I'm not sure that emptying the mind is the best description (the Tao Te Ching is difficult to translate and there exist several translations). Clearing the mind seems like a better candidate to me now. Thoughts limited by the veil can be seen as crystallized spiritual entropy, or even as ordinary entropy which means disorder, decay and randomness.
And it's the veil that produces entropy. And entropy I now believe is actually order and it's just that we can't recognize it because of the veil. And thoughts limited by the veil are a product of the mind struggling with trying to bring order out of the entropy.
So the confusion and the thoughts are the same one ocean of entropy. This means that instead of emptying the mind, which risks leaving the entropy remaining to recognize the thoughts as a part of the confusion. And clarity comes when the mind clears up all the confusion, both the thoughts and what we usually call confusion, through consciousness.
And it's the veil that produces entropy. And entropy I now believe is actually order and it's just that we can't recognize it because of the veil. And thoughts limited by the veil are a product of the mind struggling with trying to bring order out of the entropy.
So the confusion and the thoughts are the same one ocean of entropy. This means that instead of emptying the mind, which risks leaving the entropy remaining to recognize the thoughts as a part of the confusion. And clarity comes when the mind clears up all the confusion, both the thoughts and what we usually call confusion, through consciousness.