The Cloud Dream of the Nine
If the worldly achievements I dedicated my life to are but a fleeting dream, what should I truly pursue?
📝ONGO's Reflection
When I first read this novel—said to have been written in exile to console the author's mother—I found deep comfort in the fleeting nature of life. The scene in which Seongjin, reborn as Yang Soyu, enjoys every wealth and glory only to face an empty void in the end, brought my own endless treadmill of desire to a halt. If all of it is a dream like nine wisps of cloud, then perhaps what we should grasp is not a moment's power but the peace of this present instant. It is an enchanting classic that makes us question the true meaning of life from within a dazzling illusion.
"Life rarely lasts a hundred years, so how are its sorrows, joys, meetings, and partings any different from a fleeting dream?"Kim Man-jung, The Cloud Dream of the Nine
"인생이 백 년을 넘지 못하거늘, 그 안의 슬픔과 기쁨, 모이고 흩어짐이 한바탕 꿈과 무엇이 다르겠는가."
🌱Apply It Today
Call to mind the one worry stressing you most today. Then ask yourself: will this problem still matter ten years from now?
