The Invisible Force That Shapes Everything — Tao Te Ching

Lao Tzu opens by naming what resists every sense. We look at it and do not see it, naming it the Equable. We listen and do not hear it, naming it the Inaudible. We try to grasp it and cannot hold it, naming it the Subtle. With these three qualities it cannot be made the subject of description. Blending them together, we obtain The One.

Then he describes how it moves. Its upper part is not bright and its lower part is not obscure. Ceaseless in action, it yet cannot be named, then returns and becomes nothing. This is called the Form of the Formless, the Semblance of the Invisible, the Fleeting and Indeterminable. Lao Tzu is not describing absence. He is naming a real force with no fixed brightness, shape, or stopping point.

We meet it and do not see its Front. We follow it and do not see its Back. When we lay hold of the Tao of old to direct the things of the present day, and know it as it was in the beginning, this is called unwinding the clue of Tao. The chapter closes with practical guidance: even when the force cannot be pinned down, timeless patterns from the past can still orient present action.