks at me like ‘the new boss.’ Most of the people that work for me in my department seem to actually hate me. They don’t want me around. No matter what I try to do to help them, they just push me further away.”

“What do you try to do to help them?” I asked.

“Well, I show them how they can work more efficiently, I try to educate them and pass on my skills and knowledge.”

“Did they ever ask you to?” I asked.

“What do you mean? Why would the need to ask me? I am their leader, it is my job to lead them and show them the right way to get things done.”

“Is it?” I asked. “Is that the job of a leader?”

“Well, what else would it be?”

“A true leader is there to guide,” I said, “Not to instruct. He lets his people come to him and learn from him. In that way, he becomes known for his wisdom, instead of his knowledge. Anyone can become knowledgeable. It is wisdom that people truly respect.”

“But without knowledge there can be no wisdom,” she said.

“Really? I have a friend with a little girl no more than five years old. They have a rule that at eight o’clock in the evening she has to quit playing with her toys and get ready for bed. One night at around eight fifteen he realized that she was still playing with her toys and he reminded her of the rule. She looked at him and said, ‘but Daddy, I am not playing with them. I am using them as toys.’

My friend laughed when I finished that story. “The thing is,” I continued, “that child does not have vast amounts of knowledge. But she showed wisdom beyond the years of even her father.”

“So, you are saying that I shouldn’t teach what I know to others? Should I keep it all to myself?”

“No no no,” I said, “I never said that at all. The knowledge that is not shared is useless. The trick is knowing when to share it.”

We sat in silence for a quite a while. Finely I said, “My advice to you is this; Do the job that you were hired to do. keep what you have until it is time to let go, do your work to satisfy your own sense of honor, and learn to be a leader instead of an instructor.”

“But how to I learn that?” she asked.

“By observing those that you would lead.”

We talked about other things for a while and when it was time to go she seemed to be much more relaxed than she had been before. I haven’t heard from her since that day. But I know her, she learns better than she instructs. I suspect she is doing much better in her new job now.

Chapter 9 of the Tao Te Ching - The Simple Life

She was crying. I had never met her before, but I could feel the pain in her tears none the less. The paper that was in her hands was wrinkled from the hold that she had on it.

“Excuse me,” I said, “is there anything I can do to help?”

“Not unless you have a few hundred thousand extra dollars lying around somewhere.”

“Not any more,” I said.

She smiled at me then. The goodness of her soul echoed in her eyes. “I am really sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have smarted off like that.”

“It is quite all right,” I said. “I take it that you are having some financial issues. I can’t help with money, but I can offer my time. Sometimes it helps to simply spill your emotions out to a stranger.”

“I don’t know,” she said. She was looking at my tattered and worn clothes. I could see that she was a little nervous about me.

“I’ll tell you what,” I said. Let me tell you about myself first. Then if you want you can talk to me.”

“Ok,” she said. “I could use the distraction.”

“About ten years ago,” I began, “I was a successful businessman. My company made a healthy profit every year. I owned a large house on the beach, a little sports car and even a yacht that I would take out on the ocean a couple of times a year.

“I pretty much had everything that I could ever want. The problem was that it seemed like I was always broke. I never had enough money to pay my bills. I came close to losing my house because I couldn’t stand the thought of giving up my yacht.

“My wife divorced me because I didn’t have enough time to spend with her. That caused me even more financial problems. Not to mention sending me into a severe state of depression.

“I really didn’t know what to do. I was ready to commit suicide and just give it all up. But I suddenly realized that suicide was not the answer, but just maybe giving it all up was.

“So I sold it all. The business, the house, the car the boat…you name it. I ended up with several million in cash by the time it was all said and done.”

She looked at me with her smile again. “So you never have to worry about anything now? You lost it all, but you have all that money to use whenever you want it?”

“No,” I said. “I mean, yes I never have to worry about anything, but no, I do not have all of that money.”

“What happened to it?”

“I gave it away.”

“You what!?!” I could tell that she didn’t really believe me.

“My accountant was not happy about it,” I said, “I told him to give every last cent of it to a local homeless shelter.”

“Oh my God,” she said. “What did you do? How did you live?”

I looked at her and winked, “I moved into the homeless shelter.”

She laughed. It was much better than the tears I saw earlier. “Cute story, but I have a hard time believing it. If it is true, why did you do it?”

“Well,” I said, “I was sitting on the beach looking at the ocean when a verse from my college days popped into my head. It was from my philosophy class and was part of an ancient Chinese text. It said:

Better to stop short than fill to the brim.
Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will soon blunt.
Amass a store of gold and jade, and no one can protect it.
Claim wealth and titles, and disaster will follow.
Retire when the work is done.
This is the way of heaven.”

“So, what exactly does that mean?” she asked.

“It means different things to different people. But to me it meant that living a simple life without the need for material things was the way to my happiness and that too much of a good thing is possible.”

“But how do you live? Do you have a job?”

“I don’t really need a regular job. I live with friends. I do all of their house work for them in exchange for a small bedroom. When I need cash for food and the like I do a bit of day labor.”

“Well,” she said thoughtfully, “I am afraid that doesn’t help me. I could never live like that.”

“You don’t need to,” I said. “All you need to do is find out what things in your life are truly important and focus on them. Everything else is expendable.”

Her brows furrowed. Her eyes held the contemplation of what I was saying to her. I decided that it was time for me to leave. I had helped her all I could, the rest was up to her.

“I have to go,” I told her. “I am sorry I didn’t have a few hundred thousand lying around.”

“That’s ok,” she laughed. “It was nice meeting you.”

“You too,” I said as I shook her hand.

I turned to look back at her as I walked away. She looked over the wrinkled paper she had in her hand one more time. Then she held it up and slowly started ripping it into several small pieces. She was smiling.