---
title: "Why is there this world at all, rather than nothing?"
type: "question"
group: "Ultimate Questions"
thought: "Zai-Sheng Thought"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://tongzai.space/en/questions/why-a-world-at-all/"
---
# Why is there this world at all, rather than nothing?

## Direct answer

Sheng does not answer this question as “why did some someone create the universe.” It first removes that external “someone”: if the root of existence still needs another thing to start it, then that starter would in turn need someone to start it, and the question only retreats further. So it proposes “Self-Becoming”—Sheng does not receive its beginning from an external switch. And when one asks further, “why does it become,” the book’s answer is “Becoming Is Its Own Reason”: Sheng does not become in order to fulfill a purpose higher than becoming itself.

## Further explanation

This is not a scientific explanation, in the modern cosmological sense, of “why the universe went from nothing to something,” but a kind of answer about the fundamental: if existence is, then its being is becoming; Sheng no longer waits for an external reason to authorize it.

## Core concepts

- Self-Becoming
- Becoming Is Its Own Reason
- Birthless Becoming

## Primary sources

Sheng, Chapter 1, §2 Birthless Becoming; Chapter 2, §1 Self-Becoming; §2 Becoming Is Its Own Reason

## Conclusions that must not be drawn

It must not be packaged as a scientific theory of the origin of the universe, nor must it be said to have proven that no creator exists.

## Citation

Wenzi｜Zai / Sheng｜chapter/section｜Tongzai Space｜canonical URL