Daodejing Chapter 1: The Dao, The Way
The first chapter of the Dao De Jing is The Dao, The Way, where we are introduced to the concepts and intertwined natures of nothingness and existence:
“The Dao, if it can be told, will not be the eternal Dao. The name, if it can be named, will not be the eternal name. The nothingness is where Heaven and Earth originated, and the existence, Mother of all things and creatures. The eternal nothingness is where one explores the mysteries of the world, and the eternal existence is where one observes its limits. Nothingness and existence, though named differently, share the same origin, which remains mysterious. It is from the mysterious nothingness to the mysterious existence that one finds the door to the secrets and miracles of the world.”
The connection between nothing and existing suggests my existence. At every stage of life, I’ve struggled with grasping the implications and question of “Why are we here?”. Atoms assemble, order arises spontaneously, and eventually returns to disorder. I exist, I live, running around, acting, interacting, sleeping, consuming and expending energy, all to return to nothingness. What purpose is all of this for?
This used to bother me. A force outside of existence giving, usually dictating a purpose, just doesn’t feel empowering or freeing and has a hollow ring to it. Is there then no purpose? Some…
