The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.
It is hidden but always present.
I don’t know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God.
It is never used up. – There’s always more ways to be patient, more ways to love, more ways to see the world and understand others. You should never get to the end of your love, the end of your kindness, the end of your knowledge.
It is hidden but always present. – Life is a mystery. It is hidden but if you look close you can see it. The beauty of nature, the smile of your child, the laugh of my husband , the whisper of the wind. – When my mind is clear and free of the chaos that sometimes occupies it, I can see the hidden mysteries. Sometimes I feel like it’s a blanket on top of a pile of stuff. You can’t see the stuff but you know the stuff is there because you can see the outline the blanket makes.The calmer your mind – the more opaque the blanket.
It is older than God – The Tao is not a thing, it’s not an entity, it wasn’t birthed. I think it’s more like the way things are supposed to work, or the natural order of the things.
I read the following quote from https://www.taoistic.com/taoteching-laotzu/taoteching-04.htm: Even a creator god must obey the natural laws that rule the universe, or it would not have come into existence. If it did, it would not have remained.
A natural law does not exist by itself, but through nature, where it manifests itself. Therefore, it has no birth date. There may be a starting point for its manifestation, but the law itself is timeless. When a world of whatever kind appears, it has to follow the law for such a world. But the law does not change if the world appears or disappears. It remains the same forever and anywhere. So, it’s eternal and ever-present. It was before the gods, and it’s present where they are not.
There can be a universe without any gods to rule it, but not one without laws for it.