The Nameless Beginning
The Teaching
The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.
The unnameable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source. This source is called darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding.
Commentary
The first line of the Tao Te Ching is arguably the most important single sentence in world philosophy: reality in its ultimate nature cannot be captured in language or concept. Every tradition’s name for the ultimate is a map, not the territory.
John’s Gospel opens: ‘In the beginning was the Word (Logos).’ Lao Tzu opens: ‘The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao.’ One says everything flows from the generative principle. The other says the generative principle transcends all speech. Two hands pointing at the same moon.
‘Darkness within darkness’, the apophatic tradition in Christianity calls this the divine darkness: the place beyond concept where God is most fully encountered. The Kabbalistic Ein Sof is also ‘darkness’ in this sense, infinite and therefore not illuminated by any finite concept.