the originator of heaven and earth...

The well know opening verses of the "Tao Te Ching" (translated by James Legge) followed by the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson as arranged by Richard Grossman in his "The Tao of Emerson."

"The Tao that can be trodden is not the
enduring and unchanging Tao
The name that can be named is not the
enduring and unchanging name

Conceived as having no name
it is the Originator of heaven and earth
Having a name, it is the Mother of all things

Always without desire we must be found
If its deep mystery we would sound
But if desire within us be
Its outer fringe is all we shall see

Under these two aspects
it is really the same
But as development takes place
it receives the different names

Together we call them the Mystery
Where the Mystery is the deepest
is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful"

RWE:
"That great nature in which we rest
that Unity, that Oversoul
Is an immensity not possessed
and that cannot be possessed

The animal eye sees with wonderful
accuracy
sharp outlines and colored surfaces
To a more earnest vision
outlines and surfaces
become transparent:
Causes and spirits
are seen through them

The wise silence,
the universal beauty
to which every part and particle
is equally related
Is the tide of being which floats us
into the secret of nature;
And we stand before
the secret of the world."

Blessings