“Unceasing, as if it were there; use it, and it never fails” clarifies the paradox of emptiness: availability without depletion. Laozi’s Chapter 11 illustrates this through the hub’s emptiness and the room’s hollow—utility born of what is not filled. Emptiness is not lack; it is capacity.
Practically, this underwrites wu wei, “effortless action.” When one acts from the open center—neither forcing nor resisting—energy recycles rather than burns out. Like a spring feeding a valley, the more it is drawn upon with alignment, the more clearly it flows. Misuse exhausts; attunement renews. [...]
