Empty to the Utmost, Still to the Core

When did you last do nothing but sit still and watch?

Original

致虛極，守靜篤。萬物並作，吾以觀復。夫物芸芸，各復歸其根。歸根曰靜，是謂復命。復命曰常，知常曰明。不知常，妄作，凶。

In plain words

Empty yourself to the utmost; hold to stillness, steady and deep. All things rise together, and in them I watch the return. Things flourish in their multitudes, and each goes back to its root. Going back to the root is called stillness; this is returning to one's life. Returning to life is called the constant; knowing the constant is called clarity. Not knowing the constant, people act blindly, and that brings disaster.

Key words

觀復guān fùWatching how things return to their source.
芸芸yún yúnTeeming, flourishing in great numbers.
明míngClear sight of what is constant, more than cleverness.

Reading it step by step

Yesterday we read that all things return to the Dao. But how do you actually see that return? Chapter 16 gives a method in two words: empty, and still.

First: “empty to the utmost, still to the core.” Clear the mind, then let it settle. A mind crowded with opinions, comparisons and wants is like a glass of muddy water that keeps getting shaken: nothing shows clearly in it. Emptying means taking away what is extra. Elsewhere Laozi says that following the Dao means “a little less each day.” Stillness means no longer rising and falling with every gust outside. Take both all the way, steadily, and only then do your eyes truly open.

Second: “I watch the return.” In spring everything bursts out at once, loud and green. In autumn and winter the leaves fall back to the foot of the tree, turn into soil, and feed the next spring. “Going back to the root is called stillness.” “Returning to life is called the constant.” A Song dynasty poet put it this way: watch things quietly, and you see each one content in itself.

empty and stillclear and settle the mind

watch the returnsee things go back

back to the rootstillness

back to lifethe constant

know the constantclarity

Third: “knowing the constant is clarity; not knowing it, people act blindly, and that brings disaster.” To understand this steady pattern is clarity, real wakefulness. Not understanding it, we meddle and cause harm. Worried about a potted plant, we water and feed it every day until the roots rot. A child has one bad term, so we fill all seven days with extra classes, and the child loses any wish to learn. Clever meddling usually takes more effort to clean up than it ever saved.

This matters most for busy people like us. The phone buzzes and we look; a message arrives and we answer. The mind is always doing. Try ten minutes a day: no screen, just sitting, watching the tree outside, watching a cup of tea slowly cool. That's not wasted time. It is letting the mud settle. When the water clears, you'll see what is growing, what is returning, and what you can let go.

Stillness is not hiding, though. The German philosopher Heidegger had a Chinese scholar write out two lines of Laozi to hang in his study: “Who can take muddy water and, by stillness, slowly make it clear? Who can take what is at rest and, by moving it, slowly bring it to life?” Read only the first line and Laozi sounds like a recluse. Read both and you have the whole of him.

First be still, then look. Once you see clearly, then act.

One line to carry

Be still, then look. Once you see clearly, then act.

Today's question

Take ten screen-free minutes today and quietly watch one thing. Write down what you saw, and what happened inside you in those ten minutes.

Quick check

Which is closest to what Laozi calls “acting blindly”?

Next pageThe Dao Gives Life, Virtue NurturesPage 12

II · What the Dao Means — Where all things come from and return to

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