More reasons emptiness is a virtue:
Emptiness makes things useful. A pot is only good for something when it’s empty. A room is only good for something when it’s empty. When things are empty, you can use them as often as you want and never use them up. It’s like a renewable resource.
As far as people are concerned, emptiness makes it easier to follow the Way. An empty heart is an open heart, one that has room to take in its surroundings. Emptiness also is related to selflessness – a huge virtue for Taoists. Selflessness doesn’t mean always thinking about others, because in order to define who the “other” is, you also have to define yourself. A selfless person has no self. He becomes totally united with his surroundings and loses awareness of any separate identity. An empty heart has less self to get in the way of that. And sense the Way is all about becoming more in tune with Nature’s way of doing things, emptying your heart and losing yourself is a good thing.
Once again, I don’t understand why emptiness comes up as a bad thing in the Earthsea novels, but maybe I’m losing the big picture.
