More quotes related to the Infinite and Eternal nature of the Tao:
The Master keeps her mind always at one with the Tao; that is what gives her her radiance. The Tao is ungraspable. How can her mind be at one with it? Because she doesn't cling to ideas. The Tao is dark and unfathomable. How can it make her radiant? Because she lets it. Since before time and space were, the Tao is. It is beyond is and is not. How do I know this is true? I look inside myself and see.
Tao Te Ching - Chapter 21
The Tao is infinite, eternal. Why is it eternal? It was never born; thus it can never die. Why is it infinite? It has no desires for itself; thus it is present for all beings. The Master stays behind; that is why she is ahead. She is detached from all things; that is why she is one with them. Because she has let go of herself, she is perfectly fulfilled.
Tao Te Ching - Chapter 7
So The Tao is transcendental beyond everything.
More Quotes:
The 4CE Daoist Liezi uses the word W├║j├¡ þäíµÑÁ (literally "without ridgepole") in his books, to describe the universe.
"Have there always been things?"
―"If once there were no things, how come there are things now? Would you approve if the men who live after us say there are no things now?"
"In that case, do things have no before and after?"
―"The ending and starting of things have no limit from which they began. The start of one is the end of another, the end of one is the start of another. Who knows which came first? But what is outside things, what was before events, I do not know"
"In that case, is everything limited and exhaustible above and below in the eight directions?"
―"I do not know" ...It is Nothing which is limitless, Something which is inexhaustible. How do I know this? [textual lacuna] ... But also there is nothing limitless outside what is limitless, and nothing inexhaustible within what is inexhaustible. There is no limit, but neither is there anything limitless; there is no exhausting, but neither is there anything inexhaustible. That is why I know that they are limitless and inexhaustible, yet do not know where they may be limited and exhaustible". (5, tr. Graham 1980:94-5)
Zhuangzi, another Daoist Writer, also uses the word to describe the universe's nature:
I was astounded by his words, which were limitless as the Milky Way. They were extravagant and remote from human experience. (1, tr. Mair 1994:6)
Who can associate in non-association and cooperate in noncooperation? Who can ascend to heaven and wander in the mists, bounding through infinity, forgetting themselves in life forever and ever without end? (6, tr. Mair 1994:59)
To enter the gate of inexhaustibility And to roam in the fields of infinity. I shall mingle my light with that of the sun and moon, And will become eternal with heaven and earth. (11, tr. Mair 1994:97)
So both the Heavens and the Milky Way are believed to be infinite. Not quite unimpressive.
Sun Wukong was also somewhat of a threat to The Jade Emperor, the ruler of the Universe and disciple / successor of the Three Pure Ones, the primal manifestations of The Tao and creator gods. The Tao generates Taiji (One) which generates Yin-Yang (Two), which generate The Three Pure Ones (Three) which generate everything else. Taiji being "a Chinese cosmological term for the "Supreme Ultimate" state of undifferentiated absolute and infinite potential, the oneness before duality, from which Yin and Yang originate, contrasted with the Wuji (þäíµÑÁ, Without Ultimate)".
And when you become a Buddha you become one with everything, which would include the entire universe, and in Buddhism there are other realms of existence other than Heaven and Earth.
