Verse 4: Without Origin
Introduction
Now may be a good time to highlight Daoism’s unique metaphysics. The Dao is a singular, impersonal force that precedes, becomes, and permeates everything in the universe and governs natural law. In this process, the Dao employs positive and negative polarities (yang and yin, respectively) and their tendency to transfom into each other as its activity. Therefore, within the singular Dao, two forces exist in a dynamic tension. From this dynamic tension, a completely interfused harmony of forces arises. The technical term for all this is something like non-dual process monism.
This verse is titled “Without Origin.” It invites us to contemplate the mystery of life and the nature of the singular cosmic force that irradiates the universe. This contemplation introduces truths that lead to essential insights into Weaving the Virtuous Way, patience and impartiality.
Translation
The Dao flows from a bottomless vessel,
Throughout eternity, it cannot be depleted.
So deep!
It is the wellspring of all that is.
Weapons blunt.
Conflicts resolve.
Within this light,
all dusts converge.
Imperceptible!
A mystifying existence.
I do not know where it came from;
only that it precedes the gods.
Commentary
This verse feels like a song expressing a sense of wonder and awe at the Dao’s perceived characteristics.
The Dao flows from a bottomless vessel,
Throughout eternity, it cannot be depleted.
This verse captures a fundamental principle in both the universal and personal domains.
As a cosmic principle, this points to the Dao’s permanence as an ongoing process; it is permanence via transformation. As Heraclitus puts it, “The only constant is change.” The idea of flowing from a bottomless vessel is also reminiscent of the ever-expanding nature of the universe or the ideas behind emanation theory. Emanation theory proposes that the source of all things trickles from the immaterial to the material by filling up a series of containers overflowing into each other. If you can imagine a champagne pyramid, you can get the general idea. The Dao is this source of flow, energy, constant movement, and transformation.
Another side of the Dao can be seen when contemplating this verse in the personal domain. Qi, life energy, is the concrete, knowable experience of the Dao. Many Daoist practices involve cultivating our connection to and ability to manipulate this life source. The Wise spoken of so frequently in Weaving the Virtuous Way are those who have learned the lessons of Qi. One of those lessons is that we are endlessly, internally resourced to face whatever comes with generosity, kindness, forbearance, and self-possession.
So deep!
It is the wellspring of all that is.
This exaltation is reminiscent of the line in the first verse, which states, “The unnameable is the embryo of existence.” The vast depth of direct, nonverbal experience contains everything we can know, every manifested aspect of this ever-flowing mystery of life.
Weapons blunt.
Conflicts resolve.
Within this light,
all dusts converge.
This set of phrases appears again in verse 56, emphasizing how the Wise conduct themselves. Here, though, the text focuses on the characteristics of the Dao as natural law. There is a natural pressure toward harmony and balance in life’s unfolding, evolving process. The point of these lines is a meta-principle that is easier to grasp in how we feel when we get it: patient and impartial.
Patience is the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without anger or upset. Part of the pressures of Dao’s constant flow is again captured in the famous phrase, “Time heals all wounds.” The original phrase, “time is the healer of all necessary evils” (Menander, Greek Dramatist), strikes even closer to the meaning here. Remembering that all things change, all obstacles fade, all situations evolve, and that time is the great healer enables deep reserves of patience. The Daoist motif of non-action, non-striving, and “nothing to do” emerges from this truth.
Impartiality is the capacity to remain unbiased, typically due to a sense of non-attachment. Non-attachment is an idea that we will explore significantly throughout Weaving the Virtuous Way. In brief, it means we do not identify with whatever we are experiencing. However, the lesson that leads to impartiality in this verse section concerns a different insight.
Inherent in the flowing Dao is pressure for unity to become diverse and diversity to return to unity. Such a process means, in effect, that all that we experience is precisely the Dao. It is all part of a whole and has its place, role, purpose, function, and value. Our judgments and preferences are natural and valuable adaptations for slicing and dicing reality, but they are all arbitrary. In the marvelous unfoldment of life, there is only the interplay of this one discrete, dynamic transformational process. The champagne that fills all the cups in the tower is the same, even though each glass is separate. This allows for a transformational sense of tolerance, acceptance, and impartiality.
Imperceptible!
A mystifying existence.
This verse again points to how we can’t grasp the Dao. It isn’t in our senses and is beyond our thinking and feeling minds. It is the source of all we experience but is distinct from all phenomena. Even so, we can feel it in mystical states and the simplest of mundane moments. It is perfectly transparent and constantly changing but, paradoxically, is real and present in our lives.
I do not know where it came from;
only that it precedes the gods.
This concluding statement drives home the awe-inspiring nature of the Dao. First, we cannot know its origin and, consequently, can never truly understand it. Second, whatever personalized versions of gods we have, even if they are the gods of science, rationality, consumerism, etc., are all said to emerge from this infinitely more primal force. The sentiment that whatever is ultimate is unknowable and singular persists across human contemplative traditions. Expressions of this sentiment range from the notion of energy in quantum physics and new-age thought to conceptions of God, Consciousness, and any of its other innumerable names.