Introduction

After blasting us with Bitter Kindness, the text decides to explain itself a little further. This verse exposes us to a potentially mind-blowing concept called convertibility. It states that the beginning is in the end, and the end is in the beginning. The cause is an effect, and the effect is a cause. This whole web is so big and crazy and vast that human minds can’t comprehend it. It’s why everything about the Dao or similar concepts is reduced to metaphor and silence.

Fortunately, if we look within, we can know it without a doubt. Just because it’s hard to talk about doesn’t mean it is vague. The common metaphor is that you can never know how the tea I’m drinking tastes. No matter how well I describe it, you must taste it to know what it tastes like. Even if you do take a sip, that’s just how it tastes to you. I know how the tea tastes to me; you know how it tastes to you. Neither of us is uncertain about the flavor we experience, and we can agree on a lot of its qualities, but ultimately, we can, and must, have our own experience to understand.

Translation

Of all the myriad forms of existence,
Heaven and Earth are born first.

Silence. Stillness.
Independent and unchanging
yet it is the Mother of all Creation.

Its name is unknowable,
so we call it Dao,
For me, the best handle is “vast.”

Uncontainable vastness,
surpassing all boundaries,
folding in on itself.

The Dao, Heaven, Earth, and Identity are all Great.
These are the Four Greats of the “nation”
and “the Person” is one!

Earth shapes Identities
Heaven shapes Earth.
Dao shapes heaven.
Weaving the Way shapes the Dao.

Commentary

Of all the myriad forms of existence,
Heaven and Earth are born first.

As explored so far in verses 1, 4, 7, 10, and 14, the indescribable, unimaginable, primordial Dao gives birth to the spiritual, active, Heavenly energy (yang) and material, receptive, Earthly energy (yin).

Silence. Stillness.
Independent and unchanging
yet it is the Mother of all Creation.

Its name is unknowable,
so we call it Dao,
For me, the best handle is “vast.”

The verse continues to recap and reiterate Weaving the Way’s essential position. Dao is the mysterious essence that is entirely immanent despite being wholly transcendent. It’s like the inside of the back of your head; you can’t see it, but you know it’s right here.

Uncontainable vastness,
surpassing all boundaries,
folding in on itself.

This verse beautifully describes the relationship between infinity and zero, a mystery worthy of contemplation and direct experience. Such a direct experience can happen in many ways. Some people experience it organically due to particular, intense conditions in regular life. Other people intentionally cultivate the experience through certain techniques, like yogic concentration meditation or Western-style contemplative practices. Sometimes, even just cognitive engagement with specific paradoxical issues can do it.

In any case, should you choose to pursue direct experience or not, there’s a delightful book on the interplay of the infinitesimal with the infinite called Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. It was recommended to me by a dear friend and colleague, and I’m excited to have the chance to recommend it to you.

The Dao, Heaven, Earth, and Identity are all Great.
These are the Four Greats of the “nation”
and “the Identity” is one!

This stanza may be one of the most powerful we’ve encountered.

That the vastness described in the previous stanza applies to The Dao is obvious, but it also applies to Heaven, Earth, and Identity. These four things constitute a nation, and that “Identity” is especially pointed out as a part of it. As a technical note, the original word is “King,” referring to the person who rules the nation.

For Heaven, spiritual, yang, active, subjective, and universal aspects of things to be vast is not hard to imagine.

For Earth, material, yin, receptive, objective, unique aspects of things to be vast is not hard to imagine.

The identity, though? Aren’t we limited in time, space, capacity, resources, intersectionality, and so on? In a way, yes. But, in other ways, our identity emerges from the qualities of Dao, Heaven & Earth. As we’ll explore in a moment, what we do as unique individuals is integral to the universal whole of the Dao. The very weaving of the interplay of life through each of us as individuals continues the unfoldment of the great mystery.

The process by which identity emerges from the meaning we give experience, and the degree to which that is flexible, is fascinating. It is also a topic worthy of its own section in a library. For now, please feel into the infinite possibility of who you are as you work through the next stanza.

Earth shapes Identities
Heaven shapes Earth.
Dao shapes heaven.
Weaving the Way shapes the Dao.

Earth represents what you experience through your thoughts, emotions, and five senses. These factors shape your objective consciousness, unique meaning for things, and embodied identity.

Subjective, universal, archetypal consciousness is the Heavenly lens through which we interpret Earth. In other words, the deep structures of your subconscious that provide the framework for meaning-making are Heavenly energy. This Heavenly aspect serves as the basis through which you have the sensory experiences, emotions, and thoughts that create your Identity. This identity, in turn, plants the seeds in the subconscious for future Earth-shaping and Identity making.

If you’re following me so far, hold on to your hat.

The Dao shapes the subjective, universal, deep consciousness. The Dao represents the vibratory fabric underlying the experience of being, as we’ve discussed. In more direct language, this is the context of our DNA, viscera, structure of our nervous system and brains, the energetic, psychological, and behavioral conditioning we received from our parents and other early caretakers, ancestral memories, and all the innumerable factors. In scientific terms, the interplay of quantum vibration at the basis of all that manifests is the complex web of interbeing we call the Dao. The Dao shapes Heaven, Heaven shapes Earth, and Earth shapes Identity.

Weaving the Way is each individual’s capacity for unique action according to the Dao->Heaven->Earth->Identity chain. Weaving the Way shapes the Dao.

Every thought, word, emotion, and action taken by every being everywhere is a trillion vibrating quanta entangled with the entire cosmos. Life in the act of living itself pumps the bellows of the bottomless Dao (verse 5).

Each of us is inextricably woven into the fabric of the universe we weave.