“The Way is like an empty vessel; no use could ever fill it up.
Vast and deep!
It seems to be the ancestors of the myriad creatures.
It blunts the sharpness; untangles the tangles;
Softens the glare; merges with their dust.
Deep and clear!
It seems to be there.
I do not know whose child it is;
It was the image of what was before the Lord himself!”

Chapter four of the Daodejing details the path or way that one walks if he or she is in the light of true action; true action being defined as doing what comes naturally without any interference from internal discord, or ego. Like the empty vessel, the way is always free to be filled for it is constantly open to all interactions. This is done while never acting subservient to the subject of the interaction, never filling one’s mind with the opinions of others, serving as their water jug, carrying their ideals with you. No use could ever fill this empty vessel up for the vessel is amorphous to the situation and environment it is interpreted by the observer to be in. This is accomplished by keeping ones thoughts and the actions that derive thereof within the immediate present; nothing may remain in the vessel because it is constantly being poured out while new stimuli are being poured in, in a ceaseless cycle.

Referring to the empty vessel as the “ancestor of the myriad of creatures”, to me, is the most interesting passage of the chapter. This denotes that the “empty vessel” philosophy predates our current approach to interaction. This gives the philosophy an archetypal presence in that it was the root of all from which we derive from, thereby this philosophy although forgotten and little practiced currently, its genetics are woven in the actions and thoughts of all the myriad of creatures. It is up to the creature to stumble upon enlightenment and awaken the archetypal way that is the root of all action. Untangling tangles and softening edges is the balanced merging of extreme ends of the spectrum we experience in every interaction. Only the thinnest edge is offered to tread for those that walk along the perfect balance between excess and scarcity, brashness and modesty, etc.

The line, “I do not know whose child this is.” has a tragic connotation to me. To me this relates to the fact that in addition to the path being archetypal and removed from our modern society, we are amnesiacs in search of our cosmic placement. We have forgotten our divinity and the divinity found in everything equally. This would not be forgotten had we tread the path of the empty vessel. Like awaking from dream, we have the faintest recollection of the path we all once tread, but when we see its reflection in others all we can ask is, “whose child is this?”

There is hope in the final passage. It was what was before the Lord himself. No matter which way we turn, the path is always before us. The divinity in the path is shared in the walker as well. If the walker strays from the path and the light, he has not turned away from the philosophy of the “empty vessel”, he has merely forgotten it. It is always there for enlightenment all one must do is remember their own divinity. Those who seek the path are those who are destined to walk it.

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