行到水窮處

坐看雲起時

王維 詩 (終南別業)


Strolling along the stream,
all the way up to its end,
Where I sit down and
It is the great moment I enjoy watching
the clouds (of hope) begin to rise from around me.

—–Zen Poem from Wang Wei (699-761)——-

For many years, this inspiring poem is one of my favorite.
The inspiration of this poem helped me to go through and
overcome my hardship and sufferings in world life many
many years ago.

In China, water flow represents “wealth”. People wishes their
money can flow into their bank account like how water
continuously flow that you can hardly stop it.

When someone is suffering, struggling and runs out all
resources in his life, there is a Chinese proverb to describe 
such situation as “山窮水盡” (bared mountain with the water
ends).

However, there is a famous and inspiring Chinese poem that
tells you how to change your vision and convert your mind 
toward more optimistic. We have to realize that the sufferings
are impermanent. There is no Dead End in managing our life.  
The cause of suffering is dependent arising and is conditioned,
 therefore it will end one day. We will be happy if we can be 
freed from the cause of sufferings.

A similar saying in western, “if you are on the bottom of valley,
you are actually on a starting point ready to climb up to the
peak of a mountain”.