Do Not Laugh at the Dreams of Youth
Do Not Laugh at the Dreams of Youth
Recently, I happened to come across the poem Huan Xi Sha: What I Fear Most Is Being Asked About My Original Aspirations. Reading it in middle age filled me with countless emotions, and its meaning lingered deeply in my mind. It gave me the feeling that, “When I first heard these words, I did not understand their meaning; when I heard them again, I had already become the person described in them.”
How could these few short lines not be a reflection of the life I am experiencing today?
What I fear most is being asked about my original aspirations,
Only to realize that my dreams have faded into emptiness.
In youth, I aspired to journey three thousand miles,
Yet after hesitating for a hundred steps, I had accomplished nothing.
In the blink of an eye, my parents’ hair has turned white,
While my children, still taking unsteady steps, have begun their schooling.
The need to earn a few pieces of silver hastens the passing of the years.
My heart remains young,
Yet wrinkles have quietly appeared upon my brow.
In this fleeting life, I drink and drift back into dreams.
Youth has passed, though I still feel like the person I once was.
I can only sigh at how swiftly time has flown.
Zhuangzi said:
“A person’s life between heaven and earth is like a white colt glimpsed through a crack—it passes in an instant.”
Looking back upon the road we have traveled, we realize that throughout our lives, we have grown, encountered countless people and experiences, and then bid them farewell one after another. Between flowers blooming and falling, countless beautiful moments have already become memories. Amid gains and losses, sorrow and joy, so much of the past has vanished like drifting clouds and smoke.
As the saying goes:
The green mountains never grow old, yet I never find rest;
All my life, I toil simply to make a living.
After decades of wind and rain,
In the blink of an eye, we may already be buried beneath the earth.
I laugh because the green mountains never change,
The mountains laugh because I have already grown old.
Like an ox that toils into old age, never knowing a day of rest;
By the time rest finally comes, one has already been laid to rest in the mountains.
How many people have lived exactly this way, passing hurriedly through an entire lifetime burdened with regrets and helplessness?
Time always seems to slip away without our noticing, and often we realize its passing only afterward. There are things whose preciousness we understand only after we have completely lost them. Then we cannot stop thinking about them and regret that we did not cherish them when we had the chance.
But the years pass swiftly. How could time ever allow us to remain lost in a dream while our lives quietly grow shorter? Impermanence is the true nature of worldly existence. The past is like tea—only after tasting it do we come to understand how important it is to cherish the present.
Everything in this world that we have decided to do should be acted upon with determination. We should not postpone it until after we have rested for a while, until tomorrow, or until some future opportunity.
Nor should we allow a small setback to make us procrastinate day after day, sighing in discouragement, overwhelmed by worry, and losing our courage. If we allow ourselves to be completely defeated by setbacks, the undertaking can no longer succeed.
Therefore, when we encounter difficulties, we should promptly transform pessimism and negative emotions into strength—and replace hesitation with action.
I remember that in Journey to the West, after Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, was imprisoned beneath the Five Elements Mountain, the song Five Hundred Years of Changing Seas and Mulberry Fields expressed the following idea:
Five hundred years—the seas and fields have changed places,
Even the stubborn stone has become covered with moss.
Yet one heart has never died,
Still yearning for freedom.
Even if wildfires burn,
Even if ice and snow cover the earth,
The aspiration remains unchanged,
And faith remains unshaken.
Was it not precisely because Sun Wukong endured five hundred years of hardship without allowing his determination and longing for freedom to be extinguished that he ultimately had the opportunity to embark upon the journey to obtain the Buddhist scriptures?
Namo H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III taught:
Once you are set to achieve a goal, pursue it with doggedness and refuse to be distracted by anything deceptively attractive. A mountain climber should not stop to pick leaves and branches on the way, or he will never reach the top. This applies to everything.
The Buddha clearly teaches us here that once a person has made a specific and proper vow and established a goal, that person should strive to bring it to fulfillment and work diligently to turn that aspiration into reality. One must not become distracted by illusory circumstances encountered along the way and consequently stop moving forward.
Those who aspire to accomplish a great undertaking and ultimately reach the summit must not waste their time plucking leaves and grasping branches halfway up the mountain. Nor should they allow themselves to be detained by an illusory city, becoming content with having reached it and no longer wishing to continue.
If we stop at such an illusory city, we will never accomplish our ultimate goal, nor will we ever reach the summit.
Life continually presents us with challenges, and we learn to deal with each one as it comes. The setting sun sinks into the mountains and sea; Within them lies a profound meaning.
Looking back, we may suddenly realize that, without even noticing it, we have already endured and overcome many hardships. Through them, we have become people who can gradually heal ourselves even while struggling through moments when everything seems to be falling apart.
No matter how many setbacks we encounter or how much suffering we must endure, as long as our minds do not become attached and we face circumstances with calmness and composure, even the greatest difficulties can eventually be faced and overcome.
Author: Fuyao Zhishang
Link: https://hhdorjechangbuddhaiiidharma.com/2026/09/27/do-not-laugh-at-the-dreams-of-youth/
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