Tao Te Ching 25

There was something formless and perfect before the universe was born.

It is serene. Empty. Solitary. Unchanging. Infinite. Essentially present.

It is the mother of the universe. For lack of a better name, I call it the Tao. It flows through all things, inside and outside, and returns to the origin of all things.
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Most religions teach of a creative power, an infinite and unchanging source of life, an eternal ground of being that is omnipresent, inside and outside its creation. Most religions teach that the purpose of our life is to return to and remain united with that source of life.

Some religions teach that whether by divine design or human transgression we are separated from the origin of all things and that nothing other than divine intervention or human propitiation can bring the atonement (at-one-ment) through which we return and reunite with the perfection that existed before the universe was born.

Some religions teach that no such separation has occurred, indeed, that no such separation is possible. These belief systems teach that the omnipresent is just that – essentially present here and now, inside and outside of us, available at a moment’s notice. They teach that we only need to reawaken, to realize that something formless and perfect, something serene, something unchanging and infinite awaits our immediate return through simple awareness. The reunion has already occurred, because the separation never occurred.

The invitation is universal. We’re invited to step into the flow of life that pervades and surrounds us and to rediscover the serenity and unity that are its nature. We are united; we always have been and always will be. We’re invited to live our lives in the midst of that realization.