Chapter 4 of the Dao De Jing describes the ontological nature and functioning of the Dao.
The Dao is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fulness. How deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of all things! We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of things; we should attemper our brightness, and bring ourselves into agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure and still the Dao is, as if it would ever so continue! I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before God.
The essential nature of the Dao is empty and indescribable, yet we come to know it through the manifestations of its functioning.
All phenomena in the universe arise from it. We cannot stand outside the Dao or observe it as an external object. In studying it, we are ultimately exploring our own nature, for we are nothing but an alternate manifestation of the Dao itself.
Human cognitive limitations and the veils of perception predispose us to egocentrism, artificially isolating ourselves from the Dao.
Leave a Reply