Magic of Tao that holds the Universe together

Appreciate greatness of Tao by looking at the Sun

For living beings like you and I who live on the Earth, it is difficult to imagine anything bigger than the Sun. The Sun rises in the morning and sets at night, providing all living beings on our planet with the energy that keeps them alive and active.

The Sun is important. The Sun is gigantic!

The Sun, however great to us, is nevertheless extremely tiny in the face of the Universe.   It is believed that there are 100 billion stars – many of them bigger than the Sun – in a galaxy, and there are 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe.

So the Universe is so much bigger – of the size beyond our wildest imagination.

However vast, the various components of the Universe have to be held together or there will be chaos.

This power that holds the Universe together – including of course the Sun and the solar system that we are part of – must be something really omnipotent.

What is this power called?

It is a quiet, gigantic force. We don’t know how to name this mystery force. For the sake of convenience, the ancient sage Lao Tzu described it as the Tao.

So he said in Chapter 25 of Tao Te Ching,

Before the Heaven and Earth existed
There was something nebulous:
Silent, isolated,
Standing alone, changing not,
Eternally revolving without fail,
Worthy to be the Mother of All Things.
I do not know its name
And address it as Tao.