Tao Te Ching – 1 – What is God?

Hello, friends. I hope you are doing well today!

I’m starting a new project, and I hope you find it helpful. This year, I hope to write a new loose translation of the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. While the great Tao, or Way, is not generally referred to as “God,” I find that given my background, I respond to the word “God” differently than other terms, which is why I decided to use it. Be on the lookout for more chapters coming soon.

1

What is God?

The god that can be fully understood

is not the eternal, all encompassing God,

just as ideas formed into words

are not the infinite idea.

And yet this infinite God

is the source of all things…both spirit and matter;

a beautiful expression

of everything created.

Don’t desire material things;

this is the true freedom found in spirituality.

When we desire material things we suffer,

since matter has its limitations.

Yet both matter and spirit,

though different, come from the same place.

This unity is a mystery;

to understand this is the beginning of spirituality.