Tao Te Ching: Classic of the Way and Virtue

Tao is the ultimate source, the Mother of all things. It is not a personified deity, but is formless and eternal. All life issues from it and must eventually return to it. It is the ultimate reality, a presence that existed before the Universe was formed and which continues to guide the world and everything in it. It cannot be clearly spoken or perceived, and is too vast for human rationality to fathom. It is the Way of the Universe, the norm, the rhythm, the driving power in all Nature, the ordering principle behind all life.