The Tao: Mother of the World

There is one thing that is invariably complete.
Before Heaven and Earth were, it is already there:
so still, so lonely.
Alone it stands and does not change.
It turns in a circle and does not endanger itself.
One may call it 'the Mother of the World’.
I do not know its name.
I call it TAO. …

The world has a beginning:
that is the Mother of the World.
Whosoever finds the mother
in order to know the sons;
whosoever knows the sons
and returns to the mother:
he will not be in danger all his life long. …

Lao Tzu: Tao te Ching 25,52
(translated by Richard Wilhelm and H.C.Oswald)