Four - The Pregnant Void
Chapter Four of the Tao Te Ching is centered on the mystery of the void which is the mother of the ten thousand things.
“The Tao is an empty vessel; it is used, but never filled. Oh, unfathomable source of ten thousand things! Blunt the sharpness, Untangle the knot, Soften the glare, Merge with dust. Oh, hidden deep but ever present! I do not know from whence it comes. It is the forefather of the emperors.”
When I think of the Tao, this pregnant void is how I think of it. The idea of the void that gives birth to all things, or even better, is all things, has such a deep feeling of mystery for me. I am reminded of the concept of the singularity at the moment of the Big Bang. Impenetrable, yet exploding with Being. The silence between heartbeats. The space between the subatomic particles that make up the universe. Infinite possibility. The empty space in the block of marble the sculptor sees with her mind’s eye that will define her work. The breath the writer takes as he writes that first line on the page. The universe is filled with pregnant emptiness.