Robyn E Lebron “There is Being that is all-inclusive and that existed before Heaven and Earth Calm, indeed, and incorporeal! It is alone and changeless!”(41) This formless entity alone and undergoing no change in itself inexhaustibly leads to the formulation of all things in the universe like a mother: How still it was and formless, standing alone, and undergoing no change, reaching everywhere and in no danger (of being exhausted)! It may be regarded as the Mother of all things (42) Gross matter is sense-perceptible Some subtle matter may also be sense-perceptible It is the source of all things, subtle as well as gross Tao can thus be considered the source of both spirit and matter Tao, as the common source of both spirit and matter, is the gateway to spiritual life: God is said to be a spiritual being Inasmuch as God has being, It has existence All existence, even God’s, is from Tao: “I not know whose son it is It might appear to have been before God.” (43) “Oh, how calm it seems to remain! I know not whose son it is Apparently even the Lord it precedes.” (44) It does not lend itself to any defining attributes or names It was there before the beginning of time and it will be there after the end of time It is eternal and it is unchangeable It defies visibility or comprehension It is both existence and nonexistence; it is neither existence nor nonexistence It forms all forms Because of these qualities, it cannot be examined, and yet the qualities form an essential unity It has been nameless forever! It appears and then disappears It is what is known as the form of the formless, the image of the imageless 88