Chapter 11, Tao Te Ching

"We put spokes together in a wheel, 

but it is the center hole 

that makes the wheel move. 

 

We shape clay into a pot, 

but it is the emptiness inside 

that holds whatever we want. 

  

We hammer wood for a house

but it is the inner space  

that makes it livable. 

  

We work with being 

but non-being is what we use."    

  

Tao Te Ching, Chapter 11 

Stephen Mitchell  

    

This seems to express the spirit of  Advent.  We light candles, but we let ourselves be filled with  silence.  In meditation and contemplative prayer, we empty ourselves to know God more.      

 

"God is spirit, and it is necessary to worship God in spirit and truth."  

John 4:24   

  

    

   

photograph:San Leandro,  November 2015