The Dao

The Way. Not a god, not a law, not a path you walk. The pattern that holds everything together and cannot be named.

Dao means 'way' or 'path,' but in Daoist philosophy it points to something that resists definition. Laozi wrote that the Dao that can be spoken is not the true Dao. It is the source of all things and the principle by which they unfold. It has no shape, no will, no personality. You cannot worship it or disobey it. You can only align yourself with it or struggle against it. Water, which flows downhill without effort and carves stone without force, is its closest metaphor.