Daodejing Chapter 4: the invisible and ineffable source

The Dao is empty,
But when it is used,
It does not need to be filled.
It is vast and deep,
Like the source of the myriad things.
It smooths the edges,
Loosens the tangles,
Merges with the dust.
It is dark and luminous,
Like it has existed for ever.
I do not know whose child it is.
It seems to have come before
The divine ancestors.

「道沖而用之，或不盈。淵兮似萬物之宗；挫其銳、解其紛、和其光、同
其塵，湛兮似或存。吾不知誰之子，象帝之先。」

The Dao is the invisible and ineffable source of the universe, the omnipresent and omniscient force that guides the dynamic process of creation and transformation taking place in the world.

The Dao maintains a state of balance and equilibrium by ensuring that whenever something moves to one extreme it automatically reverts to the opposite one. The moment a light is at its brightest it begins to soften, and the moment a blade is at its sharpest it loses its edge.

Nobody knows where the Dao came from or when it first appeared. Rather than wasting time and energy searching for answers to these questions, it is better simply to embrace it as the natural law and accept is as the guiding principle of the universe.

Note
I took this image at Longhu (Dragon Tiger) Mountain, a famous Daoist site about ten miles south of Yingtan in Jiangxi Province. A great place to visit!