“Thirty spokes converge at the hub of the wheel, but it is the empty space at the centre that makes the cart move.”
Tao Te Ching, chapter 11.
When I first read this, although I could see the beauty of the concept, I couldn’t translate it into real life.
Until I began teaching seniors at the Portuguese Oeiras Municipal Council.
And I observed that there were two types of teachers in that ecosystem.
Some always brought new material — different forms, varied movements, something new every trimester.
Others repeated the same exercises, exploring different angles in each class.
The first group created confusion. Students became lost and even unmotivated.
The second group created depth. Students knew where they were, and it allowed the teachers themselves to observe the students’ progress.
And I understood: when everything is different, it’s always the same.
The Cup Overflows
The Tao Te Ching says: it is the emptiness of the cup that allows it to hold nourishment.
Once the cup is full, it loses its purpose.
For teachers, this translates as follows: once we are full — and that excess is constantly overflowing — we lose our usefulness in what we are trying to transmit.
Full of forms. Full of exercises. Full of new techniques every week.
What Students Are Looking For
Students come seeking simplification. Integration.
They come to empty the cup. Life has filled it too much. At some point it became too much for their nervous system.
If you also bring something new every week — things they have no time to digest — you become a mirror of their life. Not a complement to it.
Repeating the same exercises is not stagnation.
It is creating space to go deeper. So that each time is different, even while remaining always the same.
The Challenge
I might think that rotating the knees is boring. That students are tired of the same exercise.
But students who come once a week have only practised that movement four times in an entire month.
For those who have been coming longer, it is a way of finding difference within the familiar.
The challenge is not to always bring something new. It is to find the essence and the depth within the movement.
This demands more of us as teachers. It demands presence. Observation. Reflection on our classes and on where we want to lead our students — not through more, but through less.
This Week
The question is not: what can I add?
The question is: what can I empty out?
Where is my cup too full? Where am I overflowing and students can no longer receive?
Not to change everything.
Just to observe.
The empty space at the centre of the wheel is not a weakness. It is what makes the cart move.
Live the practice. Teach the practice.
Lourenço de Azevedo