Tao Te Ching · 9 of 81 · tr. James Legge

Chapter 9

It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to attempt to carry it when it is full. If you keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness. When gold and jade fill the hall, their possessor cannot keep them safe. When wealth and honours lead to arrogancy, this brings its evil on itself. When the work is done, and one's name is becoming distinguished, to withdraw into obscurity is the way of Heaven.

Themes

◆Detachment Gelassenheitpraxis

Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.

Withdrawing into obscurity and leaving the vessel unfilled reflects a radical letting-go of grasping and status to align with Heaven.

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◆Paradox As Teachingethics

Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.

The text employs counter-intuitive advice, such as preferring an unfilled vessel to a full one, to destabilise ordinary understanding.

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◆Renunciation Of Wealthethics

The spiritual danger of attachment to material possessions; wealth as a spiritual obstacle.

It explicitly warns that gold, jade, wealth, and honours lead to danger and arrogancy, marking them as spiritual obstacles.

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◇Wu Weipraxis

Effortless action aligned with the spontaneous flow of the Dao; non-coercive, non-striving conduct that yields results without forcing — the sage acts without acting.

[auto] The passage centrally advises withdrawing after success and avoiding excess, embodying the principle of non-striving action aligned with the Dao.

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