On Things That Pass
When we pass through the thick of suffering, we fall into the illusion that this deep darkness will never end. Conversely, when a moment of ecstasy arrives, we clutch it with anxious hands, yearning for that joy to linger beside us forever.
Hello, this is Ditto.
There is a famous story passed down among the ancient Persian Sufi sages. A king once commanded his wise elders to engrave an inscription upon a ring—a phrase that would keep him humble in moments of joy and prevent him from falling into despair in times of sorrow. After deep deliberation, the sages engraved just a single line:
"This too shall pass."
These words are not the language of nihilism or resignation telling us to give up on life. Rather, they are a profound reminder urging us to realize the grand law of nature: that neither joy nor sorrow lasts forever.
Consider our life as a great river. The waves of emotion endlessly surge and flow away. At times, clear waters stream by; at other times, muddy currents sweep through. The crucial truth is that we are not the river’s currents ourselves, but the quiet observers standing along the riverbank, peacefully watching the waters drift past.
When joy arrives, it is enough to welcome it with open arms and let it go. When sorrow visits, we may feel its sting, but we need not treat it as the entirety of our soul by attempting to build a dam to hold it back. If you let it go, everything will eventually wash away.
Will you take heart and trust that the heavy burdens weighing on you today will also drift away along the river of time?
[Poem of the Day]
When the Wind Comes / Do Jong-hwan
When the wind comes,
let it blow as it will.
When the rain comes,
let it fall as it will.
For could this be all the wind and rain
that will ever pass through your heart?
The wind and the rain
that will pass through your heart again and again—
there is no stopping them.
(...)
Think of the world’s passing words
as nothing more than a passing breeze.
Once the wind and the rain have cleared,
the sun will shine through
and the sky will turn blue once more.
Because nothing lasts forever, our lives are painful, yet at the same time dazzlingly beautiful.
Since the things that brought you to tears today will soon scatter into tomorrow's breeze, I hope you do not sink too deeply into despair.
Wishing you a peaceful night that gently flows by.
This was Ditto.
(This content was created using generative AI, with partial edits and reviews by the administrator.)